Sensory-friendly spaces and innovative technology to help the blind landed Pittsburgh International Airport on Fast Company’s list of the 10 most innovative companies in travel.
Fast Company, a monthly business magazine focusing on innovation, called the airport “an ideas lab for concepts that make flying easier for people with disabilities.”
It is the only airport to make the list, which was released Tuesday along with Fast Company’s list of the 50 most innovative companies worldwide. It also broke down the top 10 in 37 sectors, including the travel industry.
“This is recognition that we are thinking the way the world’s most innovative companies are thinking and we are producing results that rival the world’s best,” Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis said in BlueSky, the airport’s news service.
The magazine specifically cited NavCog and Presley’s Place — innovations implemented in 2019 meant to make traveling easier for those with disabilities.
NavCog, an app developed by a blind Carnegie Mellon University researcher, uses Bluetooth beacons throughout the airport. It gives audio directions based on the beacons and a detailed map of the terminals that includes restaurants, restrooms and more.
Presley’s Place was the brainchild of Jason Rudge, a heavy equipment operator at the airport. His young son, Presley, lives with autism, which often presents as sensory-processing issues. A sensory room — somewhere to go when sights, sounds and crowds can be overwhelming — can help those with such sensory-processing issues to calm down.
The 1,500-square-foot suite includes a calming transition foyer, a family room, individual rooms with bubble tubes and an adult area. All are soundproof.
Cassotis said in BlueSky that to be listed next to other travel innovators such as Hopper and HipCamp “is incredibly important to us and really very humbling and flattering.”
