- Independent mobility, a fundamental right

The needs of people with visual impairment require specific technological responses for fairer and more accessible development of new autonomous driving technologies

Most blind and many partially-sighted people do not have sufficient residual sight to be able to travel safely and independently by relying on their eyesight. And most of them are not in a financial position to afford the full cost of mobility aids.

Article 20 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities expresses the importance of ensuring “the personal mobility with the greatest possible independence” for persons with disabilities (…) in the manner and at the time of their choice, and at affordable cost”. This includes facilitating their access to technology, taking into account their related needs and providing the related training.

Obviously one thinks of ensuring the accessibility of public transport. Unfortunately, looking at the European Union, the recently adopted Accessibility Act (2015) fails to deliver on this, concentrating mostly on the digital rather than the real material life of persons with disabilities, while scattered instruments on passengers’ rights bring partial solutions.

While continuing to promote progress in this area, EBU is also paying attention to the many private and public initiatives on self-driving vehicles, or ‘connected and autonomous vehicles’ (CAVs). We are involved in one such project, the EC-funded research project PAsCAL, which aims to assess the impact of connected transport on people’s well-being, quality of life, and equity. We will bring the perspective of blind and partially sighted persons in the focus group discussions, tests and surveys to assess their experience and expectations regarding CAVs. 

A revolution under way

The transport sector is currently undergoing a digital revolution. Vehicles, private or professional, are increasingly equipped with technology to facilitate difficult manoeuvres (e.g. assisted parking, uphill start) and to reduce the danger of traffic accidents caused by human error (e.g. track assistant, distance assistant, braking assistance). For the moment, this trend appears to consumers as a selling argument of vehicle manufacturers and is largely reserved for the upper-segment of the market or for specific professional needs, without excessively undermining the traditional arguments of the industry (driving pleasure, freedom associated with mobility etc). 

However the IT-industry is increasingly promoting a different approach to driving assistance, aimed at getting entirely rid of the driver’s control. Insurers will surely support this approach, by imposing the available technology as a condition for their services. The governments of the industrialized countries are financially and legally supporting this development. 

It is foreseen that CAVs will enter the market in the present decade or the next. Eventually, CAVs which can move completely independently, without direct human control, are likely to become the norm.

A promising perspective

Interestingly, the trend is not limited to the private sector: field trials of CAVs are already going on with vans and buses, and underground trains and special transport services (i.e. airport shuttles) have already opened the way. 

In fact, the line between individual and public transport will be blurred more and more over the coming years. Major car manufacturers present themselves increasingly as providers of mobility services and invest in or cooperate with mobility service providers such as ride-hailing companies that are increasingly popular with the younger generation.

Obviously, for blind and partially sighted people this development is of major importance. If the accessibility and usability requirements are respected and implemented, it will lead to a major improvement of mobility for them. In a society of self-driving vehicles, visually impaired persons would in theory be equal to other users, as passengers, even when travelling alone, as they could have and use their own car!

Attached risks and concerns

At the same time there is a risk that their mobility can also be negatively impacted in the future. 

Where transport still relies on human drivers, these drivers can recognize situations in which pedestrians and passengers, typically persons using a white cane or a wheelchair, might need information or assistance and are available to give this to them. If CAVs are used in public transport this kind of assistance, based on human interaction, will disappear. It has to be assured by other means.

Moreover, as with any technological development that potentially represents a progress also for the visually impaired (see smartphones for example), if the accessibility of the new mobility scheme is not ensured across the board, the new technology will only represent a new barrier.

The results of ‘A Survey of Visually Impaired Consumers About Self-Driving Vehicles’, conducted by US university researchers and published in The Journal on Technology and Persons with Disabilities (2018), gives a useful description of the concerns inter alia of visually impaired persons.

Recommendations

The following aspects have to be respected to make sure that visually impaired people in particular can participate in future mobility:

• Smartphone and other applications (apps) to order and program public or private means of transport should be accessible, and it should be possible to use them, not only with visual but also acoustic feedback. Alternatively, it should still be possible to request a vehicle by phone. 
• It should be possible to order specially adapted vehicles, to transport for example a guide dog.
• There should be information in advance whether the CAV is used alone (taxi, bus) or with a person that could bring assistance.
• The system should be compatible with specific assistive devices like pedestrian navigation apps, to guide safely the user to the vehicle. 
• An acoustic signal must indicate the door to enter the vehicle and the visually impaired user must be led to a free seat, if there are other passengers.
• On board if not at the moment of ordering, it should be possible to choose the destination independently, whether through voice interaction or via an accessible and contrasted touchscreen, and also to select the street side so as to avoid having to cross the road. It should also be possible, in single-user vehicles, to change the destination.
• There should be accessible and easy to use emergency break and emergency call – for which an international standard is yet to be defined.
• When using vehicles that are following a fixed route, the stops and passenger’s destination have to be announced in time at request.
• Safe exit from the vehicle should be ensured, with relevant caution messages (side of the car on which to step out, possible obstacles in front of the door, etc.). And it should be made impossible to open a door on the side of the vehicle where other vehicles are passing by.
• When leaving the vehicle, pedestrian navigation has to take over immediately, so that persons with assistive needs can reach their destination safely.

These are a sample of the questions that need to be considered at the outset by policy-makers, public authorities, the automotive industry, software developer, mobility service providers and end-user organisations/including voices of blind and partially sighted persons.. Otherwise, the ‘progress’ of CAVs would in reality represent a major step back for hundreds of thousands of blind and partially sighted persons who use vehicles in their mobility every day in Europe.