SMU-SIS students develop mobile app for the visually impaired in Singapore

SMU School of Information Systems undergraduates have achieved the Best Paper award at the 6^th Undergraduate Conference in Information Systems hosted by the Information Systems Programme at the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, U.S.A. on 27 February 2016. This year, the conference revolved around the theme of 'Humanising IT', in which participants were asked to consider the evolving rule of IT in all facets of human life. 12 out of 70 undergraduate research papers were accepted and presented at the event. SMU's paper, titled ICT-Travel: Mobile Public Transport Companion for the Visually Impaired, detailed its iOS mobile app, called ICT-Travel, which is designed for the visually impaired to aid them to use the public transport in Singapore. The SMU-SIS team, comprising Associate Professor of Information Systems (Education) Benjamin Gan, undergraduates Cui Linting and Kenny Ngo, found that access to public transportation in Singapore remains a challenge for disabled persons because efforts by the Land Transport Authority are mostly focused on fare subsidies and wheelchair accessibility on public transport.