Posted By Mike Nixon After undertaking risk assessments in a large waiting room open to the public I was requested to advise on a problem that had recently arisen with a visually impaired member of the public. In a very well lit and open area there are a number of supporting columns that the person could walk into and had done so on a previous occasion. I was requested to identify ways of preventing that type incident or minimising injury to the visually impaired persons and could only think of three possible solutions: 1) to have tactile flooring put around column - not sure if it has to be a special design 2) Protect the column with a foam type guard so that anyone colliding with it are not injured. 3) Surrounding columns with chairs - (as these do not appear to cause a problem in other areas of the waiting room) If you have any alternative advice, recommendations etc. that could help please let me know.

Posted By D H Mike - why not speak to the person concerned and come up with a solution? If the sight problem is getting worse, they should be getting assistance on how to deal with the problem - they can pass this on to you. Any one else suffering similar problems would be getting the same advice.

Posted By FAH Hi Mike I'd go with Dave Merchant on this - but you really should discuss this with the individual to identify the real problem. If the individual can avoid the chairs, why can't they avoid the columns? Puts me in mind of a local public access building where the toilets are off a very large entrance lobby with several doors. The doors to the toilets are well marked in tactile & brail - trouble is, there are no means of finding them without feeling ones way around the lobby periphery first. Embarrassing, tedious, very slow - and unnecessary 'cos a simple double bisection of the lobby with tactile tiles accompanied by tactile signs has [very belatedly] almost removed the problem! Frank Hallett

Posted By Dave22 My son is Visually impaired and almost totally blind, the first pot of call is to speak to the individual as mentioned previously,as they are a member of the public this may be difficult. Some times obsticals are away of navigating a building and change such as putting chairs around the obstical would only confuse the individual if he/she uses the building regularly. I would sugget contacting you local VI service they will give you some real good advice in this area.

Posted By joe.rodriguez@rnib.org.uk I have been following this discussion as I have a particular interest in this topic working for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). I invited one of my colleagues, Michael Parsons, to comment as he is a specialist in accessibility. His comments are below. "Firstly, as part of the 2004 provisions of Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act there is a duty on service providers to "remove, alter or avoid physical features". A professional was once heard to comment that DDA stood for "Don't Do anything - but for us as professionals this is not an option! Secondly, the Building Regulations and British Standard (B.S.8300:2009) state that physical features such as glazed doors, glazed panels, columns etc should be clearly highlighted with markings of 150mm deep on them at two heights and in contrasting colours. Thirdly, the tactile warning surfaces referred to above are for external use only. The Department for Transport have already researched and developed seven surfaces, therefore to design yet another surface for internal use would be confusing for blind and partially sighted people!" I hope the above is of some use. The RNIB has an excellent Access Consultancy Service that can give advice, and training, on all aspects regarding accessibility on a pan-disability basis. If you wish any further information, call them on 020 7391 2002.