Special paving for the vision-impaired people

Some of the newly laid footpaths in Dhaka city have special yellow and red tiles. These are to facilitate visually impaired persons.

The yellow tiles are set along the centre with the red ones on either side. The yellow ones have four vertical raised lines as warnings and the red tiles have block patterns. This works as a code while walking. At the end of the footpath, the yellow tiles have a pattern of 6x6 dots, indicating a change ahead.

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has already finished laying up the tiles in Gulistan, Bailey Road, and New Market areas while Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has finished with the Karwan Bazar, Bangla Motor, Green Road, Gulshan and Banani areas.

Several visually impaired pedestrians were happy with this initiative enterprise, though several complained about obstacles and insufficient indicators.

Md. Jahangir Alam, co-ordinator of Centre for Disability in Development (CDD) Bangladesh said, “We had been asking for such footpaths for the visually impaired,” adding, “There are some problems though. At places there the raised lines are on the red tiles though they should be on the yellow ones. Then in some places there are trees and electric poles on the pavements without any indication. I faced problem on a footpath in Gulshan.”

Being visually impaired himself, Jahangir shared his concerns over this lack of signs. He stressed the need for an extensive campaign to let the visually impaired know about the special pavements.

Neither visually impaired persons nor common pedestrians are fully aware about these special footpaths yet.

This reporter found the Green Road footpath, a straight route from Panthapath to Farmgate, has been paved with yellow tiles with dot patterns (a signal to stop) instead of raised bars (the signal to go).

Moreover, there are various obstacles including the foot over bridge stairs, telephone poles, metal barriers for reckless motorcycle drivers, shops and bus stop shelters.

Khan Mohammad Billal, chief executive officer of DSCC, said, “We are looking into these problems. We have to consult organisations working with the visually impaired.”

*This report has been rewritten in English by Nusrat Nowrin.