Accessibus

Inspiration

We have many friends who have endured physical impairments whether permanently or temporarily. Upon seeing the HNTB challenge, we wanted to make an application that fit the topic but also make public transportation more accessible to everyone.

What it does

Accessibus is an MBTA routing app designed to make public transit more accessible. It tracks real-time accessibility information for stations—like elevator availability—so riders can plan routes that actually work for them. We also built in voice-guided directions, allowing users to navigate hands-free without constantly looking at their phone. Our goal is to reduce uncertainty and make navigating Boston’s transit system more inclusive and stress-free.

How we built it

We built the front end using react-native expo, and python flask in the backend. In order to complete this project, we utilized the Google API for routing, MBTA API for station information, as well as Elevenlabs for voice instructions.

Challenges we ran into

We have a lot of APIs that are required for our project and implementing these efficiently was one of our key challenges. There are large amount of data to be pulled from both Google API and MBTA API that made initiating our application very slow initially. We had to make changes so that the application runs smoothly while providing all the information we want. This is our first time implementing ElevenLabs as well, and it was a challenge working out the logic behind streaming voice from the ElevenLabs API during our planned route.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the application we made pulling from all the resources and technologies introduced to use during GoatHacks. This is the first time we've worked with Google Directions API, ElevenLabs API, as as well as the MTBA API, and we believe our application has presented useful information to the consumers efficiently with the resources we used.

What we learned

Streaming audio directions in the front end using ElevenLabs. Building an application for the first time with react-native.

What's next for Accessibus

In the future, we look to extend the use of ElevenLabs by adding speech input features. Filtering and designing routes based on accessibility features at each station. Obstacle Detection app with phone camera.

Built With

• elevenlabs
• flask
• mbta
• python
• react-native