Here is something I’ve never seen before. This is a control for pedestrian crossing light and is designed for blind people. Usually the use of braille or/and sound are involved for devices which are designed for blind people. But here there is nothing to touch or hear. The surface of the control is flat (so no button to push) and when the light goes green you don’t hear continuous tick sound to indicate it is safe to pass. So why is there a drawing of a blind guy on the device?

There is a red iron arrow under the device. I don’t know if that is for guiding blind people in the right direction or if it is just a screw used for opening and servicing the device. Even if that is to help blind people find their direction, if there is no sound involved to indicate whether the light is red or green, it is not only going to help blind people but is going to put them in the risk of having a car accident. 

Here is another weird pedestrian crossing light. The button is flat but the light under it is not. So how can a blind user tell which one is the “button” to push/touch to be able to cross the street? Will he be able to find the flat “button” at all? 

Here is another pedestrian crossing light. This one is in Rome. It is quit OK! You see a button which shows its affordability, there are LEDs above the button to give you feedback on your action (they light up after the button is pushed) but you don’t know how long you need to wait for it to go green. Plus the LEDs were not always working they were mostly broken. 

It’s amazing how different the pedestrian crossing lights are. What’s even more interesting is that most of them are not that easy to use. In some you don’t know whether pushing the button or touching the surface worked, in some you don’t even know if you should push it, touch it, keep your hand in front of it?!!! Look at the one in the picture above! The instruction says “push it” but the only thing you can see is a flat surface no button to push so you wonder where should I push? The surface? OK! You push it but you don’t know if it worked. There is no audio or visual feedback.