People with visual or hearing impairments represent a significant part of the population. Using public transport services they have to overcome numerous specific problems and obstacles. Quite often they are not even recognized as a group for themselves with special needs and demands but rather mistaken for blind and deaf people. Taking into account that mobility barriers for these groups are completely different, this situation, of course, is not acceptable. In order to reveal the most common and most hindering specific problems people with sight and hearing impairments are confronted with and to collect proposals to solve them, the Institute for Transport and Logistics Management of the WU Vienna conducted a qualitative short-study based on interviews with persons directly concerned, their representatives, authorities and transport companies as well as on discussions in related internet-fora respectively. Problems at stops and stations, in vehicles, general mobility problems and public perception were taken into account. Thus the barriers detected and the related solutions proposed were rated according to their technical and financial feasibility as well as to the utility gain for the passengers concerned. It can be shown that numerous measures could be realised at low or even no cost at all as many problems are merely resulting from a lack of awareness, empathy or insufficient training only. Furthermore the implementation of several measures would not only improve access to public transport for the two specific groups but for almost all passengers.
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