Making mass transit user-friendly for blind commuters - Orientation and Mobility for Blind People

American Rehabilitation, Autumn-Winter, 1997 by Steven Hastalis

While vital to the quality of life in a large urban environment, mass transit takes on particular importance to blind people leading active, productive lives. Using practical, straight-forward techniques, blind persons travel safely, confidently, and competently on any mode. Blind transit riders can use sounds, feel, and other physical characteristics as excellent landmarks, especially on rail transit. However, some modifications are needed for mass transit to function optimally for people who are visually impaired. This article discusses a number of the problems.

Ongoing implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has raised issues related to verbal and written communication--Braille and raised print or audio/video signs and publications in "alternative formats"--with blind transit riders. ADA also has raised controversy among blind people about modifying the built environment, particularly regarding raised, truncated dome detectable warnings, ostensibly to alert blind persons approaching or walking along platform edges.

Technological advances in the transit industry, such as automatic fare collection and passenger-activated doors, highlight the need to work with blind people and resolve information access and travel issues. With imagination and a positive attitude about blindness, the industry can continue making mass transit the blind person's car.

Introduction

Increasing awareness of and emphasis on disability issues quite logically leads to questions about the population percentage or number of people who might use related services, programs, and facilities. The blind community makes up a very small portion of the population at large, as well as a small portion of the estimated population of over 40 million people with disabilities. Federal population statistics roughly estimate the number of blind people at two per thousand, or about 500,000 nationwide. This number, however, gives no indication of what percentage of blind people ride transit.

At best, the transit industry has very sketchy, incomplete data regarding possible numbers of blind riders. Since 1975, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York has issued 13,600 half-fare cards to blind riders, about 80 percent of these in New York City. MTA, however, has no count of blind persons who ride but have not applied for half-fare cards. Baruch College Computer Center for the Visually Impaired, which is producing a limited number of subway maps for MTA, estimates that about 5,000 blind people use the subway daily.

ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) do not have a quantitative threshold, either in terms of population percentages or actual numbers, at which they become effective. This discussion, therefore, will address transit issues pertinent to blind passengers from a qualitative rather than quantitative perspective. Most notably, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has developed a decades-long history of advocacy, at the national, state, and local levels, for more and better transit service and continues to advocate vigorously for rehabilitation services based on the positive philosophy that, given proper training and opportunity, blind people can attain self-confidence and competence necessary to lead active, productive lives.

Methods and Techniques

Environmental Cues as Landmarks. Whether traveling with canes or dog guides, blind people use many practical, straightforward techniques and methods to ride rail transit safely and effectively. By listening, they ascertain the direction from which the train approaches, determine whether they board toward the front or rear, and locate the opening doors. Not seeing directional and informational signage, they maintain orientation by paying attention to compass directions, especially while walking through stations and riding trains as they round curves or switch tracks. The physical characteristics of the railway, sounds and feel, make excellent landmarks (e.g., the echo and louder sound of subway tunnels; the vibration and slight rocking when riding through track switches; the crossing over from one track to another, as track switches guide the train along its route at terminal stations or junctions; the "clickety clack" of "jointed rail"; the resonance of elevated structures and bridges; the smooth, quiet ride of welded rail, usually in sections of several hundred feet; the quiet ride of "ballasted track," with rails mounted on wooden or concrete ties set in crushed ballast rock). Blind transit riders can note these landmarks along the way, just as sighted drivers would note buildings or street names. Continuing this analogy, riding on the right-hand track of a two-track railroad compares with driving in the right lane of a two-lane road. On a center platform station with two tracks, the passenger would face the desired direction and take the train on the right. Likewise, riding on the right outside or inside track of a four-track operation corresponds to driving in the right outside or inside lane of a four-lane road.