Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) have the potential to be life-changing for people who are blind or partially sighted. CAVs may allow someone living with sight loss to operate and travel independently by car for the first time, receive navigation information via apps as a pedestrian by using connected traffic infrastructure, and increase pedestrian safety when interacting with vehicles.
CNIB has been advocating to ensure CAVs deliver on the promise that people who are blind can drive a car in the future and remove existing barriers to transportation, instead of creating new ones. We also want pedestrians who are blind or partially sighted to be safe in their interactions with CAVs, through ensuring that industry includes people with disabilities as part of their testing.
Our Asks
- Disability stakeholders need to be embedded in the design and testing process of all CAVs.
- Industry stakeholders who are licenced to develop test CAVs ensure that people who are blind are consulted as pedestrians and drivers
- Governments to introduce regulations that ensure CAV data is consistent, so it has the potential to be connected to third-party accessibility apps.
For further information, please see our National Briefing Note on CAVS.
Research into the Impact of CAVs on people with sight loss
CNIB, with partial funding from Transport Canada, has begun to try and answer many of the questions around connected autonomous vehicles and their potential impact on pedestrians with sight loss.
CNIB's research includes partnerships with the University of Toronto and Robert Wall Emerson, a Professor in Blindness and Low Vision Studies, from the University of Western Michigan. The research includes both a global literature review and a stakeholder survey.
The final report provides seven recommendations which CNIB hopes will inform policy development across Canada and even international jurisdictions. Our recommendations include:
- Richer statistical analysis of road fatalities to capture characteristics of vulnerable road users.
- Adoption of uniform traffic rules across Canada's disparate jurisdictions.
- Future research initiatives need to apply a disability lens.
- Accessibility and usability of onboard vehicle interfaces.
- Smart city data models need to operate under an open data model facilitating access by systems and mobile apps which enable wayfinding for persons with sight loss.
- Development of onboard algorithms which will respond appropriately should a pedestrian with sight loss inadvertently find themselves in a crosswalk in the wrong time.
- Avoiding adoption of signals which rely exclusively on visual queuing to indicate a vehicle's state.
