Awareness and Accessibility Observations from My Travels

AUDIO VERSION

By Richard Marion

This is my final post about my recent travels to the UK and France in June. As with many trips, accessibility became a key focus for me in each destination. Having a disability and being involved in the advocacy community means I can’t help but view my experiences through an accessibility lens.

Since both Scotland and England are both part of the UK, we encountered similar accessibility challenges in their built environments. While cities like London and Edinburgh offered similar accessibility features, their cobblestone streets posed a challenge for navigating with a white cane, even with the widespread use of tactile walking surface indicators.

In Edinburgh, I encountered an accessibility issue that is becoming increasingly common in Canada: separated bike lanes. Our hotel was on a street with these lanes, and we had to use the bus that stopped at a floating bus stop. When crossing the bike lanes, I noticed tactile walking surface indicators on either side, signalling the transition from the sidewalk to traffic. However, there was no indication that cyclists would stop for pedestrians, without a controlled crossing signal requiring cyclists to stop or slow down. The bus stop crossing was marked, but it wasn’t elevated, so cyclists weren’t forced to slow down on the bike lane. Edinburgh also had trams running down the middle of the street. To cross to the boarding platforms, controlled intersections at the stations stopped traffic, allowing pedestrians to cross to the middle of the street. The platforms had tactile edging, similar to Vancouver’s SkyTrain and Toronto’s subway, and the trams had level boarding. A designated area on the platform accommodated people using mobility devices, ensuring they lined up with the tram doors that opened into wheelchair and stroller spaces.

The UK employs a unique system for accessible traffic signals. These signals emit a consistent beeping sound at a fixed pitch for all street crossings. Since streets aren’t always grid-like as they are in many North American cities, specific directional sounds aren’t practical. In addition to the steady beeping, there’s a spinning, dial-like area on the bottom of the push button that indicates when it is safe to walk in the direction you are crossing. This spinning feature is quite interesting, but it’s also a moving part that can be vandalized or broken. I even found a few broken ones and one with gum stuck to it. Therefore, I don’t believe this system is the best solution for providing crossing information to people who are Deafblind.

Similarly, in Paris, accessible signals didn’t offer any options for Deafblind individuals. While the signals emitted a beeping sound similar to the UK system, they used two different notes that cycled in patterns of two or three pulses before repeating. Initially, when I arrived in Paris, I didn’t realize the sounds I heard at intersections were from these signals. I thought they might be from an emergency vehicle, as the sounds seemed quite similar at first. In all cities, pedestrian buttons were conveniently located near the intersection crosswalks.

When we visited each city, we primarily relied on public transit systems, which allowed us to experience both the accessibility advantages and challenges in each city. In Paris and London, the older subway systems, like the Tube and Paris Metro, presented several accessibility challenges for people with disabilities. While all cities offered tap-to-pay systems on buses and trains, the payment terminals sometimes proved difficult to use, because they lacked audible confirmation that a payment had been successfully processed. This issue was particularly frustrating on systems requiring a tap-out, where we were charged extra for fares that ended at the airport, as was the case on the Edinburgh Tram.

In London, I successfully loaded my disability Rail Card onto an Oyster card, a smartcard used for travel in London, reducing my transit fare by a third on the Tube and buses. However, the ticketing machines were inaccessible, so I received sighted assistance when reloading the Oyster card throughout our week. In Paris, the payment system is app-based, which worked well with VoiceOver, allowing me to load my payment card for the days I needed it. While the ticket machines themselves weren’t accessible, once I had my card, I could load it through my mobile phone.

Train accessibility was another concern. In both London and Paris, the older subway lines had large gaps between trains and platforms, often at least 15 centimetres, and sometimes accompanied by steps up or down into the trains. The most common announcement on the Tube was “mind the gap.” Despite these challenges, I found staff on the Tube to be exceptionally helpful and willing to assist passengers. Interestingly, London had a station assistance program for people with disabilities, similar to TransLink in Vancouver.

While improving accessibility involves many upgrades to older stations, it’s clear that the UK and even Paris are committed to providing accessible services for people with disabilities. One benefit of having a visible disability was not having to wait in line. While I can wait in line, it was much appreciated on hot days during our vacation. Finding discounts for a companion was also much easier in both the UK and France than it is in many parts of Canada. Finally, the attention given to providing accessible experiences in museums was greatly appreciated by both my spouse and me, as it made it easier for him to enjoy visiting historic sites.

Visiting the three different European cities was definitely a highlight for me. It was a great way to see parts of the world I had never been to before, and it was a chance to see that while things aren’t perfect here, other parts of the world experience very different accessibility challenges and successes. I hope you all enjoyed reading this travel series as much as I enjoyed writing about it.

If you missed the first two in this series, you can read them here: How We Planned Our Accessible European Vacation: Successes and Challenges and Highclere Castle is the Real Downton Abbey