Older people's experiences of using tactile paving

Abstract

Tactile paving has been designed in response to the needs of vision-impaired pedestrians to be independent, mobile, confident and safe when using the external environment. Tactile paving is not without its critics because it can adversely affect other pedestrians particularly older people, and those with mobility impairments. Interviews were conducted at eight selected road crossing sites in Edinburgh to determine older people's experiences of using specific road crossings, in particular their views and experiences of using tactile paving. Two hundred participants were interviewed who were aged 65 years and older, and who appeared not to have a significant health issue or disability that was affecting their mobility. In addition, eight pedestrians who had significant mobility issues and 30 pedestrians who had moderate to severe vision impairment were interviewed. Findings demonstrate the importance of training in tactile paving for pedestrians with a vision impairment; the need for a review of the guidance on tactile paving such that greater emphasis is placed on detectability and tonal contrast, and tonal contrast; a consideration as to whether seven types of tactile paving is too many; and the need to minimise the effects of topography, particularly slope at road crossings.

Further examinations of mobility in later life and improving health and wellbeing

“…al in press; Newton et al 2010;Newton and Ormerod, 2007;Ormerod et al 2014). Moniruzzaman et al (in this issue) have found that pet ownership, proximity to amenities and culture also emerge as walking enablers.…”

Urban Mosaic

“…We introduced our assessment analysis of tactile pavings as a possible model for finding something that might be helpful. We learnt that the raised bumps in these tactile pavings are themselves often a cause of problems for older adults [63], and that these problems are exacerbated in bad weather. With Urban Mosaic we are able to combine data sets and image search to filter down areas of interest, and with the temporally dense data set of street-level images we can investigate the same location in different weather conditions.…”

Senior Tourists’ Perceptions of Tactile Paving at Bus Stops and in the Surrounding Environment: Lessons Learned from Project ACCES4ALL

“…In some countries tactile paving surfaces are not used because this kind of information can be misinterpreted by blind people and generate danger situations. Furthermore, tactile paving surfaces are being investigated because there is some criticism of their use by people with motor difficulties, specifically older people [16], since elderly with specific medical conditions, such as diabetes, may have reduced sensitivity in their feet [17]. On the other hand, previously developed studies about the perceptions of elderly people in the outdoor environment expressed concerns about falling or feeling unstable on tactile surfaces mainly on dropped kerbs [16].…”