How to use Access BC

Quick start

1. Type where you're going in Where to?: a building (“McElroy”), something in one (“Career Center”), or a kind of thing (“restroom”). Or choose one of the buttons under it, such as Single-stall restrooms; More… lists everything Access BC can find.
2. The route appears straight away, from where you are, with how long it takes and whether it's step-free.
3. Choose Start. Access BC follows your location, reads each step aloud, and finds a new route if you go off it.
4. Choose End when you're done.

Everything else, such as starting somewhere other than where you are, adding stops, avoiding indoor routes, or limiting slopes, is under Edit trip in the route. Avoid steep slopes is right on the route, and stairs and slopes can be set once in Accessibility settings. Accessibility settings, the map key, campuses, and this help are in the menu (☰).

Getting directions

Routes use paths that have been checked for accessibility, and the indoor accessible routes through buildings. They start and end at accessible entrances.

The route preview shows the time (at a gentle walking pace, so only a guide), the distance, how much of it is indoors, and Step-free when there are no stairs. Under it:

• Start begins walking directions (see below).
• Preview the steps one by one lets you go through the directions before you set off, without following your location.
• About the destination opens its building information.
• Route details lists each part of the route, with its slope.
• Edit trip has the start (From), stops, the destination (To), Swap, and the route options.

The back arrow (←) goes back to Where to?. The next trip starts from your location again.

Starting somewhere else. Directions start from your location, like other map apps. To start from a building, open Edit trip and choose it under From. If your location isn't available, or you're off campus, Access BC opens Edit trip and asks you to choose a start. My location can also be the destination: use Swap to get directions back to where you are.

You can also select a building on the map and choose Directions from here or Directions to here.

Route options

In Edit trip. Avoiding stairs and the steepest slope can also be set once in Accessibility settings, under Getting around. Your choices are remembered on this device.

Avoid steep slopes, near the top of every route, turns the slope limit on or off with one tap. On, it keeps the route to 1:12 or gentler (or 1:20, if you chose that in Edit trip or settings), and finds the route again. It's on to start with; turn it off if steeper routes are fine for you, for a shorter walk.

• Avoid stairs is on to start with. Turning it off also allows footpaths that haven't been checked for accessibility.
• Routes through buildings: use them when shorter, prefer them (indoors is where the elevators are), or avoid them (for example after hours, when buildings may be locked).
• Steepest slope allowed is 1:12 to start with. 1:12 is the steepest an accessible ramp may be; 1:20 is the steepest an accessible walkway should be.
• Apply the slope limit to: uphill and downhill (to start with), uphill only, or downhill only. Some people find steep climbs hard but descents fine, and for others it's the other way round; limiting one direction can make routes much shorter.
• Use BC shuttles and the Green Line when quicker (on to start with).

Reading the route

On the map, the route is a thick blue line, dashed where it goes indoors. Orange and red parts are steeper than 1:20 and 1:12, grey is where the slope isn't known, and dotted dark yellow is stairs. The same information is in Route details as text, and the colours are explained in Edit trip.

While a route is showing, the map only shows features along it, and other paths are faded. Turn off Only show map features along the route, in Edit trip, to see everything.

Your places, and sharing directions

Your places are buttons under Where to? for the places you go most, and they're in its suggestions too, so a regular trip is one press.

• The last few places you've had directions to appear there by themselves (↺).
• To keep a place, choose Save on its route (★). Edit lets you rename saved places (“Home”, “My dorm”) or remove places.
• Your places are kept on this device only.

On a route, Copy directions copies every step as text, with the route's warnings and a link to it, to read ahead, print, or paste into a message. Email directions starts an email with them. Share this trip sends just the link.

My pace, in Accessibility settings, makes time estimates fit how fast you walk or wheel (slower, gentle, or brisk). It also decides when a shuttle is quicker than going on foot.

Without a signal

After your first visit, Access BC keeps a copy of the campus map and its data on your phone (about 15 MB, downloaded once in the background, and not with Data Saver on). With no signal, between buildings or indoors, the map, directions, Find nearby, Where am I? and your places still work; a note at the top says you're offline. Shuttle times may be out of date then, and reports, sharing, and the live shuttle tracker need a connection.

Add Access BC to your home screen

Access BC can go on your home screen like an app, with its own icon, opening full screen.

• iPhone and iPad (Safari): choose Share, then Add to Home Screen.
• Android (Chrome), and Chrome or Edge on a computer: choose Add Access BC to your home screen in the menu (☰), or Install in the browser's menu.

Adding stops

A trip can have up to five stops between the start and the destination, visited in order.

• In Edit trip, choose Add a stop and pick a building. Use the up and down buttons to change the order, and the remove button to take a stop out.
• With a route showing, search for a kind of thing (or choose one of the buttons under Where to?): the results are along your route, and each has Add as a stop. It's put in the right place along the route.
• While walking, choose More, then Add a stop, to find something along your route, or type a building's name. The new route starts from where you are, and stops you've already passed are dropped.

Each stop is a step of its own: “Stop at Fulton Hall. When you're ready, continue…”.

Finding something nearby

Type a kind of thing in Where to?, or choose one of the buttons under it. More… spells out everything Access BC can find: vending machines, cafés, dining halls, single-stall restrooms, lactation rooms, printing, indoor and outdoor seating, blue-light emergency phones, shuttle stops, and elevators.

You'll get the nearest five, by walking distance on accessible paths using your route options. Each can be your destination (Directions), a stop on your route (Add as a stop), or shown on the map. At the top of the results you can change what to find, and where to measure from:

• My location. If your location isn't available, or you're off campus, Access BC says so and takes you to the Near list to choose a building instead.
• Along my route, for something on the way (the choice when a route is showing).
• Any building, listed by campus: for planning ahead, or checking routes from off campus. Directions from a result then start at that building, and the building stays chosen for your next search.

Walking directions

Choose Start under a route. The current instruction is at the top of the screen, such as “Turn left and continue for 120 feet, with Gasson Hall on your right”, and the map follows you, facing the way you're walking. At the bottom:

• Mute stops reading steps aloud (and unmutes).
• Repeat says the current step again.
• The North up button on the map switches between the map turning to face the way you're going, tilted so you see further ahead, and a flat map with north at the top.
• More has Where am I?, Face the right way, Add a stop, Follow my location (on to start with), Large view, and the Accessibility settings.
• End stops the directions and goes back to the route.

As you walk, steps move on by themselves, and you're warned shortly before each turn. You can also use Next and Back, the left and right arrow keys, or swipe left and right on the instruction.

• If you leave the route, Access BC finds a new route from where you are, like other map apps, and carries on: you'll hear “Off route. Finding a new route from here”, then “New route” and the first step. Stops you haven't reached yet are kept. To choose for yourself instead, turn off find a new route automatically in the Accessibility settings; Access BC then tells you which way the route is, and offers a Re-route from here button.
• Under each instruction you may see cues for that step: curb ramps ahead (often where you cross a street or driveway), stairs that branch off the path, and outdoor seating. The slope of the step is shown too.
• Reloading the page doesn't lose your trip. The start, stops, destination, and the step you're on are kept in the page's address, so after a reload (or if your browser closes) you're back where you were. Phones only allow speech after you press something, so choose Repeat to hear the current step again. You can also share the address to send someone the same route.

To read through a route before you go, without following your location, choose Preview the steps one by one instead of Start.

Spoken directions

Walking directions are read aloud, unless you've turned on I use a screen reader (your screen reader reads them instead).

• Mute, at the bottom of the screen while walking, turns reading aloud off; it stays off for next time until you unmute. It's the same setting as Read walking directions aloud in the Accessibility settings, so muting there or with the button does the same thing. Nothing is read aloud until you choose Start.
• Change the speaking speed in the Accessibility settings, and use Test to hear it.
• Speech uses your device's own voice; nothing is sent anywhere.

Hands free, phone in your pocket

• The screen stays on during step-by-step directions, because phones stop updating your location and stop speaking when they lock. Avoid pressing the side button; if the phone does lock, unlock it and guidance carries on.
• Short sounds mark what's happening, so you don't have to listen to a whole sentence:
  • one tone: a new step. For a turn, it comes from that side (with headphones);
  • two quick high tones: a turn is coming up;
  • two falling tones: you seem to have left the route;
  • three rising tones: you've reached a stop or your destination.
  Turn them off with Play short sounds in the Accessibility settings.
• Vibration (Android phones): two pulses for a left turn, three for a right turn, long-short-long at a stop or the destination, and one long buzz if you leave the route. You'll feel the same pattern shortly before a turn, as a heads-up. iPhones don't let web pages vibrate.
• Use headphones or bone-conduction headphones if you can, so you can hear the directions and still hear what's around you.

Facing the right way, and clock directions

On a phone, Access BC can use the compass to tell you which way to go from the way you're facing, as a clock position: 12 o'clock is straight ahead, 3 o'clock is to your right, 6 o'clock is behind you, and 9 o'clock is to your left.

• When you set off, after a stop, and when you come out of a building, the step says which way to go: “The way to go is at your 2 o'clock.”
• Face the right way, under More while walking, guides you with sound. Hold your phone flat in front of you, top pointing ahead, and turn slowly. You'll hear a tick in the ear on the side to turn toward (wear headphones to hear the side), getting quicker as you get closer. Two rising tones and “Facing the right way” mean you're there. If you're off the route, it turns you toward the route instead.
• Where am I? and the things around you also use clock positions.

On an iPhone, you'll be asked to allow access to motion and orientation the first time; choose Allow. If the compass seems wrong, move your phone in a figure of eight to recalibrate it, and step away from metal railings, cars, and steel doors, which upset compasses.

Without a compass (on a computer, or if access isn't allowed), directions use compass points such as “to the northeast” instead. To always use compass points, turn off Give directions as clock positions in the Accessibility settings.

Where am I?

Choose Where am I? under Where to?, or under More while walking. It tells you:

• the nearest building, how far it is, and which way;
• during a route, whether you're on it, which way it is if you're not, and what's next;
• what's around you: the nearest accessible entrances, an elevator, a blue-light emergency phone, a shuttle stop, and outdoor seating, each with a distance and direction.

The summary and the two nearest things are spoken; the full list is shown in the panel. These are straight-line distances, not walking distances.

Between campuses, and from off campus

Walking directions between the Chestnut Hill, Brighton and Newton campuses, and from places near campus, use city sidewalks and street crossings from OpenStreetMap where BC's own paths don't reach. On campus, BC's checked paths are always used first.

• City sidewalks haven't been checked for accessibility. The route says how much of it is on them.
• Avoid street crossings without confirmed curb ramps (in Edit trip and Accessibility settings) keeps routes to crossings with recorded curb ramps or level curbs where there's a way round. Many curb ramps aren't recorded yet, so the route says how many unconfirmed crossings were unavoidable.
• Each street crossing is a step of its own: Cross Beacon Street at the traffic lights. There are curb ramps on both sides. When curb ramps aren't recorded, the step says so, and the route says how many crossings have confirmed curb ramps. Crossings known to have a raised curb are avoided.
• Off campus, directions name the street you're walking along, since there are no BC buildings to steer by.
• Avoid steep slopes applies here too. Newton is hilly, so a step-free, gentle route can be much longer: the route says when a shorter, steeper one exists.

BC shuttles

When a BC shuttle is running and makes the trip clearly quicker, directions include it: walk to the stop, take the Newton Eagle Direct shuttle to Stuart, and walk on from there. The route says how long walking all the way would take instead. If a shuttle would help but none is running, the route says when the next one starts.

• Times come from BC's published schedule, with an average wait. They aren't live: check the live shuttle tracker.
• Whether the shuttles have a wheelchair lift or ramp isn't confirmed yet. Check with BC Transportation before relying on one.
• To walk instead, turn off Use BC shuttles and the Green Line when quicker in Edit trip.
• Planning ahead: shuttles and trains are chosen for when you leave. To plan a trip for later (tomorrow's class, say), choose Plan for later on the route, or When in Edit trip: Leave at a time, or Arrive by a time, and the route says when to leave (To arrive by 10:00 AM, leave by 9:41 AM). The time is kept in the trip's link when you share it.
• The Green Line is part of routes too, when it's quicker: At Newton Centre station, take a Green Line D train toward Union Square to Reservoir. Avoiding stairs, trains are used only between wheelchair-accessible stations (they can pass through others). Times come from the MBTA's schedule, with an average wait; each station's live times are on the route.

T stations (Green Line)

The Green Line stations near campus are on the map (green circles; a grey ring means the station isn't wheelchair accessible), in Where to? (“Reservoir T station”), and in Find nearby (T stations). A station's information, and any route to or from it, says whether it's wheelchair accessible, according to the MBTA, and names the nearest accessible station if not. It also shows the MBTA's live alerts there (elevators out of service, access problems, and trains not running) and the next trains in each direction, live: Green Line D toward Riverside: 5 min, 8 min. At the end of a line (Boston College, Cleveland Circle) it says when trains arrive; they leave again toward downtown a few minutes later.

• Directions from here on a station starts a trip there, for when you arrive by train.
• Train times are live, for now. For a trip planned for later, see mbta.com.

Blue light: the nearest emergency phone

Blue-light phones are the campus emergency phones that call BC Police. The Blue light button is always on screen: at the top, next to Where to?, and in the bar at the bottom while you're walking. Choose it and Access BC finds the nearest blue-light phone by walking distance from where you are, and starts walking directions to it straight away, following your location. If you're already on a trip, it replaces that trip.

Buttons to call BC Police (617-552-4444) and 911 appear straight away, and stay in view all the way there. They're also on every blue-light phone on the map (with Directions here), at the top of a Find nearby list of blue-light phones, and on any route to one. If your location isn't available, or you're away from campus, Access BC says so and gives you those numbers instead. If you can call, calling is usually faster than walking to a phone.

Like all live directions, this is still being developed: use your own judgement, and get help however you can.

Sharing a trip

Share this trip is on every route, and under More while walking. It sends a link to the destination and any stops (and the start, if it's a building) through your phone's share menu, or copies it on a computer. It never includes your location: whoever opens the link gets directions from where they are.

Reporting a problem

Choose Report a problem on an elevator, entrance or blue-light phone on the map, in a building's information, in the menu (☰), or under More while walking (Report a problem here, which uses your location). Say what's wrong, add details if you like, and choose where it goes:

• To BC Facilities, to get it fixed (BC's UpKeep, which may ask you to sign in);
• To Access BC, for a problem with the map.

Access BC copies your report and opens the form in a new tab; paste the report there and send it.

Added by volunteers. Access BC's volunteers add entrances and paths that aren't mapped yet. They show on the map in orange (dashed while they're new) and directions can use them; until the Access BC team has checked one, routes that use it say so, and its information says Added by a volunteer, not verified yet. Notes volunteers add about a building appear in its information.

Links to entrances. Where a building's accessible entrance wasn't connected to any mapped path, Access BC has drawn a short link from it to the nearest path, shown on the map as a thin dashed line. These links haven't been checked on the ground (there may be a step, grass, or a curb), so routes that use them say part of the way isn't checked.

Missing entrances. Some buildings have no accessible entrance mapped yet, so directions can't go to them. Their building information has Tell us where its accessible entrance is: describe where it is, and it's added to the map once checked.

Avoiding it. When you report an elevator, entrance or blue-light phone as not working or blocked, your routes on this device avoid it straight away, for 3 days. Uncheck Avoid it in my routes when it's working again. Things the map data marks as not working are avoided for everyone, and shown in grey on the map. A route uses one only when there's no other way, and says so. Blue light skips phones reported not working.

Building information

Select a building on the map, or choose it in the search box, to open its information. It lists what's in the building, where its accessible entrances are (“Accessible entrance on the north side”), its elevators, and the nearest blue-light phone, shuttle stop and seating. Entrances and elevators that have been reported as not working are marked.

Using a screen reader

Access BC works with VoiceOver (iPhone, iPad and Mac), TalkBack (Android), and NVDA and JAWS (Windows). You don't need the map: search, directions, Find nearby, Where am I? and building information all work as text.

First, turn on “I use a screen reader” in the Accessibility settings. Your screen reader then reads every step, cue and update, and Access BC won't also speak them, so you don't hear everything twice. Sounds and vibration still work.

• The first thing on the page is a Skip to Where to? link, which goes straight to the search box.
• Only one thing is on screen at a time: Where to?, the results, the route, or walking directions. Each has a heading; when you choose a destination or a quick search, focus moves to it. The ☰ menu is a navigation landmark.
• The search box is a combo box: type, then use the down arrow to move through results and Enter to choose one. Choosing a building opens its information.
• From, To, the stops, and the route options are standard form controls.
• When a route is found, you'll hear a short summary. The full step list follows the start buttons.
• While walking, each new step is read automatically, with its cues. After Start, focus is on Repeat; in a preview, on Next.
• Map layer buttons say whether each layer is shown, and dialogs (Accessibility, About, building information) keep focus inside until you close them with the Close button or Escape.

VoiceOver on iPhone

• Set the rotor to Headings to jump between sections of the route and of this page.
• With Follow my location or audio guidance on, steps move on as you walk; you don't need to find the Next button.
• If you hear steps twice, turn on I use a screen reader in the Accessibility settings.

TalkBack on Android

• Use the reading controls to move by headings or controls.
• Android phones can also vibrate at each new step; it's on by default under Accessibility.

Low vision and display settings

Choose Accessibility settings in the menu (☰), or under More while walking. Settings are saved in this browser on this device, so they stay after you reload or come back later (but not in a private browsing window, and not on your other devices).

• High contrast: darker text and borders, and thicker paths and routes on the map. “Match my device” follows your system's increased contrast setting.
• Dark mode: a dark map and dark panels, easier on the eyes for many people with light sensitivity. “Match my device” follows your phone or computer's dark mode. This help page follows it too.
• Larger text: bigger text in the panels, on this help page, and for building names on the map.
• Bigger map symbols, and thicker paths and routes: makes the map's points, icons and lines easier to see.
• Large step-by-step view: in step-by-step directions, the current step fills the screen with very large text and buttons. Switch it on and off with Large view, under More while walking.
• Zooming: you can zoom the page with your browser or phone, up to 400%. Access BC rearranges itself to fit, without scrolling sideways; on a small or zoomed screen the route can take the whole screen.
• Reduce motion: the map jumps instead of gliding.
• Step-by-step mode can turn the map to face your direction of travel and show buildings in 3D. Turn either off if you find them confusing.
• The map key is closed to start with, so it doesn't cover the map. Open it with Layers on the map, or Map layers in the menu.

What Access BC can and can't tell you

Live directions are still being developed. They're being tested, and aren't yet reliable enough to depend on as an assistive device. Use them alongside your usual mobility skills, cane, or guide dog, never instead of them, and proceed with caution.

• Location is approximate. Phone location is usually accurate to 15 to 30 feet outdoors, worse near tall buildings, and unreliable indoors. Use the landmarks and cues, and Next and Back, rather than relying on exact distances.
• Slopes are estimates from elevation data, and can miss short ramps and curbs.
• Things change. Construction, closures, snow, and broken elevators or door openers aren't always shown.
• Not every building can be routed to yet. Some don't have a mapped accessible entrance connected to the path network.
• Access BC supports your own orientation and mobility skills, your cane or guide dog, and asking for help; it doesn't replace them.

Feedback and reporting problems

If a route is wrong, an entrance or elevator isn't working, or something in Access BC is hard to use, please tell us with the feedback form. Reports from students who use the app every day are the best way to make it better.