Blog
Accessibility features of everyday items
Posted Oct 2025
Henshaws and Transport for Greater Manchester have worked together to help make bus travel easier for visually impaired people in Greater Manchester. The initiative involves a yellow bus hailer, as well as a fluorescent orange pass wallet, to help make catching the bus easier and more accessible. These are available for free and aim to improve people’s journey experiences in Greater Manchester.
How does the bus hailer work?
The bus hailer is a ring-bound flip pad that features three sets of cards that can be turned separately. To use it most effectively, hold it horizontally with the ring binder facing away from you, and the plastic cover facing downwards.
Each set of cards features the numbers 0-9, as well as relevant letters depending on the position of the set of cards. The set on the left features the letters A, B C, P, X and V. The middle set doesn’t contain any letters. The set on the right contains the letters A, B and C. There are also blank cards which you can select in those situations when the bus you want only uses a combination of one or two characters.
There’s also a large full page that simply displays the word ‘bus’. This may be useful in situations when you want to flag down any bus. For example, you may want to then ask the driver if it’s going to a particular stop.
The characters are black on a yellow background and are in bold so they’re easily visible. The characters are also tactile, and there are the braille equivalents underneath.
Simply select a card from each set to display the combination of the numbers and letters of the bus you want to catch. Then hold it up to oncoming traffic, so that the bus driver can easily identify if they need to stop.
How will these aids help?
For people living with sight loss, simply travelling from one place to another can be a challenging experience. We’re delighted to be able to offer visually impaired passengers both the bus hailer and wallet to make their bus journeys that bit more straightforward.
We hope the scheme will allow blind or partially sighted people to keep a certain amount of independence and confidence in their everyday lives.
We’d like to say thank you to TfGMC for their partnership in this project, and to JG Creative for their help in the design.
The free bus hailers and orange pass wallets are available for Greater Manchester residents from Henshaws while stocks last. Give us a ring or send us an email for more information, or to request a bus hailer or wallet.
