Standard of the month – helping with accessibility for sight-impaired people
For the visually impaired, navigating streets with unpredictable vehicles and pedestrians can be risky. That’s where standards like AS/NZS 1428.4.1 Design for access and mobility: Means to assist the orientation of people with vision impairment – Tactile ground surface indicators can help.
Tactile ground surface indicators (TGSIs) on a platform in Wellington Railway Station, by Nick Cottrell.
Advocates for a safer environment
Everyone has the right to dignified, safe and independent access to the built environment. But for the more than 180,000 Kiwis and 400,000 people in Australia living with blindness or low vision, such access isn’t a given. Furthermore, with ageing populations, the number of people needing more assistance in this area is expected to rise in the decades ahead.
Where adequate or ‘natural’ tactile cues don’t exist, tactile ground surface indicators (TGSIs) can warn sight-impaired people of an approaching hazard or indicate a change in direction. To this end, AS/NZS 1428.4.1 was developed by a representative committee, which included occupational therapists, access consultants, construction industry experts and architects, and equality and human rights advocates.
For councils and contractors to do the right thing
Although the New Zealand Building Code doesn’t require TGSIs to be installed in or around buildings, AS/NZS 1428.4.1 can complement NZS 4121:2001 Design for access and mobility – Buildings and associated facilities, which is sponsored for free access by the building regulator.
In particular, these standards can help councils and landowners with public access implement good practice aligned with a number of pieces of legislation that require equal rights for disabled people (for example, see the Local Government Act and the 2008 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities). Likewise, they can help contractors and surveyors involved in reinstating paving integrate TGSIs correctly (illustrations throughout the standard define types of TGSI and their use, design requirements including luminance and contrast, layout and measurements, and installation for use in pavements and kerbs, bus stops, wharves, medians and railway stations).
Standardised application ensures correct use
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency provides information on the installation of tactile indicators, but AS/NZS 1428.4.1 goes into much greater detail. Similarly, ISO 23599:2019 Assistive products for blind and vision-impaired persons – Tactile walking surface indicators provides consensus-agreed guidance, albeit with a wider global application not designed specifically for use in New Zealand and Australia.
Using standards to ensure TGSIs are installed wherever possible in the manner that has been agreed by those who use and advocate for them, has the power to ensure fair and safe access for thousands of people.