What’s it like for a blind cane user in your country? Sidewalks, wlkability, transportation, how do people typically respond to seeing a blind human out and about? ‘Important to know i do have good balance, so hills and such aren’t the biggest of deals.”
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Very difficult in my city, unfortunately.
Sidewalks are full of obstacles and sometimes don’t exist at all Traffic is pretty heavy in most streets.Crossing the street can be very unnerving for foreigners,as cars will weave around you rather than stopping.
People are kind and will help you if they can, but the urban environment is not well designed for blind people.Same thing for people in wheelchairs etc.
Many practical things around to help them, many sidewalks have markings to help them walk straight, braille is common in public places and so on. Most people would not hesitate to help out. But on the other hand it’s very difficult for them to find employment. So it’s a mixed bag.
For any person with disabilities, whether blind or with a wheelchair, Romania is pretty much impossible. First of all, you have bad infrastructure, cracked sidewalks, step ramps, no guidances for the blind, and then, people often park on the sidewalk, even if they occupy the entire sidewalk. So you literally have to walk on the road, where there are cars.
I see blind people in Berlin relatively regularly. I just walk out of the way so they don’t bump into me with their cane.
They’re generally functional and take public transportation like everybody else. But I don’t know how much of that is due to being very familiar with the city.
Of course people sometimes help them, e.g. by telling them whether they’re going in the right direction. So I imagine it would be slightly harder for someone who doesn’t speak German (though you could still ask people to speak English and many would be happy to do that, too).
I think most big cities are quite accessible and we have a very well-known association that fights for them: ONCE which is supervised by the government. They sell the national lottery tickets, too.
It makes it easier for them to move around and therefore more visible in our society, which is great. We can do better, for sure, but it’s a good start.
I don’t have first-hand experience, nor am I close with a blind person. But there’s a blind person living in my street. I often see him walking around in the neigborhood with his dog, and I’ve seen him taking a train. I’ve helped him out a couple of times, when there are random bicylces parked on the sidewalk on his usual route, which makes his dog think it’s too narrow to pass through. The dog simply refuses, so I’ve helped him walk on the street, by stopping traffic and telling him where to go. I imagine there are many of such moments in his life, that make it difficult.
I had a friend who moved from Canada to the Netherlands, who is visually impaired. She can see, but has an blurry vision a few meters from her face. She felt liberated by how walkable Dutch cities are and how accessible the public transport. In Canada she was basically confined to her house unless someone was willing to drive her.
My city (Nijmegen in the Netherlands) is doing well in this regard. Many roads have these tiles with bumps to help navigate at traffic lights and stuff. I see people with a cane pretty often and then I imagine what it feels like to navigate this way.
But while the municipality does their best, no doubt the blind people encounter a lot of obstacles of people randomly parking bicycles.
Also there is a local mu-see-um where you can experience being blind and occasionally you’ll see a group of them having a tour through the city while being blindfolded.
Not too great where I live. Sidewalks have physical indications, but that’s about it. Not a single crossing has an audio signal to help, a whole part of the sidewalks is generally not so great for people with physical disabilities (obstacles, narrow areas…).
England is very inaccessible for disabled people in general. People don’t make provisions and for blind people in particular, the roads and pavements can often be a struggle. Ireland is a little better, but the countryside can be very inaccessible for blind people.
In Germany it very much depends on whether we talk about cities or rural areas. Rural areas are usually nicer, concerning social interactions and people willing to help, but suck regarding infrastructure.
Cities have more things like beeping traffic lights, but it’s still not really inclusive.
And while the Netherlands might have a problem with badly parked bikes, we sometimes have the problem with badly parked cars.
And our sidewalks are kind of rough sometimes.
But in contrast to the US, we have usually walkable cities and in bigger cities a lot of public transportation. We also tend to mix living and buying. So our supermarkets are maybe not as big as your grocery shops, but usually in a walking distance (not in rural areas, but in big cities).
Oh and as a blind person, living here, you would probably be entitled to a Severely disabled person’s ID card, which might reduce your entry fees to a lot of events and you could get a token, that allows you to use all regional public transportation for free.