If you have kerb cutouts and level floors and flat entries to buildings (instead of a step, or a flight of stairs), then people in wheelchairs can actually navigate the space, when they couldn’t before.
And so can people with canes and crutches and walking frames. And prams, and trolleys, and children on those little tricycles with handles, and scooters. And people who have no difficulty walking are encouraged to cross at one point without needing a law about it and police enforcement, and that means drivers know to look out more carefully there, and there are fewer tripping accidents and twisted ankles from stepping into the gutter wrong.
If you simplify signage so that people with limited vision can still read the relevant information, even if it’s by knowing what that shape and colour mean, then people with vision impairments can navigate more easily. And also people with 20/20 vision can navigate more easily, even if distracted. Or in the rain, or after dark, or while distracted after dark in the rain.
If you add a beeper to the crossing button which gives an indication when the crossing is green, and a warning when it’s yellow, and a slow tick to indicate where it is when it’s red, then blind people can use the crossing. And sighted people can use the crossing more easily by watching for cars while listening for the crossing to go green. Or when they’re distracted.
It turns out that making things more accessible for disabled people make them easier, better, and more pleasant to use for everyone else as well.
