Signing of an accessibility charter to facilitate travel for the visually impaired in Ile-de-France transport

Among the measures: firstly, check the good condition of existing equipment, then deploy devices throughout the network that can guide travelers by sound or touch.

Audible beacons that indicate the name of the station and the lines it serves will be deployed by 2027 in all stations that are not equipped with them. Another marker will indicate the information counter.

Disability training for RATP agents in contact with the public will be reinforced and all metro and RER stations will be equipped by 2027 with vending machines equipped with a voice interface.

At the top and bottom of the stairs leading to a platform, a sleeve will indicate on the ramp the destination terminus in relief and in Braille and contrasting characters. Five hundred sleeves will be deployed between now and the Paris Olympic Games in 37 stations. This new system will then be evaluated before possibly being generalized after the Games.

A device will allow the name of the stations to be sounded in the central train for the six metro lines without sound. The next rolling stock will have sound.

Developed over a year with associations of visually impaired people, the charter was signed in Paris by the CEO of RATP Jean Castex and the president of the Ile-de-France Region Valérie Pécresse, in the presence of the ministers responsible for disabled people Fadila Khattabi and Transport Patrice Vergriete.

“We want to simplify the daily life of blind or visually impaired users, with concrete measures that meet their needs and benefit all travelers,” declared Jean Castex.

“We took the initiative of going to see the RATP last June to explain to them what we thought was necessary to improve accessibility.

A constructive dialogue has been underway for a year with IDF Mobilités and the RATP,” indicated Stéphane Gaillard, director of the National Institute for Young Blind People (Inja).

“People with disabilities must be able to move freely and safely, this is the key to their inclusion and the exercise of their rights,” said Ms Khattabi.

The charter will be re-examined every year and associations will be asked to share their needs and carry out usage tests.