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What is Aira?
Aira is an app that connects people who are blind or low vision to professional visual interpreters for secure access to visual information, anytime, anywhere. Watch a Aira Visual Interpreter in action
Download The Aira App
Step one: Download the Aira app (Apple App Store or Google Play) on your mobile phone.
Step two: Launch the app and tap the button to be instantly connected to a trained visual interpreter. It’s simple and easy to use.
What is Visual Interpreting?
Visual interpreting makes visual information accessible for people who are blind or low vision (BLV). You can think of it as similar to how sign language or video relay interpreting makes audible speech accessible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Slide with black background and white letterings from Smithsonian "Now with the touch of a button, visitors have instant access"
FAQS: How does Aira work at museums?
FAQS: How does Aira work at museums?
FAQS: How does Aira work at museums?
Museums can use Aira to increase accessibility and improve visitor engagement, connection, and the educational value of their exhibits. The Aira team creates a geofence that outlines the zones where a museum would like to provide free Aira usage, like an invisible fence around the building. Watch the video above to learn more about Geofencing. It's like drawing a virtual fence around a real place on a map. When someone or something with a GPS-enabled device crosses that virtual fence, it can trigger actions like sending a notification to your phone .Any museum visitor can download the Aira app and easily connect for free with an Aira visual interpreter. The visual interpreter can use the visitor’s camera to interpret museum exhibits, assist with navigation, and enhance the ease with which the museum is experienced. It’s easy to set up: Aira doesn’t require anything from a museum’s IT organization to launch or run the service. Leading museums nation-wide are already using Aira to ensure every visitor has access to key visual information to get the most out of their visit.
Who are Aira’s Visual Interpreters?
FAQS: How does Aira work at museums?
FAQS: How does Aira work at museums?
Aira’s visual interpreters are certified and undergo comprehensive Aira training to provide immediate information to our users and accomplish tasks as a team. They work from home, pass a background check, sign a non-disclosure agreement and go through extensive training on orientation and mobility. They are not a replacement for a guide dog
or white cane, but an additional feed of visual information. From locating a museum coat check to describing the new blue whale exhibit at the Natural History Museum, there is no task too big or too small for an Aira visual interpreter.
What do museums need to manage when offering Aira?
What do museums need to manage when offering Aira?
What do museums need to manage when offering Aira?
To offer Aira at your museum, you simply complete our agreement and pay the subscription fee. Once the Aira For visual interpretation at museums paperwork is filed, you let us know the area that you want covered. We create the accounts and geofences, and that's it. We'll send you a monthly report of usage and handle everything else.
How much does Aira cost?
What do museums need to manage when offering Aira?
What do museums need to manage when offering Aira?
Aira for museums is offered at a fixed annual fee of $5,000 USD per year. Under this arrangement, your museum will have access to Aira’s visual interpreters 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and do not require advance reservations.
South Carolina State Museum
The South Carolina State Museum is proud to announce its latest initiative to enhance accessibility – free, unlimited access to certified visual interpreters for blind and low vision guests through the Aira service. As the first museum in the Southeast to partner with Aira, the State Museum continues its commitment to inclusivity by providing on-demand visual interpretation services.
Steve Cook, the Statewide Service Lead for SC Commission for the Blind, expresses his excitement about the initiative: “As a blind person, Aira will give me the ability to appreciate the exhibitions at the South Carolina State Museum independently in a way not possible before. The Aira agent can read printed material featured at the exhibition and describe the display. I feel empowered to know that the State Museum is thinking of innovative ways to include the disabled community that allows us to participate independently.”
Smithsonian
Smithsonian visitors who are blind or have low vision can access a groundbreaking technology that uses their smartphone cameras to get free on-demand verbal descriptions of everything from individual objects to entire exhibitions from professional Visual Interpreters. The Aira technology is available at all Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., and the National Zoo. The new service is provided by Access Smithsonian, which oversees accessibility and inclusion activities for Smithsonian visitors.
“For far too long, museum visitors with vision loss have depended on accompanying friends and family to help them navigate around museums,” said Beth Ziebarth, director of Access Smithsonian. “Now, with the touch of a button, visitors have instant access that not only helps them engage with the museum but also increases their mobility and independence. In the words of one recent user, ‘This revolutionizes the way people with vision loss experience museums.’”
Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) has announced its partnership with two organizations to make the Museum’s visitor experience more accessible. As a result of the partnerships, KultureCity®, the nation’s leading nonprofit on sensory accessibility and acceptance for those with invisible disabilities, has certified OMCA as a Sensory InclusiveTM institution, the first organization in Oakland to be so. The Museum has also adopted Aira, a visual interpreting service application that provides live, on-demand visual information for inclusion and accessibility.
“We are thrilled to partner with KultureCity® and Aira to advance our efforts to create a more accessible experience for our community,” said Lori Fogarty, CEO and Director of Oakland Museum of California. “The work of inclusion and accessibility is never done. We are constantly learning how to be better partners and stewards to our Oakland community and beyond.”
Museum of Science
A Place for Everyone
The vision of the Museum of Science is one where everyone can participate equally in the excitement of science and technology learning. Barriers to access, whether caused by finances, culture, language, education, or ability, can inhibit exploration. The Museum is intent on breaking down these barriers while creating relationships with new audiences.
The Museum of Science is an Airs access site. Visitors who are blind or low-vision can download the AIRA app free of charge onto a smart phone. The AIRA app uses the phone’s camera to take in the user’s surroundings, and a live AIRA agent will describe the environment, including reading of exhibit labels and instructions. This service is free of charge on the Museum premises.
Proud Sponsor for the Museum of the Blind People's Movement
AIRA is a proud sponsor for the Museum of the Blind People’s Movement coming to Baltimore Maryland, before the end of the decade. Click here to learn more.