Appendix C

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Quote 1: “I'm using a long cane, in the approved manner. So, I would expect to identify it with the cane. But if I didn't notice it with the cane by chance, I can tell it by what's under my feet. You can expect to feel the conspicuous edges”

Quote 2: “I've been trained and there's a specific long cane technique that you use, which means that you're moving your wrist so the cane. follows the arc in front of you. So, it covers your, the width of your, your you're walking, okay, occupy when you're walking and identifies things on the ground or a reasonably low level…it doesn't identify head height obstacles, obviously”

Quote 3: “a lot of Deaf people become deafer when they're outside when they're out and about so they're even more reliant on their eyes”

Quote 4: “But I think most hearing-impaired people have incurred their hearing loss gradually. So, I don't think they would be affected, I think unless they've got other issues, of course, like dementia, for example, or other cognitive issues. But I don't think the hearing loss per se is likely to be a major issue”

Quote 5: “I have had situations where people have caused me to fall out of my chair”. I'm on my own, they try to get you back into the chair, but they wouldn't listen to what I'm saying. They just try and stand me up. So please, just give me a minute. And I'll tell you what you need to do. But the girl that just wants to grab you and put you back into your chair, but they don't feel I can actually stand”

Quote 6: “Well, I suppose, maybe would drive round a route in advance, just to check it out. But that's far away. You know, I wouldn't drive an hour to Glasgow, to drive down the street to see if I could have access. But normally, if I was going to a meeting in Glasgow, you know, whoever invited me to the meeting would normally see, you know, give us a call “

Quote 7: “But she [dog] sees that happens quite often - that the tactile paving doesn't get right up to the width stops, and even stops even before the traffic light pole, so we are standing there going…”

Quote 8: “I swing working forwards and backwards, from right to left. And at the same time, I'm stepping forward on the canes going to the left, and stepping forward with that, so that I know that I'm not going to step down anything. Because the key that's for how it works for me, so I need to find tactile if I know I'm going to cross the road. Yeah, you know, it doesn't come to the building line, and there's a gap with just slabs, then I'm not going to know exactly where the tiers are”

Quote 9: “They are a complete nightmare and bikes, and scooters tend to go into the pavement as well and that's really disheartening”

Quote 10: “That's part of the problem with the Sauchiehall street, that was so much of that that did not have a kerb, so you didn't know when they cycled past… stuck … and for the whole street there are quite a distance there is actually no kerb, so you can actually walk onto the road, and you wouldn't really know as some people use canes”

Quote 11: “It’s hard to explain how the cycle path is separated with road. I have fallen over them a few times.”

Quote 12: “We came across a lot of hazards on route, there are so many parts that we had to use the cycle map. But still it wasn’t clear where you were going. And we obviously tried to stay off busy main roads. But sometimes it was unavoidable. And some of the big roundabouts are very good in the fact that they have (inaudible) for bikes and pedestrians in that they do zigzag and managed to get you round with to go on to the main road at drop downs and proper places for crossing”

Quote 13: “They not so much with roads, but with cyclists and you know, cycle lanes in particular, this wave (COVID) started rolling out floating bus stops and floating parking in edge, you need to cross a cycle lane to get to your parked car…And cyclists simply don't stop… I don't know, for whatever reason. That is a concern.”

Quote 14: “I nearly had a quite bad accident with bad pavement in (inaudible location) because my front caster caught the pavement, and it tipped me forward. And it was only lucky that, there was a bus going by, so I managed to push myself back off the moving bus. If it had been about two seconds later, I would have been under it. And they would have said, why did he commit suicide under the bus?”

Quote 15: “As a wheelchair user, I've, I've had very few problems. I mean because the buttons tend to be at a sensible height. And I don't tend to have to go into the road to press them and things like that. As a (recumbent) cyclist. They're dreadful, the Toucan crossing ones because I'm so low down, it's very difficult quite often to reach them. And quite often, I have to roll slightly into the road to be able to get up and reach them. And so, of cars coming by, I'll think, oh, he's just going to pull out in front of me. So, I have to be very careful about that.”

Quote 16: “Sometimes when there's a dog barking it can be I can find that difficult though because sometimes I don't know the dog is coming over here and the barking may actually put me off and sometimes what's happened is I don't realize that I may think the dog is coming near me, but actually it may be behind the fence. So sometimes it can take me off guard and I might get off a bit”

Quote 17: “I was invited to the Forth Valley sensory impairment unit and there is ‘Schwinn’, something that's been developed at Glasgow University”

Quote 18: “The idea is to carry that little app on your smartphone. And to have some technology in the crossing. So, it knows when you've stood there for something like five seconds, there's a timer. It doesn't activate the crossing. But if you stand near the box, for five seconds, it activates the Green Man. Just press the button. And it's designed for people who for whatever reason, yeah, to access the green, then it might be people with dexterity issues that aren't able to push the button. Exactly. So, there's a lot of technology being developed in that area”

Quote 19: “…a very shallow kerb that then sloped down to a shallow angle might not be as easily identifiable as some as a steeper or higher one. But, but, you know, I recognize the need to have dropped out kerbs further, and that users are fine, as long as they are sufficiently conspicuous”

Quote 20: “...up to 30 degrees. Certainly, I do take that a lot and I haven't been for quite a while, but George Street I think, I remember it poses great problems because it's such a high kerb drop”

Quote 21: “There's a site in Sauchiehall Street, I think all the non-pedestrianised bit is being remodelled with a cycleway and a more restricted roadway. ……. they’ve narrowed that down and they're going to reduce the amount of parking so that the idea is to have a quicker throughput of cyclists and that the intention is to make it more congenial for pedestrians and cyclists and all road users. But safer presumably because of parked vehicles……. But the way they've managed it is not good in terms of kerbs. So, a little bit I'm thinking about there is virtually no delineation, no marking, no tactile marking between the cycleway and the pavement. There is a very small, very low, sort of strip raised, about two centimetres or something. No, no, much less than that. Maybe one centimetre. I mean, it's virtually useless and quite difficult to detect even when it's new. And will get worn away and stuff. So that's bad. So, it's virtually a shared surface between pedestrians and cyclists at that point”

Quote 22: “And there's a particular intersection that I've looked at which is intersection with Elm Bank Street. That you have to worry if you want to cross the whole width of the cycleway and, and the road and the roadway. There are no kerbs. You get really mean there are kerbs where you don't want to cross. But they've raised because of the table.. Which of course eliminates the kerb. Because they haven't raised the pavement. So, it's sort of a ramp rate terrible? Yeah. Well, yes, a ramp for the traffic, but no kerb, it ends up making the road the same height as the pavement. Therefore, you don't know when you've crossed the cycleway, and you don't know when you're on the vehicle bit. And it's absolutely awful”

Quote 23: “Well, yes, but that's because they tend to be littered with street furniture and stuff. Oh, I see. Yeah, that's one problem. And the other problem is if it's a pedestrian street that was a traffic street before and has been pedestrianised. Normally, they would leave the pavements in place. Yeah. But you wouldn't be expected to walk on them, because they have all sorts of clutter on them.”

Quote 24: “it's what's called a rigid frame wheelchair. instead of folding in sideways, the back comes down onto the seat, and the wheels come off just pressing a button… because I drive so to take this chair to pieces on the road and put it in. So, I put the wheels safely in behind the passenger seat and find my seat and I move the body over me, and it sits in the passenger seat”

Quote 25: “It's a lightweight chair. With Spinergy wheels. So, it's got these fibre ones. They're, they're great. much carbon fibre. They're their fibre spokes. Wow. So, they sort of absorbed I mean, they've had them for years”

Quote 26: “I've got on the wheelchair that I've got is stabilisers, which are good, because that would prevent you from tipping right back. Okay. But in general, it would be quite difficult to negotiate, I'd probably have to look for something like a crossing, which has got a, you know, a ramp down”

Quote 27: “This occurred to me when I was reading your descriptions, it depends on the pavement, it obviously depends a lot on the pavement, how wide it is, and that sort of stuff, I wouldn't normally expect to use the kerb to navigate along the pavement as it were. Unless it's a very narrow pavement, when you can't avoid locating the kerb with your stick and, and you can use that the ones not to accidentally step out into the road, for a wide pavement with plenty of room, I would, I would try to walk along in the middle of the pavement as far as possible, because if you were to follow the kerb, there are lamp posts and all sorts of other stuff, usually on the outside”

Quote 28: ”it’s a mixture of the noise of the cane and your footfall as well. I think those are the main things., you're getting a signal from solid objects, especially solid objects beside you. It's easy to detect objects next to you rather than in front of you, interestingly. So, Echolocation is very useful for navigating a straight line along a pavement in built-up areas where you generally have an assortment on your left or right or whatever it is”.

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Quote 29: “I would say sometimes, the other pedestrians can be a bit of a problem. Because sometimes when I’m using the walking stick (CANE), sometimes people can be really good and give you a wide berth and give you enough space to get over. But if there’s somebody trying to cross, you know, either with the chair or stick, that can be problematic, but that’s just people.”