How Leicester is making real-time information accessible for all

Waiting at a bus stop and wondering if your bus is on time, whether it’s the next one coming, or how many minutes away it is can cause many of us to be anxious. For people with sight loss this can cause not only apprehension but can lead to a lack of confidence in using public transport and an increase in loneliness.

To help combat this, in March 2023 the UK Department for Transport (DfT) launched a Tackling Loneliness Fund, to improve transport accessibility for the visually impaired.

Vista, a sight loss charity based in the English city of Leicester, took part in the programme but wanted to focus on infrastructure rather than solely visual awareness training.

“We wanted to take it a little bit further than that,” explains Steve Payne, Director of Care and Services & Designated Safeguarding Lead at Vista. “Once we incorporated training into the project, we also incorporated the infrastructure: talking bus stops.”

Text-to-talk

With DfT funding, Vista was able to approach Vix Technology, a transport solutions and technology company, which already had an established relationship with Leicester City Council to help make bus services more accessible for passengers with sight loss, through its text-to-talk bus stop poles, or totems.

The project involved Vista surveying a range of stops to identify those most often used by people with sight loss. From these surveys, Vista selected 21 stops to place the text-to-talk real-time information totems. Since December 2023, the totems have started to be rolled out across Leicester in the most needed areas as identified by Vista.

“Many of [the bus stops] were overgrown with weeds, and you probably wouldn’t even have known there was a bus stop there,” explains Payne. “So being able to get out there and do those audits in getting the bus stops cleared and then identifying the main ones for Vix was a really good task in its own right. It’s made the routes clearer for people.”

One-stop-shop solution

The new Vix totem displays use long-life batteries, meaning they can be installed anywhere and do not rely on mains or solar power, and with the added benefit of text-to-speech, the displays can provide real-time passenger information for everyone.

“We supply the pole, the timetable cases, the installation, the application to do pavement works, project management, and all the maintenance once they’re installed as well,” explains Matthew Wilks, Business Development Manager, Vix Technology. “It’s very much a one-stop-shop solution.”

The text-to-speech button, labelled as ‘INFO’ as well as written in Braille, is placed 1.1 metres from the ground – accessible for people of all heights and wheelchair users – and can incorporate multiple languages. They can be fully installed within 30 minutes, and include stringent testing against dust and water ingress, and vandalism.

“It can dictate messages including all the information on the display, to promoting cheap fares, an emergency message, or notifying a passenger that the stop is no longer being used up to a certain date or time,” says Wilks. “The product is for everybody, and the text-to-speech button promotes the use of it for anybody with accessibility needs. It is real-time information for all.”

Payne says that the feedback from people has been positive and extremely beneficial. “The important thing for them is knowing which bus is coming, what time the bus is coming, and when to put their hand out to stop the bus.”

Further rollouts

Wilks reveals that since the Leicester rollout, three other local authorities have contacted him directly who are interested in increasing accessibility on their own transit networks.

The Leicester, Vix and Vista relationship is helping people with sight loss to be comfortable to use the network and to not feel hindered, impeded or restricted.

“And why should they be?” says Wilks. “That’s really the whole purpose around providing the text-to-speech functionality – making people with sight loss feel comfortable, increasing bus patronage, and increasing their ability to easily commute from stop to stop.”

Payne says he would love to see this infrastructure across the whole of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and hopes that organisations like Vix, in partnership with local authorities and local planners, do this as a matter of course when they’re planning routes with bus operators.

“We’re more than happy to step in as a sight loss organisation to advise them to offer information,” he adds. “We feel the heat map of users is what we’d like to see as the norm. This technology is so beneficial for our folk.”

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