Image: {a href="http://elielcabrera.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"}Eliel Cabrera{/a}
A common misconception by most people is that the patterned bumps at curb cuts are for wheelchairs. Not true because they don’t help with wheelchair traction. Those bumps are actually for people with blindness. Officially called truncated domes, they’re detectable by a white cane or can be felt by feet. They’re required by the ADA at curb cuts and places like the edge of a subway loading area. This way a person with blindness knows where they are before crossing a street or boarding a subway. Another use is a path of travel. When I visited South Korea a couple years ago, the subway stations had truncated dome pathways that led to different areas of the station. Spanish industrial designer Eliel Cabrera, designed a series of colored cobble stones that can be arranged in a variety of geometric patterns. He also included a series with white cane detectable truncated domes.
