Not to take away from the specific challenges of blind people, but this is a broad problem whenever there is a mismatch between the <i>map</i> and the <i>territory</i>. The mismatch can come from sloppy work or just from the way the world changes over time and the map doesn't keep up.<p>I've seen plenty of cases in IT systems where bad documentation is much worse than no documentation. For example, there are the ubiquitous handover docs (demanded by project managers everywhere) filled with pages of cable connectivity, MAC addresses, WWNs, LUNs, etc in Word tables or manually-edited spreadsheets. They should all read "For historical purposes only" because you will inevitably trip over reality if you rely on them for live systems.<p>Similarly, there are those that insist on beautiful, meaningful patterns for naming all components. This works great until the pattern can no longer continue, or someone is sloppy, and then the pattern is just a tactile strip leading to a hole in the ground.<p>The solution I've settled on is live, automatic documentation in the form of scripts that generate a bunch of CSVs (or populate a table somewhere to drive a dashboard). CSVs are nice because they are easy to generate and version. I guess JSON would be more trendy these days.<p>I avoid manually-edited living documents and put clear warnings on any historical documents. And as much as possible I avoid patterns in naming and numbering, although that's a hard sell for a few clients.<p>Taking it back to the tactile indicators, I'm reminded of the (apocryphal?) story of what one university did when they landscaped their campus. In the first year they didn't put any paving down. In the second year they paved the worn-down paths in the grass. If only there were some universal way to "grow" tactile strips based on the actual movements of pedestrians.
Another thing to look out for in cities (and get people to correct if you can - report to the city, building owners, and so on): Things that stick out at head level that have no indication of their existence at ground level. Cane users would not feel an interruption and so would have no warning before getting cold-cocked right in the face. I notice this a lot where there are dramatic stairways that you can walk underneath. Best to have some sort of railing there.
I live somewhere not mentioned in the article but we have tactile paving too. I have never once seen a blind person using it (no, I am not blind myself). On the other hand I did see construction workers installing it, and it seems to take quite a bit of extra effort.<p>So I wonder: are these things useful to people other than the tile makers, for whom government mandated special tiles are undoubtedly a fantastic revenue stream?
I noticed this in Beijing in 2007 (I'm a wheelchair user, so I'm looking at the sidewalk a lot). Here's a photo of one of those bumpy yellow paths leading straight to a steep flight of stairs under Tiananmnen Square! I've always thought back to it as a perfect example of things people try to implement in order to help disabled people but that have the opposite effect of help. Anyway, a good example of a well-meant but bad user interface!<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lizhenry/1571135450/" rel="nofollow">https://www.flickr.com/photos/lizhenry/1571135450/</a>
Caption from a photo: "Tactile paving used to create decorative patterns or zigzag routes."<p>Zigzag routes. That sounds terrible. I'm having a hard time articulating my reaction here, but can you imagine a moderate crowd on the sidewalk, most of them seeing, and a blind person attempting to zig and zag through the crowd?
I've been wondering if there was a reason for those tiles to be yellow. Sure, it allows non-blind people to spot mistakes more easily, but it also seems that those wouldn't have been used as a decoration in the first place if they had been available in different colors (that said, never underestimate human dumbness).<p>I've also been wondering at the material those are made of. I am used to white, plastic dots, and I find them slippery when it rains, which is a bit dangerous, since they indicate danger area (they can get especially slippery/dangerous with roller blades, but that's not a great idea when it rains, altogether).
By the way, the point of tactile paving is usually to indicate a change (like a slope or a step) about to happen, warning of an edge, not a path that you are supposed to follow.
I've wondered what the yellow raised line down the middle of Palo Alto Transit Center was supposed to mean!<p>Unfortunately, I think it stops around the time it reaches the steps to the train station.<p>On the other hand, San Jose Diridon doesn't have tactile paving, but it does have some sort of "talking sign for the blind" things telling you which paths to take, and where to stand!