Surrounding environment

Blind and partially-sighted people need to have full, safe and unencumbered access to public transport and the built environment in order to lead inclusive lives in the community. To achieve this, facilities and services need to be designed, delivered and managed to enable blind and partially-sighted people to:

• Access, interpret and understand information that is relevant to their journey and location;
• Know where they are and whether they are travelling in the right direction;

• know that they are as safe as other people who are in that environment.

1.1 Blind people and partially-sighted people adopt very different approaches to the acquisition and interpretation of information when using public transport and moving around the built environment.

1.2 In essence, people who have very little or no sight rely on information that is acquired through other senses, such as touch, hearing, kinaesthesis and smell. Most of this information is normally present in the environment and can be accessed and interpreted by blind people. Sometimes however, it is necessary to provide environmental information that is specifically designed to assist blind people.

1.3 The ability of blind people to use information that is generally found in the environment depends on the extent to which such information can be differentiated. The presence of a particular sound that would give a blind traveller information about their location or direction might be masked by high levels of ambient noise. The extent to which a blind person is assisted by a special feature, such as a tactile surface depends on whether the installation complies with, and the individual understands national or international standards or guidance.

1.4 Partially-sighted people rely much more on their ability to utilise visual information that exists in the environment. Their ability to do this depends, not only on the nature and extent of their visual loss, but also on the way the environment is configured. Lighting levels, contrast between surfaces and objects and the size and clarity of signage are some of the critical factors that will determine the extent to which individual partially sighted people can function independently in any environment. Guidance and standards are available to assist those concerned with the design, construction and management of the built environment and public transport to provide environments that are best able to enable partially-sighted people to move around safely and independently.