L.B. Foster Company launched a new service to provide sign language accessibility for its mobile and fixed Inform Media digital display units currently offered to rail transits and air travel system operators throughout the Americas and Europe.
The service was developed by the company’s rail technologies and services group and deployed on Network Rail in the United Kingdom for riders who use British Sign Language (BSL). London’s Euston Station concourse and platforms housed 20 fixed and mobile demo units, equipped with BSL functionality.
“We partnered with Network Rail to develop a solution using our digital display technology to provide accessibility and fully inclusive customer support for their passengers who are Deaf, hard-of-hearing or visually impaired,” said L.B. Foster Senior Vice President, Rail Technologies and Services Greg Lippard.
The company explains it developed a library of pre-recorded and predefined messages for Network Rail that are available through its proprietary content management system, Inform Media. The system is driven by a media generator which provides plug-in applications that support ‘passenger first’ strategies within a wide range of applications, from visualized route maps to enhanced wayfinding and mapping tools, as well as social media and disruption information. The system also supports unique video content, such as urgent disruption messages or service updates that can be translated by experienced sign interpreters and made live within an hour of an event. Additionally, the totem displays also give travelers who are visually impaired the ability to make text bigger on high contrast screens.
“The company’s innovative mobile, wireless and battery-powered digital display totems provide passengers with important travel, disruption and onward journey information,” L.B. Foster explained in a release. “With a large population of American Sign Language (ASL) users in the U.S. and Canada, and British Sign Language users in the UK, L.B. Foster’s Inform Media digital display totems, with its optional ASL and BSL applications, are making an important difference in the way passengers in rail and air transportation access essential travel information globally.”
