April 13, 2019
Finding out bus routes while waiting at bus stops can be a difficult task for
a visually impaired person. But here is some good news. Visually impaired
people in Delhi can now travel in buses independently without any outside
help, thanks to the Delhi Transport Department‘s move to
introduce announcements inside buses and at bus stops.
All bus stops on the DTC route will be fitted with audio
facilities that provide information regarding arrival of buses and
their route numbers along with name and time of arrival and departure.
Visually impaired travellers in Delhi say this will make public transport
travel much smoother.
While the Delhi Metro has an audio facility, it does not connect to every
nook and corner of the city, which makes the buses an important mode of
travel. Lack of accessibility forces many visually impaired people to take
autos and cabs. DTC officials confirm that audio facilities will be installed
as soon as the Global Positioning Tracker (GPS) is fit into
buses.
Shubham Gupta, a visually impaired person from Delhi, is a
bank employee. He is looking forward to using the buses more regularly once
this facility kicks in.
I always use the Delhi Metro because it is accessible and has audio
facilities for visually impaired people. Most of the times, we find it very
hard to keep asking others about details of buses that come and go. But
having such facilities in bus stops is even better and GPS inside the buses
will help us to understand where the bus is heading towards. Authorities
must also ensure that the facilities are audible and clear.
–Shubham Gupta, Bank employee
Officials from DTC stated that they decided to introduce this audio facility
after an increasing demand from visually impaired people across the city. The
DTC has also committed to buying 3,000 buses with all modern
facilities. Audio facilities will be introduced in all all these new buses as
well as the old ones.
“Now visually impaired people will have the freedom to travel on their own
without any outside help. I hardly take buses because it is impossible to
keep asking people for routes and bus numbers. Maybe things are going to
change very soon. I hope these audio facilities are introduced without
fail”, says Simran Chawla, a post graduate student.
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Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21955
