A Few Reasons of Erecting Tactile Warnings on Various Public Places

Most of you must have seen tactile paving that is often found in various public places, like railways or bus stations or near the crossing areas and stairs. This is a system having a textured surface installed on the roads. The reason for these ground surface indicators is to help pedestrians who may be vision-impaired or blind.

Usually, these tactile guiding strips have got a certain distinctive surface pattern that is of truncated domes, bars, or cones, can be detected with the help of underfoot or a long cane, and are meant for alerting the vision-impaired person that they are near a street.

As per statistics, almost 1.3 billion people in the world are having some degree of blindness or visual impairment. In the USA itself, more than 3 million people are found to be visually impaired.

With such a good number of people who are living with their vision problems, hence as a society, we need to ensure that they can get the same respect and opportunities that any sighted people do. Keeping that in mind, this valuable tool that is known as “tactile warning surface” has been developed.

Tactile warning surfaces can save Lives

Such detectable warnings can be a matter of safety. Even a person who is having a mild visual impairment may get hurt in a certain accident. Those people who are blind can use their ability of other senses for navigating and protect themselves from an accident while walking into certain dangerous areas.

In 2012, a study was conducted and it was found that these blind people can only be able to hear the surroundings accurately, but cannot make an accurate decision while crossing a street like any normal person. For such people, a tactile warning surface can serve a very useful purpose.

Tactile warnings can also be beneficial to businesses and communities

Besides meeting legal requirements, communities, local governments, and commercial businesses also can benefit from tactile warning surfaces. A few examples are:

• A very strong focus on accessibility may help revitalizing a community and can send a very clear message to any resident that they are very strongly committed to providing equal treatment to people with disabilities.
• Retrofitting any older property having suitable ADA-Compliant warning surfaces will make business parking much safer, reducing any liability risks, and also encourage patronage by those having visual or any other impairments.
• The bright visual signals presented by such tactile warning surfaces will serve as an added reminder to all drivers that they must take proper care in such areas and watch very carefully for pedestrians.

They are also beneficial for people without disabilities

Cast iron-made tactile warning surfaces may also help people who don’t have any visual impairment. Such surfaces are very helpful for people who use walkers or wheelchairs. They can even help any parent who may be pushing a stroller, and make them aware of the location and knows the designated walking path.

In the world of today, it is not very uncommon to see a person freely walking and also attending a call on their mobile phone. Such tactile surfaces of cast iron can also help them too.