The UK’s new guidance on the use of tactile paving surfaces
The UK’s Department for Transport released a new guidance document on the use of tactile paving surfaces in January 2022. This document aims to give advice on installing and using different tactile paving surfaces to aid pedestrians with visually impairments by giving them information about potential hazards in their surroundings.
The new document includes responses to research conducted for the Department of Transport’s Inclusive Transport Strategy of 2018, and following engagement with various persons with disabilities, practitioners, and representative groups. The following was identified during the research process:
Tactile paving can have negative effects on wheelchair user and people with other mobility impairments.
The ability to detect contrasts in texture underfoot varies between different individuals. For example, some people might have reduced sensitivity in their feet.
Therefore, it is imperative that the amount of tactile paving used in designs should be minimised while ensuring that the vital function is achieved to aid persons with visual impairments. It is also important to ensure that tactile paving does not constitute a trip hazard or cause discomfort to others.
This new guidance document describes six different types of tactile paving surfaces:
1. Blister Surface for Pedestrian Crossing Points.
2. Corduroy Hazard Warning Surface.
3. Platform Edge (On-Street) Warning Surface.
4. Segregated Shared Cycle Track / Footway Surface and Central Delineator Strip (Ladder and Tramline).
5. Guidance Path Surface.
6. Platform Edge (Off-Street) Warning Surface (only for use at the edge of railway and underground station platforms).
It should be noted that the new guidance document on the use of tactile paving surfaces supersedes the Guidance on the Use of Tactile Paving Surfaces published by the Department for the Environmental Transport and the Regions in 1998.
For the link to the new regulation, please click here
Alternatively, if you need further information on how to make facilities or services more accessible and inclusive,please do not hesitate to contact one of our team on (01) 415 12 85 or e-mail
