Design
Article 3
ENSCI / SNCF Partnership - Tackling accessibility from the angle of convenience
Rail & Recherche n°45 - October/November/December 2007
In early july 12
students at the french school of industrial design
(ENSCI) in Paris
presented their
individual research
projects on the theme, “a
train for all citizens”,
to representatives
of SNCF .
The twelvze presentations laid out the scenario for a "very comfortable and convenient" journey: from preparations to boarding and getting services on the train. The students are anticipating a future in which accessibility will be central to the design process and when providing easier accessibility to the handicapped will also bring a greater sense of well being to everyone. For example, in one project the "parasol terminals" installed around the station to guide the sight-impaired would also serve as a landmark for inexperienced or stressedout travellers.
Accessibility: more convenience for everyone!
For the SNCF, this is an important and even strategic area, given its obligations under a 2005 law requiring accessibility for everyone to transport systems. It is a new area for the designers, too, as ENSCI professor Guillaume Bardet, explains: "This field is exciting and brings into play our responsibility as designers of objects and services." Following some preliminary lectures, research and observation in stations and on the TGV, the students decided they would be guided by the notion of moving "from the well-meaning to the well-thought-out." They also made the assumption that the handicapped have heightened needs, not special ones, so they would tackle accessibility from the angle of convenience. It was not a question of designing specifically for the handicapped. Everyone’s well-being is involved, from the elderly and the young to baggageladen passengers, the wheel-chair-bound, and pregnant women. So, for example, in the WIKITRAIN project, there are foldaway and modular seats suitable for many uses rather than a special place reserved for a wheel chair.
A reassuring and simplified environment
A comfortable, reassuring and simplified environment needs to be created for the most vulnerable travellers by combining psychological comfort and pleasantness with physical comfort and efficiency. Someone who feels vulnerable will overcome difficulties more easily if they are made to feel confident, hence the importance of systems that guide and enable people to anticipate. The project to simplify signage in stations stems from this idea. Bardet cautions, however, that "the diversity of handicaps can result in too many solutions being combined, making access more complex instead of simpler." This accounts for the students’ wariness of NICTs, which are nevertheless included in most projects. One such technology is the personal RFID card containing travel info that guides the sightimpaired to their train by communicating with terminals in the station. These projects will now get closer examination. SNCF will consider some of the ideas when drawing up future specifications, while others will be included in new research projects.