Target offers free service for visually impaired shoppers at 600 stores
for holidays
The Aira service uses a phone app to connect visually impaired people
with an agent who helps guide them through public spaces. It's now
available for
free in 600 Target stores.
By
Kavita Kumar
Star Tribune
DECEMBER 6, 2019 — 6:08PM
Steve Decker, blind since birth and lead accessibility consultant at
Target, uses the Aira app on his phone to navigate the downtown
Minneapolis Target store.
Like many blind or visually impaired people, Steve Decker does a lot of
online shopping with the help of tools that read text out loud.
But like many shoppers, regardless of ability, he still likes to come to
stores in person to gauge the freshness of produce or to feel the
texture of a
sweater. To do so, he often has to rely on store employees to walk him
around the store and direct him to the correct shelf or rack.
Now he's helped add another option for consumers like him when they shop
at some Target stores this holiday. The Minneapolis-based retailer,
where Decker
works on an 18-person accessibility team, has expanded a pilot program
to 600 stores to offer for free a service called Aira for those who are
blind or
have limited vision.
Users sign on to the Aira app or use smart glasses to connect to
customer service agents working remotely who are able to see through the
phone's camera.
The agents then can help guide customers through the store and describe
products to them in detail.
"We're the first store to provide Aira for free that has such a wide
assortment of products," Decker said of Target. "You can literally buy
everything
here."
More than 40 airports,
including Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport,
as well as some major public transit systems and college campuses, also
partnered with Aira, a California-based tech company, in the past few
years. Two
other retail chains — Walgreens and Wegmans, a grocery chain
headquartered in New York — also offer it for free.
Earlier this week, Decker gave the Star Tribune a demo of how Aira works
at Target's store next to its headquarters on Nicollet Mall. He called
up an Aira
agent through the app, who, using GPS, was able to determine his location.
"Hello, Steve," the agent said. "I see that you're at the Target in
Minneapolis Nicollet Mall."
He confirmed that he was and asked her to pull up a map of the store
from Target's website to help him find holiday ornaments, which they
discovered are
on the first floor of the two-level store.
"There are elevators to your left," she said.
He preferred to take the escalator, so she guided him there, trying to
help him avoid bumping into other people and displays in the middle of
aisles along
the way. He held the phone in front of him so she could see what was
ahead of him.
Downstairs, in the holiday decor section, she described items as he
passed them, pointing out candy and wreaths.
When they got to the ornaments aisle, she listed off the different
varieties in front of him.
"I can't quite make out if those are horses or unicorns — oh a unicorn,"
she said. "It is white with a silver horn."
He held it in his hands, feeling the contours of the product and asked
her if she could see the price. She asked him to move the camera a bit
to get it
into view.
"Oh, yes, it's $3," she said.
From there, it was off to the checkout line where a cashier helped him
through the rest of the transaction.
"There are some things, especially because I can't see pictures, I want
to put my hands on and know what they feel like," he said afterward.
"The ornament
I purchased, I wanted to see how big it was. Was it soft and so forth?
Sometimes there's no substitute for actually touching things."
A Target spokeswoman declined to say how much the company is paying to
offer the service for free in the 600 stores. Aira lets users make
five-minute calls
for free from anywhere and offers plans for an additional 30 to 300
minutes ranging in price from $29 to $199 a month.
Decker said Target will evaluate the program after the holidays to
decide if it will be rolled out to more stores.
"It's still pretty early on," he added. "We're hoping to learn a lot
from the expansion. We've definitely gotten some really positive feedback."
Since the pilot program was launched at 200 Target stores a year ago,
many Aira users have been asking when it will be coming to their local
stores because
they like being able to do all of their shopping in one place, said Paul
Schroeder, a vice president at Aira.
"Target is highly sought after in the blind community," he said. "It's
not easy for blind people to go to multiple locations to get the things
they need."
He added that Aira helps its thousands of users get useful information
that's otherwise hard for them to access in stores such as reading the
ingredients
on boxes, understanding color options and having the pictures on boxes
described to them. And it helps liberate them from having to wait for
stores to
find workers to accompany them around the store — and gives blind people
more freedom to shop more leisurely, he said.
"We know we're taking somebody's time to walk around the store with us,"
said Schroeder, who is also blind. "We're sensitive to that. We don't
want to
spend a lot of time browsing or examining items with that person because
we're tying them up from their other duties."
Aira is one of the latest ways that Target has worked to make its
products and experiences more accessible to people with disabilities.
The retailer has
been recognized for its efforts, which include offering
adaptive Halloween costumes for children in wheelchairs
and
sensory-friendly clothing
for children.
Its accessibility team, which is spread out between its Minneapolis and
Bangalore offices, works closely with engineers, web developers and
designers to
make sure Target's website, mobile app and workers' devices are
accessible for customers and employees with various disabilities. For
example, it makes
sure Target includes captions with its online videos for people who are
deaf. The transcripts also often describe what is going on for blind
people using
screen readers. Labels also are included with pictures on its website
for the same reason.
Decker estimates he uses Aira several times a week to help him navigate
through everyday life and some special occasions. Last year, for
example, he tapped
it to have his daughter's school play described to him while he wore
headphones so as not to disturb those around him.
After Target's Nicollet Mall store was remodeled a couple of years ago,
he wasn't sure how to get to the pharmacy in the new configuration. So
he used
Aira to help him find the best path.
"I don't need to use it every time I go to the pharmacy now, but it was
helpful that first time," he said.
--
David Goldfield,
Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist
WWW.DavidGoldfield.org
