‘Ouch’. That’s usually my first reaction. Others might opt for a more colourful ‘f*&#king hell!’ as they wipe the blood streaming out of their nostrils. Luckily, I haven’t had a nosebleed thanks to out-of-control directionals or tactile markers—yet.
What are directionals and tactiles?
I’m guessing most people don’t know what they are, judging by the groups of people that stand on them, and/or walk along them. They are the textured ground coverings located in urban environments to assist vision impaired individuals in avoiding hazards ,so that they can feel confident and retain some independence. First developed in Japan, and now used around the globe, they are installed on walking surfaces, providing directional guidance and safety orientation for the blind and vision-impaired community.
The official name is Tactile Ground Surface Indicators (TGSI), but let’s be real—most people just call them ‘those bumpy things’. But if you’re a person who is blind or vision impaired (PVIP) who relies on them for navigation, they’re more than just an odd ground texture. You’ll find them in places where the masses tend to gather, like shopping centres, train stations, and road crossings, lurking on the ground like secret navigation codes. But let me clarify- you may not find them at all because half the time the masses are happily standing on them like they’ve stumbled upon a free public foot massage.
Styles of Tactiles
Now, there are a couple of different styles of tactiles, many of which have an anti-slip surface. But from personal experience, I can’t say that about all of them. The Warning (dots) are round raised domes that look suspiciously like giant Lego pieces – could this be a case of plagiarism in design? – mostly in bright yellow or white and less often in other colours. These indicate danger and can be found at the top and bottom of stairs, ramps, and elevators, level crossings, along railway platforms, and street crossings.
Then there’s the Directional (bars) which help provide orientation guidance along a continuous accessible path of travel. They are usually black or white and say, ‘lead me somewhere baby. But please, not into a brick wall’. Their grand purpose? To help people who are vision-impaired or blind navigate public spaces without face-planting into something unexpected. Because let’s face it—walls are not as soft as they look.
Which leads me to …..
I’ve always praised my new suburban underground station. It’s beautiful – there’s a lovely red brick archway with bold, gold lettering naming the station, and right out front a fresh new tram stop. Only problem? There’s a directional marker, two or three metres long that starts from nowhere in particular and leads to a brick wall, stopping bang against it. And right in front of the tram stop, there’s a strip of tactile markers so close to the edge of the platform that you could miss them and end up tangled in the tram track. For most people, this would not be a problem, but for anyone blind or vision impaired who relies on them, this could be a serious issue.
Please don’t meet your friends on the yellow bumpy dots …
Now you know a bit about them and no doubt you’ve seen them and walked on them. In fact, you can’t avoid them, if you get out and about where people accumulate. If you’ve read this carefully, you’ll know what they are and how important they are for the safety of the vision impaired community. So hopefully, this will put an end to conversations like this;
‘Oh, where should we meet?’
‘Let’s all meet on the yellow bumpy dots at the foot of the escalator near Hungry Jacks.’
For goodness’ sake ladies, there’s got to be a thousand other places you could meet around this great big city.
Now for the installation…
I’ve often wondered who are the dudes that do the installation and if there’s any consultation with members of the vision impaired community? Maybe I need to get a life. Often TGSIs are installed incorrectly and this can be hazardous for people who rely on them. The placement of the tactiles in some places of high public foot traffic lead to nowhere. Seems like sometimes it’s a case of ‘let’s install some tactiles here to tick the safety box’. Or let’s add a cool decorative feature. Or, in the case of my suburban station, ‘Oh look, let’s put a line here that leads… straight to a brick wall!’
This would be OK if you’ve got superhuman climbing abilities to scale walls. Sometimes I wonder if they just install these things for fun and forget that they’re supposed to lead somewhere.
Photos taken by the author – c’est moi.
Stay tuned for other mysteries coming up in further blogs.
