April is Autism Acceptance Month, and two transit agencies are recognizing autism awareness with special initiatives throughout the month.
New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) is expanding its Magnusmode travel aid app for rail customers. “MagnusCards for Trains” is a travel aid that provides useful instructions for riding trains in a flash card-style format, tailored to autistic and neurodiverse individuals. Previously, NJ Transit released “MagnusCards for Bus,” providing similar assistance for bus customers.
MagnusCards by Magnusmode is a digital life skills app with guides to help autistic and neurodiverse persons perform everyday activities. The app uses visual cues, step-by-step instructions and optional audio to guide users through activities and tasks that may be unfamiliar to them.
“NJ Transit is proud to feature local children in our recorded announcements. It is just one way we can demonstrate NJ Transit’s commitment to providing inclusive mass transportation,” said NJ Transit President and CEO Kevin S. Corbett. “Enhancements like the Magnusmode app are critical to providing the tools needed to make our transportation system more accessible to our neurodivergent customers.”
The agency is also wrapping one of its buses in messaging to promote acceptance, as well as participating in the Happy Hour 4 Kids Station Announcements Program. Neurodiverse children have recorded train station announcements that will be played throughout the system during the month of April.
The initiatives are all helping NJ Transit advance its 10-Year Strategic Plan goal of offering all of its customers an efficient, safe, inclusive and effective way to travel.
“NJ Transit is celebrating Autism Acceptance Month with new initiatives to make our system more accessible and inclusive,” said New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner and NJ Transit Board Chair Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti. “We are pleased to partner with Magnusmode and Happy Hour 4 Kids to provide these innovative and helpful tools and programs for our autistic and neurodiverse customers and their families.”
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) invited 26 children with autism to record boarding and safety announcements that will be heard throughout the transit system in the month of April to raise awareness about autism and the Autism Transit Project.
“WMATA is proud to support the Autism Transit Project and appreciates the young transit enthusiasts for using their voices and unique gifts to spread awareness about autism to our customers,” said WMATA General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke.
“WMATA holds a special place in the hearts of many local autistic children. For some of these kids who gravitate towards the subway system, the first full sentence they may utter is a service announcement they hear on platform loudspeakers,” said Jonathan Trichter, creator/founder of the Autism Transit Project. “Frontline workers experience this special relationship every day. This is an opportunity for WMATA to celebrate that and raise awareness around individuals who are different but similar…and no less. I hope next year for Autism Awareness Month, transit systems across the world hear about this project and do something like it in their cities.”
Trichter spent the first 30 years of his career in communications, investment banking, corporate restructuring and venture capital. After his personal life was touched by autism, he turned his full attention to providing the best therapies and services available to autistic children. He owns and operates several special needs schools and other programs for kids with neurological differences in New York, Connecticut and the Pacific Northwest, including The Foundry Learning Center and Hubbard Day School.
According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, about one in 36 children has been identified with autism spectrum disorder.
