Unreliability of Using the Railing for Stair Information

Blind people can reliably determine when they have reached the floor at the bottom or top of the stairs with proper use of a cane or by using the movement and position of a human or dog guide.

Railings can be used for support and stability, but it is important to know that they do NOT provide reliable information about where the end of the stairway is. This is illustrated below with photos of railings that end several steps BEFORE the bottom of the stairway. Blind people who are not using a cane or a guide to navigate these stairs, and who assume that stairs always end when the railing ends, will think they have reached the top or bottom when they actually have several more steps to go (yikes!).

Oral Miller is going down a flight of stairs leading into the lobby of a congressional building in Washington, DC. The railing ends two steps before the stairs end.
The last picture shows the entrance to the back stage of a theater in Maryland where the railing ends one step before the top stair.

In the first two photos to the right, Randy Pope is descending a concrete stairway that leads from a church in Silver Spring, Maryland into the playground of a nursery school.

The second two photos show a staircase in Gallaudet University that misled Randy Pope. He was using the higher railing (the one that I have my hand on), and it ends 4 steps before the bottom -- yikes!

The railing in the staircase in the first 2 photos to the right is in the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. It ends 3 steps before the bottom.

The last two photos to the right show Susan Spicknall descending the stairs in the restaurant where we just had dinner in Baltimore. She laughs while she demonstrates how she'd fall if she hadn't been using her cane and assumed that she had reached the floor when she came to the end of the railing.

Photo shows a man wearing blue jeans with a white cane standing on the bottom step of a stairway, with his hand on the railing. The railing extends another 8 inches beyond his hand.

Photo shows a man wearing blue jeans with a white cane standing on the bottom step of a stairway, with his hand on the railing. The railing extends another 8 inches beyond his hand.

Photo shows a man wearing blue jeans with a white cane standing on the top of a stairway holding the railing.

Photo shows the bottom of a set of concrete stairs outside. The railings descend about 8 inches beyond the bottom step and then project forward horizontally for about a foot.

Sometimes the railing extends beyond the stairs

The first stairs to the right are at the entrance to a building in Gallaudet University. The railing extends down past the bottom step for about 8 inches, then goes horizontally for about another foot.

The next two photo shows a man at a stairway in a shopping strip in Maryland. The railing continues to descend past the last stair another 8-10 inches.

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