Independent travel without vision (Bateman, Langford, & Rasbash, 1999) is full of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and disorientation. Indeed, space itself seems transformed. Golledge, (1993, p. 64) says that, in spatial interaction, “effort is magnified many times when one is disabled.” He goes on to say that “Gutters become chasms, sidewalks and streets become treacherous paths, stairs may become impossible cliffs, distinctive size, shapes or colors may lose their significance, layouts become a maze, maps, and models may be uninterpretable. Space can become widely distorted either by incomplete knowledge (for the blind) or laboriously transformed (as in the case of the wheelchair user). Who better to examine the nature of the distorted spaces in which these populations must endure than the geographer? As spatially aware professionals, geographers should have the best tools for understanding the transformations between objective reality and the realities in which persons with disability live and interact.”
There are a wide range of investigative techniques and professional viewpoints that are used to examine the nature and effects of vision loss, and the geographer, or spatial scientist, can add to that body of knowledge by disciplined analysis of the use of space and spatial interaction exhibited by those individuals. This current research uses a spatial and travel behavior approach to study this group.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is very explicit in terms of requiring equal access to urban opportunities such as transit and public buildings for disabled populations. For example, Section 302 (b)(1)(A)(ii ) Participation in Unequal Benefit, states: “it shall be discriminatory to afford an individual or class of individuals, on the basis of a disability or disabilities of such individual or class, directly, or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements, with the opportunity to participate in or benefit from a good, service, facility, privilege, advantage, or accommodation that is not equal to that afforded to other individuals” (Commerce Clearing House Editorial Staff, 1990, p.154). This establishes the right of disabled citizens to equal opportunity or equal access to services such as public transit. This is a laudable goal, but “equal access” is hard to define or even to achieve. While “equal access” is referred to in this document, what is discussed are barriers to wayfinding and travel and how to increase access for visually impaired people to enable them to have more opportunities through more efficient, safe and successful interactions in the built environment.
In order to assess the degree of access afforded vision-impaired people, a previous survey was conducted of activity behavior and travel needs of fifty-five blind bus users. They were also interviewed about what was needed to increase transit use. Information about which bus was arriving, where they were en route to, where to get off, where bus stops were, how to cross streets to transfer between busses, and finding their way around the terminal were what they reported needing most (Golledge et al., 1995) .
The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates that all people are entitled to equal access to public transit and buildings. Curb cuts for wheelchair users, ramps, and bus lifts have removed many of the structural barriers to equal access. The use of location-based auditory signs can remove some functional barriersthat the blind and vision-impaired encounter because they cannot read signs or pick up visual environmental cues (Marston & Golledge, 1998a) . If a person cannot find a bus stop, read a bus name or number, locate transfer locations, find the correct train platform, or find stairs and elevators in a building, they do not have equal opportunities to use those facilities. Locations marked with Braille are helpful, but do not help blind people find their way to those places.
People who are blind are often taught routes in real environments to get from point A to point B. Although this type of instruction is called Orientation and Mobility training, most of it is mobility training only and is limited to the immediate surroundings of the body. Canes and dog guides are used to avoid obstacles and dangerous places, but orientation to the environment and spatial understanding in unfamiliar areas usually means asking people for help and information. If people are not nearby or do not know the area, this can be very frustrating and time consuming, not to mention the loss of independence, possible safety concerns, and the loss of self-esteem that may ensue. The combination of the many restrictions and the various concerns of visually impaired travelers affects their access to urban opportunities. The research reported here is concerned with identifying these impedances to accessibility and determining how to measure them, which would also enable measurement of any mitigation technique that might affect accessibility for this sub-set of the population
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