A service helping visually impaired travellers with “extra eyes”

Aira offers extra eyes for low-vision travellers

Aira is a service that connects people of reduced vision to highly trained, remotely-located agents to aid them when travelling. By livestreaming through the user’s phone camera or smart glasses, the agent gives information, interpretation and navigation. The agent has access to a dashboard of helpful data including nearby points of interest, maps and the user’s contacts incl. friends, family and emergency contacts. Aira agents can call taxis, locate coffee shops, assist in the airport baggage drop and much more.

Aira works much like a phone subscription, where users buy minutes that are deducted when they use the service. However, at Aira Access locations – select airports, museums and attractions – the facility pays for the service.

In 2019, Aira teamed up with The Open Doors Organisation (ODO) to improve and globalize its operation, building on ODO’s years of experience in making travelling more accessible to the visually impaired.