Mixed signals for visually impaired pedestrians

Lack of national standards lead to safety concerns for disabled and elderly

By: Karen Sawatzky

  Municipalities need to get their acts together and stop giving mixed signals to people with visual impairments, argues disability rights advocate Rob Sleath.
  He says inconsistencies in how audible pedestrian signals operate are confusing and pose a safety hazard to elderly and visually-impaired people. "The primary problem is the lack of a national standard, or for that matter a North American Standard," says Sleath, who is founder of the group Advocates for Sight-Impaired Consumers.
  Audible pedestrian signals are those now-familiar chirp and cuckoo sounds that Canadian cities began installing at traffic lights about 25 years ago, in an effort to make intersections safer.
  While today, most audible signals are triggered by pushing the same button that activates the walk sign, the cities of North Vancouver and Richmond in British Columbia, and Montreal and Toronto in Eastern Canada, are now either using or experimenting with delayed activation signals. This means that users who want the sounds must push and hold the button for three to five seconds.
 

Though not all old "walk buttons" look this way, this is an example of a design that's difficult for visually-impaired people to use.

An audible pedestrian signal box. A few interesting features about this box: The button is large and easy to press and easy to find on the box. There is an audible locator which gives out a constant low-volume beeping, which helps visually-impaired people find it at the crosswalk. The speaker for the audible signal is right in the box, which means sound isn't spilling into the rest of the neighbourhood The big arrow actually vibrates for a few seconds when the walk sign comes on, making this signal helpful to the deaf/blind as well.

  The problem is that people who can't see, can't tell what kind of intersection they're at. And, while pushing a button for three seconds seems easy to the fully-sighted and able-bodied, it can be difficult for the disabled and the elderly.
  But city officials also have to listen to noise complaints from annoyed residents, especially in hotter, open-window weather.
  "I hate the bloody things with a passion. They should be banned," says John Hayes, who lives near a set of audible signals in the City of North Vancouver. Delayed activation would at least reduce the number of times the sounds are triggered.
  However Sleath says his community is "adamantly opposed" to the use of delayed activation signals, partly based on safety concerns, and partly on principle. "It's like saying, 'Our building is accessible, provided you go through the lane and come through the door at the back.'"
  Meanwhile, the City of North Vancouver is working with neighbouring municipalities to come to a consensus on how the signals should operate. Sleath commends that initiative, but wants to see enforceable national and international standards as well, in order to address the increasing mobility of the disabled population. He cites Montreal, which is testing totally new, chime tones at some signals, after researchers found those sounds were easier to hear.
  "If I were to go to Quebec," says Sleath, "and hear completely different sounds on the corner, quite honestly I would have no idea what that means." Sleath says that the concerns of disabled users and residents can both be addressed by better design, and he'd like to see a national group, including advocates for the disabled, community, come together to develop binding standards for audible signals.
  The Transportation Association of Canada is currently conducting a review of the voluntary standards it has developed for audible signals, however, Chris Brinkmann, who heads the review committee, says it's unlikely that a provision for delayed activation will be removed from the guidelines.

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For further information, contact:

Rob Sleath, founder of Advocates for Sight-Impaired Consumers - puppypower@imag.net.

Geoff Eden, accessibility planner for City of Toronto - geden@city.toronto.on.ca.

Polara Engineering, a California company that makes audible traffic signals - www.polara.com.

David Atnikov, president of Novax Industries Corporation, a company that manufactures traffic control devices, including audible pedestrian signals - dave_a@novax.com.

John Neumann, chair of the North Shore Advisory Council on Disability Issues - nsdrc@nsdrc.org.

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