by Joseph van Rosmalen
Policy Officer on Mobility and Accessibility, Netherlands Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted
Paper given at the EBU Mobility and Transport Conference held in Paris on 14-15 October 2002
First, let me introduce myself. My name is José van Rosmalen. I'm the policy officer for Mobility and Accessibility on behalf of the Netherlands Federation of the Blind and partially Sighted.
This Federation works in the interest of the 20.000 blind people in the Netherlands and the approximately 600.000 people that are partially sighted. Major fields of attention are Information and Communication Technology, the accessibility to reading matters and Mobility and Accessibility.
I have had the pleasure to accompany Mrs. Frances Fortuin, member of the EBU Board, at meetings of the Commission Mobility and Guide Dogs on several occasions. This has broaden my perspective of working on a national scale and has taught me more on the international and European standards. It's important that the experience and knowledge in different countries is applied properly to other countries. In a society where mobility in the physical and intellectual sense is highly valued, everybody should be able to take part in this mobility : in an integrated way, as far as possible and in an adjusted way as much as necessary.
I would like to discuss with you the efforts that are being done in the Netherlands where mobility is concerned, through the mobility training of individuals and through influencing policy by our Federation. I will try to make a combination of an individual and a social approach. Of course I'll emphasize on the social aspects because the organisation I work for aims to improve physical and social conditions.
The development of mobility skills
Mobility is moving from A to B. This simple definition presupposes a lot of skills. Therefore I want to start with the development of mobility skills during childhood and adulthood. A child passes through different steps in his mobility like rolling, sitting, standing, moving, walking stairs, running. He learns to develop visual skills, to recognise sounds, skills with hands and feet, to smell, taste and keep balance. Body awareness rests on spatial awareness, discrimination of left and right, discrimination of shapes, discrimination of sizes, the localisation of objects. It's important to help a child to develop his opportunities by imposing normal expectations upon him. Movement, games and sport create the best conditions for the development of orientation, navigation and mobility-strategies. People have to learn orientation, navigation and mobility strategies.
A person uses different abilities or skills for his or her mobility. He uses his senses to see, hear, feel or smell, to know where he is and what the environment looks like and to determine the right direction during movement. Mobility is the ability to move around independently, safely and efficiently, if necessary with a mobility aid like a guide dog, a cane or spoken information.
Instruction in mobility in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands there are different institutes where individuals with sight problems are being trained to improve their mobility. There is cooperation with our Federation on their training programs. I can give you an impression of the approach of the different institutes and the qualifications that mobility instructors have to meet in the Ne-ther-lands. Also, I will give an overview of the con-tents of the different training programs and pay special attention to knowledge, self-experience and the ability to give training in mobility.
In 1990 a national program for the education of mobility instructors was introduced. Now, each year about 20 professionals are educated in a nine-day course. The program for instructing the instructors covers three aspects :
- Knowledge on orientation and mobility
- Experience
- Application
Knowledge about orientation and mobility involves the development of mobility skills, sensory skills and concepts. They also involve basic skills like guiding, using a cane, hearing sound and echo, the recognition of different pavement structures, smell, taste and walking with a guide-dog, or spoken information. Instructors learn to go with their clients in traffic, shops, public transport.
The trainers have to
experience walking and moving around without
visual information.
By
application I mean that the trainers learn and give mobility
instructions, to prepare a route and to learn basic didactic
principles.
Besides the general training there is a training for teachers in
special education. The module 'orientation and mobility' is part of the curriculum. The aim is to prepare the teachers for their tasks, by using games and other didactic means.
Also there are courses for pupils, parents and teachers at regular schools; there is a national centre for learning Braille and there are regional centres for (the) partially sighted. Subjects at those centres are sport, traffic and public transport.
However, mobility training needs more than a good didactical approach towards individuals. Attention also needs to be paid to proper physical and social conditions. It's hard to teach a blind person to cross a street, when there is no marking and no sound from traffic lights.
The social perspective is that mobility is not only dependent on good education, but also on measures in the infrastructure of streets, pavements, buildings and means of transportation.
The road to a more accessible society is a long one, but there have been results.
The efforts of the Netherlands Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted on mobility and accessibility are :
The Federation works from an office in the city of Utrecht. We also work with volunteers throughout the country. These volunteers are visually disabled themselves. They are advisors and advocates for accessibility and mobility ; they combine their own experience and their knowledge of mobility and accessibility.
Our Federation works together with the Dutch National Council of the Disabled and Chronically Ill. Our organisation works on different general subjects within the framework of this council and when there are special points of interests, our organisation has its own voice for people that are blind and partially sighted. Physical accessibility for wheelchair users asks for other kinds of measures than the accessibility of information, which is often essential to people who are deaf, have bad hearing, are blind or partially sighted. Of course, in total, all kinds of accessibility have to fit into the concept of access for all, but to reach that general ideal, we have to be rather specific sometimes.
Therefore our strategy is a combination of participating in different ways in projects that influence the implementation of the concept of a design for all as well as participating in the making of special productions.
Examples of this general approach are the adjustment of the COST 335 standards for the Dutch Railway System, under supervision of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. Furthermore the Dutch Handbook on Accessibility and a new publication on the accessibility of the public room, like streets and pavements, to be presented on the 28th of October during a congress initiated by the Ministry of transport in the city of 's Hertogenbosch, with the nice French name Bois-le-Duc.
These efforts can help to integrate specific points of attention for the visually disabled in generally accepted and used publications that reach the people who are responsible for the implementation of accessibility, like local authorities or designers and architects. They have to be reached on arguments that emphasise the possibility and challenge of a balanced combination between aesthetic quality and functionality for everybody. They have to think in terms of human diversity rather than in terms of Mister Average.
The Federation also publishes brochures on different aspects of accessibility like crossing streets safely, accessibility of public buildings, access of public transport and obstacles on the streets and pavements. In these publications we are specific about the problems that blind and partially sighted people experience.
These brochures reach many municipalities ; our volunteers use them as well. Last week we presented a brochure on the accessibility of public buildings. It gives information about how buildings can be built and designed in a way that blind and partially sighted people can use them well. We give information about tactile warning, guidelines and about colour contrasts and the use of light in buildings. We also try to help architects and designers to imagine how people with loss of vision or without vision experience a building. It's in some ways easier to understand that a wheelchair user cannot climb stairs than to understand that some persons will not see a door due to lack of contrast in colour. In a national legislative document on requirements and standards that buildings have to meet, these aspects don't get enough attention.
In the Netherlands one of the achievements is that standards have been developed for the adequate use of guidelines and tactile warning. In many Dutch railway stations they have been provided. Also in different city centres there are routes with guidelines. Blind and severely partially sighted people are therefore able to travel independently to work or social activities. The guidelines are however not always applied properly. Some years ago a research program was developed on the perception of guide lines and marking tiles. This research program has provided important information on tactile warning and effective guidelines. We want these insights to be used in an integral design of streets and pavements. Some ideas on designing public areas are not convenient for blind and partially sighted people, for example the idea of making streets and pavements on the same level, without any warning. People should be able to know whether they walk in a safe area or not. People should also be warned for traffic lights by sound. These practical solutions can be implemented, but it takes time and effort. Designing streets and the public area, public buildings and public transport in a way they are also functional for blind and partially sighted people will cost time and money, but also creativity, imagination and good will. These latter elements are not easy to calculate, but in our country we have a saying, that we have to get a message between the ears, By this not the eyes are meant nor the nose but the awareness.
The joined effort of mobility training on an individual scale, sometimes with the support of a guide dog and paying attention to common interests is helpful. That keeps us going !
Thank you for your attention.
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