Thread by @CouldBeKel

Really disapointed in @NFBUK here, positioning blind and visually impaired people like me against active travel and public transport measures. This position does not represent me.
theguardian.com/news/article/2…

This infrastructure can be accessible — and so often is —, with clearly contrasted crossing points, tactile paving, etc. I’m lucky to have had access to robust habilitation training — and that's key too, to boost confidence and travel skills.

This infrastructure boosts public transport coverage, vital to our independence and freedom. And active transport measures make our streets safer from vehicle-related incidents, and our air cleaner.

The ask here, which frustratingly we still have to make too often, is for full consultation with disabled communities on how these bus stops, and planning more broadly, can be made accessible, inclusive, and safe. The demand to ban them altogether is counterproductive.

Secondarily, this plays into the hands of a govt which has repeatedly, contrary to its own research, tried to roll back active transport schemes by branding them a "war on drivers". As a blind person, these schemes are transforming my day-to-day independence in the best way..

As ever, climate justice is social justice is economic justice. Let’s make the constructive case for living that principle. And, of course, we need access to robust habilitation training for visually impaired people across the country (not a postcode lottery): it changes lives.