Case study: Brighton & Hove City Council - Talking Bus Stops for the blind and visually impaired (linked to Real Time Bus Inform

Award category: 11) Building a fairer society with e-Government: Targeted or localised services
Sponsored by KPMG
(Using ICT & e-Government services to improve social inclusion for specific groups of excluded or disadvantaged people).

Talking Bus Stops for the blind and visually impaired (linked to Real Time Bus Information signs)

Brighton & Hove City Council Sustainable Transport www.brighton-hove.gov.uk

"In August 2007 Brighton & Hove became the first area in the country to introduce talking bus stops for blind and visually impaired people. Brighton and Hove City Council, in conjunction with Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company, have a well-established award-winning accessible bus policy.

The RNIB React system links into the city's Bus Real Time Information signs allowing blind and visually impaired people to hear announcements at bus stops which tells them which bus stop they are at, which buses are coming and when they are due to arrive, meaning they no longer need to rely on fellow passengers for help."

"Brighton & Hove City Council and the Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company have a quality bus partnership and, between them, have won major awards for bus accessibility policies, the real time information system and for innovations which have generally helped to increase bus patronage year on year, against national trends. The RNIB React system is another step towards making the city more accessible, bringing independence and confidence for blind and visually impaired people who want to use local buses. Talking bus stops were introduced in July and launched city-wide at 20 bus stops and a further 2 bus stops in East Sussex.

A multi-disciplinary working group was been formed, including councillors, officers, system designers, users, local politicians and consultants. A partnership was formed with the Royal National Institute for Blind (RNIB) to evolve a RNIB React system from providing orientation messages to include Real Time Information. The interface to provide a text to speech link with the Siemens VDO Passenger Information Displays was created by working with SFX Technologies, whilst Atkins Consultants helped with project management. The resulting system can be replicated in other areas and interest has already been shown from London local authorities.

In Brighton and Hove 1900 people were registered blind or partially sighted in March 2006 (DoH). It is estimated by the RNIB that under-registration is running at 20%, meaning that up to 2375 people in the city (1.0% of the local population ) could benefit from using Talking bus stops. The number of people with sight impairment problems is likely to double over the next 25 years as the population ages and diseases such as diabetes (a major cause of sight loss) becomes more prevalent.

People over the age of 60 and all eligible people with disabilities can have concessionary bus travel in the city. The majority of Blind and partially sighted people (81%) are aged 65 and older so this new system helps to ensure that this section of the population who qualify for free travel can actually make good use of it!"

"Brighton & Hove's Talking Bus Stops were officially launched in August to a group of 70 users. Already one user has reported that he won't leave home without his key fob now and it has become as important to him as his mobile phone. Mick Etheridge says ?I travel into Brighton quite a lot on the buses and before the signs were made audio I used to struggle as it was not always possible to find someone to ask for the next bus time.?

Alison Evans is also a regular user of the system: ?I use my keyfob daily on my way to work and home from work to check when my bus is due. In the evening I have a choice of buses and it helps me to know which one is due first so I can make the decision which one to get, rather than having to get whichever one arrives first because I don't know how long it is until the next one. What is even better is that my partner and I live in Peacehaven and Brighton & Hove Council were able to work with East Sussex County Council and install 2 of the React units at bus stops we both use regularly. It really is a great system and well done Brighton & Hove for being the first council to use the React system in this manner.?"

- RNIB React System links into Siemens Real Time Bus Information System - Atkins Consultancy provided help with project management - SFX Technologies enabled the RNIB React system to link into the real time information system

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Background: e-Government National Awards
The e-Government National Awards 2007 recognise 2007's "best of the best" strategies, achievements, teams and individuals in UK public sector web, ICT & e-Government services. The Awards were presented on 22nd January 2008 by Minister Gillian Merron MP. Prime Minister the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP joined the awards dinner via video link. Watch the Prime Minister's speech on YouTube at this link

Platinum sponsor was KPMG.
Also sponsors were O2, the Office of Government Commerce, the Planning Portal and Atos Origin.

The Awards were supported by the Government Chief Information Officer (Cabinet Office), the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers).