Gaps between TGSIs and their impact on mobility
When Solutions Create New Problems.
Watch or Listen: 2:08 min | Images: 5 | Author: Dean Homicki | Return to Journal Menu
Gaps between TGSIs and their impact on mobility.
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Click/Tap the audio player below to listen to the transcript of this journal post as an audible version. This is a streamed broadcast from the Staebl.academy website.
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In a world where problems seem to multiply, finding solutions is often celebrated as progress. But what happens when solving one problem inadvertently creates another, or undermines a previously successful solution?
This video journal explores the complex, intertwined nature of challenges we face with providing barrier-free access in the built environment, and how sometimes, the very solutions we create for one requirement (like drainage channels( can be a double-edged sword for persons living with low vision.
Take for example the requirement of Tactile Ground Surface Indicators (TGSIs) crossing a pedestrian pathway leading to a Bus Stop Waiting Platform that intersects with an open (Swale) drain. Gaps more expansive than 10 millimetres between the ends of Directional TGSIS are not acceptable as specified in the Australian Standard.
These gaps of ‘internment breaks’ in a direction of travel provided by Directional TGSIs, are permissible to accommodate drainage; however, voids, holes, or expansion joints greater than the prescribed amount can create other obstacles and hazards, such as dips, voids, and loss of direction for a person with a disability such as low vision.
In this video journal demonstrates that a person's mobility and orientation should not be neglected because of drains, grates or changes to a walkway's grade. All surface inconsistencies along a direction of travel must be minimised, removed or avoid altogether. You’ll see how this affects white cane users do particularly.
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Location: Ballarat Central, Victoria
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Dean Homicki from Stæbl Academy.
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