Development of a street audit to assess barriers faced by people with a visual impairment in urban streetscapes: a global case study

Abstract

Many of our built environments are not accessible for people with disabilities, including people with a visual impairment (PwVI). Some of the most common urban streetscape issues are parked cars, bollards, uneven spaces and shared space. This research study designed a street audit, using previous literature and other street audit tools, to assess streetscapes for barriers faced by PwVI. The street audit was tested in 12 different countries including in North America, Europe and Asia by 11 auditors of different backgrounds. Overall 26 street audits were conducted ensuring the tool can be used in different countries, environments and by different people. The auditors commented on any issues or changes to improve the audit tool. These changes were implemented to create a new proposed audit tool which is editable for use and outlines essential barriers for people with a visual impairment. Results from the street audits indicated that while areas were generally clean, there were issues around pavement width, pavement colour, material and maintenance, tactile paving use and trip hazards such as tree roots. In addition, there were several issues around proper delineation especially in shared space areas as well as issues with lighting and other hazards such as bollards.

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