WALTHAM FOREST: Brain op survivor's Tube map for disabled (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAM FOREST: Brain op survivor's Tube map for disabled

1:26pm Friday 4th July 2008 in

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A MAN left with learning difficulties after a brain operation is helping to design a Tube map specifically for disabled people.

When Byron Konizi was ten, surgeons successfully removed a potentially deadly tumour but the operation affected his concentration levels and short-term memory.

He said: "It was touch and go whether I would survive. My family was concerned at the time."

Mr Konizi, 24, a designer, finds it difficult to get around London using public transport and called the London Mayor's office out of frustration.

He said: "I spoke to a man called David Morris and I was shocked to discover he was disabled from the waist down and uses a wheelchair to get around.

"He is an absolute angel and arranged for me to attend a course in Cambridge to find out more about my condition," he said.

Now Mr Konizi is putting his design talents to use by working with Mr Morris to create a map which makes the Underground easier for disabled people to use.

He said: "David is the perfect person to do it with because he is physically disabled whereas my problems are to do with the way my brain works."

The new map will alert passengers as to whether they can change trains without using stairs or escalators, whether they cannot change trains without using stairs or escalators, whether passengers can change trains in a certain direction and if step-free access is available.

Mr Konizi, of The Drive, Chingford, said: "The map includes a list of bus routes in case disabled people want to travel to a place which doesn't have an Underground station.

"For example, if they want to continue journeys from Walthamstow Central to Chingford, the map will include information about the 212 bus route."

A Transport for London spokeswoman said: "We are working with disabled people to revise our current information products and we will be launching them later this year."