Mr. Chris White:

The NCBI is delighted to have the opportunity, with our peers, to present to the joint committee because, as has been clearly identified by other speakers, public transport is central to the lives of people with disabilities, particularly those who have suffered sight loss and are blind. Fundamentally, it takes great courage for an individual with a sight loss condition to leave the safety of his or her home.

One must trust the systems and the mobility training received. In many ways, one takes one's life in one's hands. This is not an academic discussion or something one would "like to have". This is a key question about how the State deals with public safety and people with sight loss and other disabilities.

According to the 2016 census, there are currently 54,810 people with sight loss. Sight loss ranges from mild to moderate to severe or total sight loss. The impact of mild to moderate sight loss is considerable when one can no longer drive and it is life-changing. Public transport takes on a new significance when it is only access to transport that somebody with sight loss may have. There are still considerable barriers within our public spaces and built environments, and these are coupled with barriers created by inaccessible public transport. Those barriers hugely limit the rights and choices of people with sight loss, leaving them unable to fully participate in the workforce, education, training and, fundamentally, in Irish society.

In this presentation we would like to highlight the problems created when trains do not have audible announcements, which allow a person who is blind or vision-impaired to know where he or she is or where to get off. Buses are capable of audible announcements but they do not happen in a reliable way. Trams should announce the direction before moving, as not doing so leaves one unsure as to whether the direction is to the Point or Connolly Station. This is even more relevant with the very welcome opening of the Luas cross-city project this weekend. That is not to say we do not recognise that progress has been made and we welcome everything that has been done, although it has been slow and hard-won. We must place disability at the heart of all our discussions, and that is why this meeting is so welcome. This relates to current and future public transport infrastructure. We therefore ask the joint committee today to support our recommendations to ensure a fully accessible public transport system.

What do we mean by this? The majority of the 8,000 people we work with each year have some vision, while a small percentage of people are completely blind. According to the 2016 census, there are 54,000 people with sight loss in Ireland but that number is rising as the population ages. Throughout our report we have included extracts from our Out of Sight survey, where we took a considerable sample of 351 people who are blind and vision-impaired and asked them their experience of dealing with transport and accessibility. We can look at a breakdown by age of people with sight loss, with 5,081 people aged between 0 and 17; 24,000 people between the age of 18 and 65; and 25,000 people above the age of 66. This is not one cohort of society but rather all ages and all people in our society today.

We have identified sight loss as a huge impact on a person's life, affecting independence, mobility, employment prospects, education, communication and social inclusion. People who are blind or vision-impaired cannot drive and therefore public transport is their only means of accessing work, school, leisure and their independence. Similar to the Irish Wheelchair Association, we have identified where the key issues exist around the different forms of public transport. Fundamentally, even with well-developed mobility skills delivered by the National Council for the Blind in Ireland, NCBI, and our colleagues at Irish Guide Dogs, it is sometimes very difficult for a person to engage with public transport. The challenges start with the booking or buying of tickets and finding information online or via an app and at the station. They continue as the person makes his or her way around the station or Luas platform, awaiting the correct train, bus or Luas and tries to figure out which direction he or she will travel. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of safe spaces when using public transport, and this was tragically highlighted by the death of Ms Patricia Brennan, who in 2014 was killed at Raheny DART station when she fell on the tracks.

For many years the NCBI has engaged with all the transport providers, the Department and the National Transport Authority, NTA, on ways to improve the service for users who are blind and vision-impaired. We genuinely welcome the progress made to date. We also welcome the opportunity to highlight areas that still need to be worked on and which need the establishment of regular, formalised engagement and structures with both the NTA and service providers to ensure that accessibility and future provision for public transport can continue to improve. The NCBI welcomes the Government's commitment in A Programme for Partnership Government to invest in making public transport services accessible for people with disabilities, including the provision of audio announcements on train and bus services to aid people who are blind and vision-impaired.

On the broad points, accessibility to websites and apps - the trend we are all following - is an integral part of people's daily lives. That is no different with anybody who is blind or vision-impaired. This includes travel information, ticket booking and timetables, which should all be available online. A person who is vision-impaired will use either screen magnification or screen reading software but the website and the app must be designed and accessible to make it usable for people with sight loss. We strongly recommend that public transport operators prepare for the full implementation of the EU web accessibility directive, which will ensure that all websites and apps must be made accessible. Member states have until 23 September 2018 to transpose the text to national legislation. The European Commission will adopt implementing Acts by the end of 2018 and this will ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of relevant positions to the directive.

I completely echo Senator John Dolan's points on the public transport review and the difficulty around retro-fitting. It is a point we see time and again, with disability and public transport not at the centre or thought of at the beginning. They are an afterthought and people are retrofitting for accessibility. It is better, cheaper and more effective to think about this at the beginning and everybody wins. We call for a "disability-proofing" approach to everything that is happening in current public transport provision and also the future position of how we are going forward with our public transport. How will it be proofed to ensure it is effective and fundamentally cheaper? It would be a society and Government win. Part of this considers the role of access officers and user groups in the review process and embeds them more fully than they are now. They are vital to an effective consultation process with representative organisations like ourselves and colleagues here today.

Ms Carthy spoke about access to Luas and DART stations and there is a prime example of a lack of joined-up thinking or communication in a Bus Éireann route from Cavan to the Mater hospital in Dublin. It was used by many people with vision impairments travelling to monthly outpatient clinics for treatment for eye conditions but it was suddenly cancelled by Bus Éireann without any communication or information for anybody using it. This highlights a lack of understanding among senior management in Bus Éireann as to the needs of people with sight loss.

We recommend a "disability-proofing" approach that is not expensive or retrospective, and that does not make disability an afterthought. We recommend that the Department and the NTA commit to really consulting with service users and the NCBI in a regular, formalised and more meaningful way than was evident in the current review of public transport services. We strongly urge that all access officer positions are filled and not left vacant. We should prioritise and resource user groups and there should be a new structure for regular formalised engagement, along with consultation around route changes and cancellation. That should be integral to the thinking.

Audible announcements are central to effective public transport for people who are blind or sight-impaired and essential for independent and safe travel. They provide vital information that is not otherwise available to a person who cannot read signs or notices independently. We strongly recommend that all public transport should operate audible announcements both within carriages and coaches and at stations and platforms to enable those people with insufficient vision to have access to the same basic information as the sighted population, such as the destination of the train, tram or bus and the location of the next stop or station.

We welcome the progress made in some areas but it is important to maintain standards and deal with faults. It is also vital staff are trained and aware of the needs of people with disabilities. We hope the National Transport Authority, NTA, will monitor if this is being done, along with the targets and effectiveness of that training. We also call for the review and consequences for misuse or non-compliance by employees of transport companies and the publishing of robust key performance indicators for accessibility.

Many trains and train stations continue to present significant barriers for people who are blind and vision-impaired. In addition to the ongoing lack of audible announcements, with unstaffed stations, people with impaired vision are faced with uncertainty as to the availability of a member of staff to offer assistance on and off the train. People have to give 24 hours notice of travel if they require assistance. The National Council for the Blind of Ireland, NCBI, finds this situation unacceptable. The Government’s policy has recommended travel notice be reduced to four hours instead of 24 hours. We welcome this proposal. We request Irish Rail continues to engage with NCBI more, that stations are more accessible to people who are blind or vision-impaired. NCBI recommends all Irish Rail staff, be they a train operator or the chief executive, engage in disability awareness training to ensure an organisation-wide standard for customers with disabilities. All trains and carriages must have audible announcements which are functioning and maintained to operate correctly. There must be a consistency in approach between public and private operators. The situation with audible announcements is far more consistent on Dublin Bus than on Irish Rail, DART and commuter trains. However, there are still instances where they are not functioning. Customers with vision impairments should be able to rely on the provision of audible announcements for their journeys. As the Department is also responsible for the provision of licences to private transport operators, audible announcements should be prioritised as part of the licensing process.

As the Luas is a newer form of transport, accessibility has been a consideration from the beginning and this good practice is welcome. Integration at the beginning of a project makes it much simpler. However, there are still problems with audible announcements, accessibility and direction. There should be greater consideration of colour contrast between trams, the fixed physical environments and audible announcements for the destination of the tram as people enter and leave. Vision Australia recently opened a training centre to enable vision-impaired people to be trained about external public transport environments.

Taxis are central to the use of a public transport system. We agree with the Irish Wheelchair Association and point to the success of subsidised taxi schemes such as London’s Taxicard system, Chicago’s Open Taxis and Australia’s Multi Purpose Taxi Program, all of which enable subsidised taxi travel to be taken up by people with sight loss and other disabilities.