COTA bus basics: New app helps ease bus anxiety

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Riding a city bus might seem easy to you, but not to everyone.

COTA has teamed up with Magnusmode, a Toronto-based mobile app developer that helps people with autism and other neurodivergent conditions better handle daily tasks.

Students from Bridgeway Academy learned how to plan a ride on COTA, pay for it and even transfer to another stop.

"It has visuals, audio and text that provide people who are autistic or neurodiverse with step-by-step guidance," said Nadia Hamilton, the founder and president of Magnusmode.

She said she took inspiration from her brother, Troy, who is autistic.

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"When I was five years old, I drew out step-by-step guides to help him. Posted them to the walls of our apartment. Now Magnus Cards is a digitized version of those step-by-step guides."

Cameron Huth, a student at Bridgeway, is a big fan o the app.

"It helps you with everyday tasks in your life, like how it was explaining how we could get on a bus through steps," he said.

The hope is that, as these students grow up, public transportation will be able to open a lot of doors for them.

"I want to help and support as many people as I can to participate in the world in ways that are meaningful to them, giving them that freedom, that choice, that independence," said Hamilton.

Freedom and independence that will continue to grow -- one bus trip at a time.