Accessible travel information
OK, I'll admit it, as I write this I'm at home, looking wistfully out the window at inch upon inch of snow stacked high enough to reach my knees. However, it's times like these when you need accurate travel information to know if it's worth venturing out the door in the first place. Enter the internet! Many people with different impairments, myself include, rely heavily on public transport to get around. Thankfully, in recent years many of the major providers have wised-up to this by offering accessible versions of their sites, especially tweaked for the requirements of disabled users.
For Londoners, Transport for London now offers an of its service. It's a stripped down page with headings and simple forms, ideal for visually impaired and screenreader users. You can also specify options like 'step free access' and 'maximum walking time' to smooth your journey.
Similarly, when you're on the go, you should bookmark the mobile site wap.tfl.gov.uk which offers up to the minute travel information in a simple format.
For those of you travelling by train, the should be your first stop. Whilst it has been for not offering a very accessible or easy to use experience, in its latest incarnation the site is much improved. Similarly, they now offer an 'Accessible Version' checkbox with their service, which offers a simpler version of the page, optimised for screenreader users. As with TFL, if you're out and about, there's a mobile site wap.nationalrail.co.uk which offers live arrivals, departures and timetables in a no-nonsense format.
So check before you go, now you don't have a good excuse not to!
Comment number 1.
At 14th Nov 2009, U14215669 wrote:Nice advice, indeed it is a good idea to check before you leave. We should have done that as well, when we were looking for we forgot and were also snowed in!
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