There are currently about 217 million people living with visual impairments, and of those 217 million people, 36 million are estimated to be completely blind. Obtaining visual information and moving from place to place, especially in crowded areas, can prove to be difficult for people with visual impairments. In 2023, the National Library of Medicine conducted a study to evaluate the extent to which people living with visual impairments are at risk of falling from railway station platforms. The train station can potentially be fatal, as 76% of those with visual impairments have reported an experience of falling from the platform and 91% reported almost falling.
The biggest issue the study found was a lack of fall prevention hoods, wide gaps between the platforms and train cars, and directional tactile pavers installed near the front end of the train cars. Researchers also wanted to use what they found to highlight opportunities for improvement of railways systems in terms of accommodating the visually impaired.
This is why Impact Recovery has designed a platform-mounted guarding system, called Sentinel Between Car Barrier System (BCB), to alert visually impaired riders to the space between the rail cars, letting them know that it is not a door opening. This allows them to avoid a gap and deters them from falling to the rails below.
Sentinel also offers reactive spring technology in the case of an emergency. Built into every Sentinel upright is our patented reactive spring system. A unique compression spring assembly is concealed within each post offering optimal strength to support our flexible uprights while allowing them to remain traversable.
Help protect people with visual impairments on your transit systems with the only platform-mounted between-car barrier system that meets the provisions by The Federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).
Mizuno, T., & Tokuda, K. (2023b, March 21). Reducing falls among visually impaired individuals on railway platforms: Field research on environmental challenges and solutions. Heliyon. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10060185/
