Inclusive Public Transportation Challenge

This challenge aims to identify, pilot, and validate inclusive navigation solutions metro, rail and bus-based public transit systems easier, safer, and more accessible for blind and visually impaired passengers, generating field evidence strong enough to support scale-up across cities in the region.

Globally, more than 43 million people live with blindness. Over a quarter live in South Asia, including nearly 9.1 million in India alone. For these passengers, every journey through a busy station or terminal, every platform or stop change, and every boarding can present barriers that limit access to work, education, healthcare, and full participation in city life.

India has invested in modern metro networks, regional rapid transit, and bus-based urban mobility. Stations and stops today are equipped with audio and visual systems designed to support all travellers. Yet for blind and visually impaired passengers, navigating busy stations and stops requires rich, real-time, hands-free orientation cues that go beyond what today's general-purpose signage and announcements were designed to provide.

As Indian cities continue to expand their transit networks and as the demand for inclusive urban mobility grows, the opportunity to make these systems work for every passenger has never been greater. A new generation of accessible navigation solutions is needed to help blind and visually impaired travellers move independently, safely, and confidently through every stage of their journey.

How might we use innovative technology to transform the public transit experience for blind and visually impaired passengers across metro, Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), and bus services, enabling safer, more independent, and seamless travel throughout their journey?

Across South Asia, 11.9 million people navigate without sight. Join the Inclusive Public Transportation Challenge and help open public transit to every passenger.