Abstract
In Japan, many sounds designed for the visually handicapped are not only useless, but also create noise for impaired and non-impaired people alike. Interview surveys with visually handicapped people were analyzed to reveal the types of inadequately designed barrier-free acoustic sounds and why they are not useful. The results indicated that inadequate barrier-free acoustic designs can be classified into at least six typical categories: (1) a sound level is too low, (2) a sound reverberates too much to enable orientation, (3) similar sounds are set up in the same neighborhood, (4) inappropriate announcements are made, (5) sounds are provided at inappropriate places or times, and (6) information about the sounds, for example where new sounds have been provided or what new sounds mean, is not distributed to visually-impaired people.
