News24 | SA’s coasts about to get new beach signs to help the visually and hearing impaired

The new Living Coast Prototype Signage, planned between the Cape west coast to KwaZulu-Natal, is helping create a more inclusive way for people to experience and learn about South Africa’s coastline.

Overstrand Municipality/Facebook

• South Africa is rolling out 97 coastal signs featuring Braille, large print and QR-linked audio tours nationwide.
• The Living Coast signs ensure visually impaired and non-English-speaking visitors can independently access coastal information.
• Prototypes were tested by visually impaired pupils and received positive feedback before the planned national rollout.

South Africa’s coastline is getting new interpretive signs so that people who were previously unable to read or fully understand them can access the information.

For someone visually impaired, a conventional sign describing the beach’s wildlife and natural features may be difficult to read, and visitors with hearing difficulties or who do not understand English may struggle to make sense of the information.

This month, the Overstrand municipality auditorium and banqueting hall in Hermanus were a hive of activity as the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa), in partnership with the government, conservation, accessibility and development partners, unveiled the prototype Living Coast signs.

The plan is to roll out 97 signs stretching from the Cape west coast to KwaZulu-Natal as the Living Coast project expands from its prototype phases towards a national rollout.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s director of communication and advocacy, Zolile Nqayi, said visually impaired visitors could be standing at a scenic coastal location, yet be unable to understand the sign displayed in front of them.

Nqayi added:

Take a learner from a school for the blind on a coastal outing. They reach the beach with their classmates and teachers, but everything the sign has to say about the kelp forest, the oystercatcher, or the estuary is in print. They depend on someone else choosing to read it aloud. They are physically present but informationally excluded.

Overstrand Mayor Archie Klaas said the environment was important to the community as the municipality was situated between mountains and the sea.

Abraham Allies of BlindSA, Sisanda Velembo and Thandiwe Mayile from the George Municipality engage with the new Living Coast prototype signage at the launch in Hermanus.

Overstrand Municipality/Facebook

“Today is about more than recognising our natural environment,” added Klaas in a statement.

“It is also about ensuring that everyone can experience and enjoy nature.”

Wessa CEO Cindy-Lee Cloete said it was important to consider accessibility from the outset of environmental education and conservation initiatives, rather than adding it at the end.

“We need to listen to the people who experience the landscape in a lived reality every single day,” added Cloete.

Nqayi said simply reprinting the signs due for replacement would still exclude many visitors and that even though physical access to the coast had improved, information about it was still not easy to find.

He added:

Living Coast was designed from the ground up to close that gap so that the story of our coast can be read, heard and touched.”

“Under the ICM (Integrated Coastal Management) Act, coastal public property is owned by the people of South Africa and held in trust by the state,” he said.

Nqayi added that Living Coast signs used large print, a matte, anti-glare finish, Braille panels produced by BlindSA, and QR scan links linked to a narrated audio tour for every sign.

The manager of Braille services at BlindSA, Ofentse Manyane, said conventional coastal interpretive signs exclude blind and partially sighted visitors because they can only be read by looking at the text and graphics.

READ | Cape Town Beach Alerts tool unveiled for water quality checks

“Without tactile text, visually impaired visitors are entirely dependent on sighted companions to read and describe marine ecosystems, local coastal wildlife and environmental information,” added Manyane.

According to Nqayi, before rolling out the full series, the team deliberately started with prototypes so that they could launch, learn and then scale, which helped identify what was needed, including the need for seven to eight Braille plates and the need to separate English and Afrikaans Braille.

The innovative signage combines Braille, sound, and accessible interpretation, ensuring inclusivity and access to information about South Africa’s coastline.

Overstrand Municipality/Facebook

Nqayi added that the signs were tested by pupils from the Pioneer School for the Visually Impaired in Worcester to ensure that the team got feedback from the people the signs were designed for, while the municipality and CapeNature were key to the installation of the signs, their upkeep and making the signs part of the local visitor experience.

According to Danie Marais, a senior manager at the National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities, there was positive feedback during the testing of the prototypes from people with disabilities, who were full of praise for what the project achieved.

Among the many examples, Marais highlighted how a person with a hearing impairment was able to watch, understand and clearly comprehend a video tour by reading the captions.

“Currently, the audio is available in English and Afrikaans, but isiXhosa and isiZulu digital versions are on the way,” he said.

The signs were tested by pupils from the Pioneer School for the Visually Impaired.