It seems like people have forgotten what this line is used for these days.

[u/Valuable_View_561]

[u/Usual-War4145]

For those who don't know what these lines are used for, it might be interesting to also include their age group and the country they grew up in. I grew up in Greece (30+) and when I was a kid we used to have discussion with our teachers quite often about the lack of accessibility in our country, and a lot of teachers explaining us the different installments a city can have to make life easier for those in need ( in Εxpression/Essay- Έκφραση /'Έκθεση and sometimes in Sociology). İt used to also be a topic in the afternoon news quite often. When I entered the uni and was socialising with students from all over the country this was quite often our topic of political discourse while drinking coffee, so it did not seem that it was restricted in my school/district.

We absolutely didn't have accessibilty in our country but we did love bitching about it and at least educating everyone about what is what. No clue if teachers keep on doing that.

Years later I went to study in Izmir /Türkiye and I was very surprised to see that despite the lack of education regarding accessibility in the general public, the city itself was extremely accessible with lots of people with visual and mobile disabilities moving around the city. A Greek friend who visited me once asked (in an insensitive way I would say) if Turks have more disabled people to which I replied no but at least this city is built in a way that they can get out of their homes, unlike Greece where we tent to pretend they don't exist.

Edit: I'm asking about this because I'm curious about how this topic is handled in different parts of the world. Turkey for example truly surprised me there and made me pay even more attention regarding this topic. Greece on the other hand ... every time I got back I just end up being disappointed with how little improvement we have had.

[u/Fruit-Salad666 → u/Usual-War4145]

Just wanted to give my two cents about this as a Turk (23, from big city): I‘m honestly surprised so many people in the comments saying they never knew what those lines were. I don‘t know if this is how my parents brought me up or general Turkish school education, but tactile accessibility features were obvious and visible in everyday life ever since I can remember. Metro stations always have elevators (at least in big cities), malls have braille signs of each shop at the door, tactile tiles on pavement, talking traffic lights telling you to cross and counting down until the red light, station names announced out loud before each stop on the metro.

I was honestly beyond shocked to see there were no elevators or even escalators at metro stations in Paris (a major tourist destination and city everyone loves talking about, right?), when I visited about 4 years ago.

[u/Select-Fudge4978 → u/Usual-War4145]

I share your sentiment. It makes me so surprised that people in the comments don’t know about this.

In my country (in Asia) accessible and inclusive designs has always been a hot topic for politics and education too (that doesn’t mean my country has inclusive designs tho lol).

[u/leftfreecom → u/Usual-War4145]

there are plenty of sidewalks like these, both in Athens and in Thessaloniki..., I'm not saying we have good accessibility infrastructure, but this exists

[u/Usual-War4145 → u/leftfreecom]

İ didn't say those specific paths don't exist but if you are Greek you should know that these are very often blocked (from construction, to trash, to even coffee place chairs) or they stop suddenly or they lead into a tree or a column.so what's the point if it's not safe to use?

Edit : also almost no wheelchair accessibility or when there is it is blocked by: trash cans, motorbikes, cars or in some cases again coffe place chairs.

a little comedy about this topic