Visually-impaired people living in Nanjing have received a boost to their mobility in the form of bus stops equipped with signage in braille, in a move that is a first for Jiangsu Province and one that sees Nanjing lead the way in assistance for the disabled.
Last Friday, 11 September, saw the braille signage rolled out for use on 92 bus stops in Nanjing. The assistance for the visually impaired comprises a stainless-steel plate, imprinted with braille, and a voice-prompt button below. The plate carries information identifying the bus stop and the bus lines that service it.
Until now, blind people navigating Nanjing’s public bus system had no choice but to ask other travellers for the information they needed, which was an embarrassing prospect for many.
Nanjing local, Li Bizhong, who is visually impaired, tried out the new signage at a bus stop on Wenjing Lu in Jiangning District. He said, “Generally speaking, many disabled people are unwilling to go out. There is a sense of inferiority. After such barrier-free facilities are installed, people with disabilities will have more dignity when traveling”, reported People.cn.
The first batch of 92 bus stops are located in Dongshan of Jiangning District and include those around Civic Square, Zhuxin Lu and Jiangning TV University.
Once on the bus, the visually impaired encounter far less of a challenge, given that Nanjing public buses carry announcements that identify the next stop and other reminders.
In further efforts to assist disabled travellers, the Nanjing Jiangning Public Transport Group is also to put new-energy, barrier-free buses into operation, also in Dongshan.
When at a bus stop, the barrier-free vehicle can be lowered and tilted so that wheelchair-bound passengers may safely board the bus, in much the same way as buses used by airports to ferry passengers from their aircraft to the terminal.
Braille signage remains somewhat of a rarity in China, until recently most commonly employed as gender identifiers for public toilets. While the effort to install braille signage on some of Nanjing’s bus stops is to be lauded, a more concentrated and sustained effort is required to achieve city-wide coverage for the initiative to truly be of use for the visually impaired community as a whole.
