90% of NYC Intersections Lack Audible Crossing Signals for Blind Pedestrians

In an article for Bloomberg CityLab, John Surico describes how cities, particularly New York, are working toward improved accessibility for people with vision impairments — and how the lack of well-maintained, standardized infrastructure can put residents in danger. 

“With a dense footprint and extensive public transit service, New York City has several advantages over most US cities when it comes to mobility for visually impaired, low vision and blind residents,” Surico points out. The city has been making progress, yet roughly two-thirds of the NYC subway system is not fully ADA compliant, and 90 percent of the city’s intersections lack audible pedestrian crossing signals. In some cases, tactile tools used to signal safe pathways and dangerous areas are degraded or installed improperly, leading one visually impaired NYC resident to fall onto subway tracks. 

Surico notes that “in much of the US, decades of planning and land use decisions have actively worked against accessibility, pushing everything and everyone farther apart from each other.” But designing for accessibility is not just beneficial to people with disabilities. “Like age-friendly improvements, making cities work better for blind residents also makes them safer and more livable for people of all abilities.”