Guidance for electric vehicle charging points

We've seen the rapid rise in the number of electric vehicles (EV) on the road in the last five years. This has coincided in the rise of the number of electric vehicles charging points on our footways. While we welcome measures to reduce our carbon footprint, EV charging points can prove to be a hazardous obstruction for people with sight loss if they're not installed with care.

This is becoming problematic for people with sight loss who often use the building line as their shoreline for orientation and navigation. We train our guide dog to walk in a straight line on the footway as guide dog users tend to walk along the centre of the footway. However, if there are obstacles along this route, such as EV charging cables, the dog would guide their owner to the left or right to avoid any obstacles. 

Cables placed indiscriminately on the footway, between a charging point and vehicle may result in pavements being hazardous for blind and partially sighted pedestrians.