> Audible Crosswalk Signals Divide Blind Community --- Devices Are Common
> in Europe, But Opponents Say They Can Stigmatize and Distract
> By Jeffrey A. Tannenbaum
> Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
>
> 03/13/2001
> The Wall Street Journal
>
> (Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
>
> To public-works officials in Baltimore, it seemed like a good idea:
> Install the city's first audible traffic signals, to both aid blind
> pedestrians and help the U.S. play catch-up on a promising technology.
> But last October, when officials laid plans to outfit four intersections
> with beeping devices, they ran into unexpected flak -- from some blind
> residents themselves. The nonprofit National Federation of the Blind,
> which maintains that audible signals are usually unnecessary, objected to
> the proposed locations. The group says the spread of needless audible
> signals would reinforce stereotypes of the blind as people who need huge
> amounts of help.
>
> So Baltimore tabled the plan -- only to trigger a protest by members of
> the nonprofit American Council of the Blind, which had sought the signals
> in the first place. Now Baltimore is going ahead with a slightly altered
> plan, months behind the original timetable. "It doesn't make it easy,
> from a public-policy perspective, when two groups of the blind differ
> drastically on these signals," says Sheila Dixon, president of the city
> council.
> Division within the blind community has slowed adoption of the
> audible-signal technology in much of the country, says Lois Thibault,
> research coordinator for the U.S. Architectural and Barriers Compliance
> Board, which makes rules under federal disabilities law. The so-called
> accessible signals beep, chirp or give voice messages to alert the blind
> when a "Walk/Don't Walk" signal changes. Some devices emit noises
> automatically, while others require activation by a button.
> By some estimates, there are roughly 5,000 communities in the U.S. that
> have some audible signals. Many are on the West Coast, such as San
> Francisco and Seattle. Ms. Thibault and others say many blind individuals
> have requested audible signals near their homes, but the requests often
> meet opposition from other blind people. Clashes over proposed signals
> have arisen in recent years not only in Baltimore, but also in
> Minneapolis, Vancouver, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Hot Springs, Ark,
> according to advocates for the blind.
> Though declaring itself "flexible" since 1992 on the issue of audible
> signals, the National Federation of the Blind confirms that its chapters
> -- and sometimes just individual members -- occasionally oppose requests
> for signals. "If there is a plain four-way stop and no good reason for an
> audible traffic signal, the mere request of a single individual would not
> justify it," says James Gashel, director of governmental affairs.
> Indeed, the wrangling in Baltimore led the city to change one of the four
> locations slated to get the signals to a more complicated intersection.
> The federation believes the signals, if used in intersections that aren't
> especially complex, can stigmatize the blind. The group also believes
> that money used for signals could be better applied to programs such as
> job training for the blind. Some members think the devices can even be
> harmful at times.
> Scott Labarre, a 32-year-old Colorado lawyer, says he was once distracted
> by a beeping signal and thus nearly stepped in front of a moving car. "I
> was afraid my cane was going to get crunched, if not myself," he says. In
> Salt Lake City, 52-year-old Ray Martin says audible signals "are useless
> to me. . . . I've been taught the proper skills of cane travel."
> The National Federation viewpoint tends to reflect the opinions of the
> most mobile and cane-savvy of the blind, sometimes known among themselves
> as "super blinks." The American Council, which advocates changing
> facilities to help blind people, tends to speak for the less mobile --
> and more numerous -- members of the community. Both groups say they
> represent all blind people.
> Marlaina Lieberg, a 51-year-old Seattle resident and member of the
> American Council, says she was once hit by a car in Boston when a "Walk"
> light changed sooner than she expected. An audible signal would have
> helped, she says, calling the issue a "no-brainer." She adds: "Why
> wouldn't you want any cue you could possibly use to enhance your safety?"
>
> Accessible signals are already widely used in Europe, Japan and
> Australia. Bob Panich, owner of a company that installs such signals in
> Australia, says: "We're most surprised at the U.S. being so far behind in
> this regard, knowing that the U.S. also has antidiscrimination laws and a
> powerful deaf/blind lobby."
> The U.S. is moving to catch up. Following intense lobbying by disability
> coalitions, Congress in 1999 made federal funds available for accessible
> signals in the same way it was already available for such things as
> sidewalk wheelchair ramps. Only traffic signals that are along public bus
> or rail lines are eligible. The devices typically cost $400 to $500 per
> box, with eight needed for a four-corner intersection.
> In addition, a key federal manual for highway engineers late last year
> included standards for accessible signals for the first time. The action
> removed a huge stumbling block: communities' fear of liability suits if
> they installed signals without uniform standards.
> "A lot of communities didn't know what to put in. Now a standard is
> available," says Julia Wilkie, a project engineer at MDU Resources Inc.'s
> Wagner Smith unit, which installs and maintains traffic signals for 140
> Ohio communities.
> Another boost for accessible signals came in January, when a federal
> advisory panel endorsed the devices, making a federally mandated phase-in
> likely within a few years. Such a mandate could require that new
> intersections or ones being rebuilt include accommodations for the blind.
>
> The signals promise to take some hazardous guesswork out of the way the
> blind cross streets: They listen carefully for traffic sounds, then take
> their chances. When Mr. Labarre, the Colorado lawyer, needs to cross
> Denver's Colorado Boulevard where it intersects Mexico Avenue, there is
> often heavy traffic moving along Colorado. So he listens for that traffic
> to stop for a red light. When he thinks he hears that, he enters the
> crosswalk, sweeping a white cane back and forth in sequence with his
> steps. Crossing "is not terribly complicated," he maintains.
> But the procedure seems terribly intimidating and risky to many other
> blind people, who are happy when they encounter audible signals. "You
> know precisely when the walk signal is on," says Christopher Gray, a
> 46-year-old San Francisco technical writer. When standing at Shattuck
> Avenue and Center Street in Berkeley, Calif., Mr. Gray says he hears a
> chirping sound if pedestrians crossing Shattuck have a "Walk" signal;
> otherwise he hears a cuckoo sound.
> Several trends in traffic control have been making it harder for the
> blind to predict when lights will change. Computerized traffic flow, for
> example, sets traffic lights depending on such things as traffic density
> instead of at regular timed intervals. Advocates of audible signals say
> that at least a dozen blind pedestrians have died while crossing streets
> during the last three years, though whether an audible signal would have
> changed the outcome isn't always clear.
> Berl Colley, a 58-year-old computer programmer in Lacey, Wash., says he
> was once struck by a car and badly bruised. "Now, every time I cross the
> street, I wish I had some audible indication that I should go," he says.
> While the disagreements among the blind have slowed the advance of
> audible signals, marketers think the industry is poised for a leap
> forward. "It's going to be another two years before it really takes off,
> but it is building momentum now," says John McGaffey, president of Polara
> Engineering Inc. The Fullerton, Calif., firm, has sold audible signals
> for several hundred intersections, including many in Las Vegas.
> Meanwhile, Novax Industries Corp., Vancouver, has outfitted about 1,000
> intersections in the U.S. and Canada during the last six years.
> Most accessible signals are heard by all within earshot, but there is
> another promising technology to help blind pedestrians. In San Francisco,
> about 100 blind people carry special receivers marketed by Talking Signs
> Inc., a small company in Baton Rouge, La. The receivers pick up
> infrared-light signals from transmitters installed inside buildings and,
> in a few cases, at intersections. Users can hear a computer-generated
> human voice describe the surroundings and the status of any traffic
> lights.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Adrian Higginbotham.

SURFACE  (Salford University, Research Focus on Accessible Environments).

tel:  (44_-161-2953949,
fax  (44)-161-2955011,
Email [log in to unmask]
textphone  (44)-161-2953599.

web:  http://www.scpm.salford.ac.uk/surface/

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