To address these issues, Perkins has partnered with seven other agencies to develop a plan to make improvements in service, with the goal of increasing self-sufficiency, independence, economic growth and training for individuals who are blind. Called the 2 x 10 Campaign, we are advocating that Massachusetts designate an additional $2 million by 2010 to address specific unmet needs.
If you are a Massachusetts resident and would like to show your support for the 2 x 10 Campaign, visit our website to send an email message to these decision makers: Governor Deval Patrick, Dr. JudyAnn Bigby (Secretary of Health & Human Services) and Leslie A. Kirwan (Secretary of Administration & Finance).
Please share widely!
and they all live within a block of the T, which shouldn’t be a surprise — it ain’t perfect, but it’s better than most transportation alternatives.
<
p>However, there was recently a major road overhaul in the neighborhood, paid for with state and local money. The end result: a far less usable system. Crosswalks are farther from the intersection, and aren’t perpendicular to the road in all cases. Sometimes the curb cut “aims” the pedestrian not across the street but right in to the intersection. The crosswalk buttons are far from the curb cuts, and the “Crosswalk light is now on” isn’t helpful at an intersection with two crosswalks. Even the poles themselves [lamp, signal, etc] are poorly placed.
<
p>You’d think that as we as a society learn more about how to be inclusive and supportive of all our citizens that projects like this would improve accessibility, or at the very least not make things worse. The project in my town was miserable during construction, and built a system that was less accessible to the blind and to anyone who rolls… wheelchair, stroller, cart of groceries, etc.
<
p>All anyone can seem to do is shrug. The money’s been spent.
Regarding transportation, it is indeed a problem. My father has been suffering from macular degeneration for about a decade and, although he can see well enough to read with the proper equipment, he is incapable of driving. Were it not for my mother ten years younger who can see well enough to drive, he would be virtually a prisoner in his house.
<
p>The irony is that he consistently votes conservative Republican (they vote in Cincinnati) and he rails against government and socialism–unless it benefits him, of course. I have continually told him that, if he lived in “socialist” Germany, he could amber down to the town center (an easy walk, and he can see well enough to walk), climb onto the government-provided mass transit system, and get into the city center (Munich), and to the airport and fly to anywhere in the world. He still votes conservative Republican.
<
p>Two, regarding use of a computer, Windows (perhaps Macs, too) used to have screen readers. Are they no longer available? Difficulty of being able to read what is on a screen should not be an impediment to the use of a computer.
<
p>Note to stomv: One of the things that I have noted in our little town just west of Munich is that the Behinderte (translated as “crippled” but I don’t know what the current US PC term is) are certainly not discriminated against. We regularly see kids in wheelchairs on our walks, who are accompanied by kids who are not in wheelchairs. People who have difficulty seeing being led by those who could. Elderly people using walkers (with baskets, if they’re doing shopping!).
<
p>In contrast, it seems that Americans believe that they don’t need help, or that there is some defect in them if someone offers help. Several years ago, at the gym I go to, it was clear that a lady was having some difficulty getting her baby’s stroller up the stairs. (She didn’t know how to do it properly, but that’s a different issue; I later showed her how to simplify.) I helped her, and the two of us got the stroller up the stairs. Her primary reaction was, that I didn’t have to do that. Of course I didn’t have to. But the point, that I made clear, is that I wanted to. Just like the kids who accompany the Behinderte Kinder in Rollstuhle want to, just as the people who help lead the blind want to, and just like the people who make way for the elderly using walkers want to.
Thanks for the comments, broadening the discussion.
<
p>Wow, Roj, Germany sounds like the place to be. “Behindered?” I like that. It says what needs to be said, but is not pejorative.
<
p>Stom, yes, it does seem that “improvements” tend to make the given situation or place less user friendly, whatever the place or the improvement. I heard a few years ago about so called improvements in Atlanta that made the streets and crossings very much more dangerous as well as more difficult to use for blind pedestrians. I agree that we’re not doing a good job of working inclusiveness and usability/accessibility into our public planning.
<
p>As to computers: It is my understanding that Mac does come with built in speech and enlargement. Windows has built in enlargement, and it does have speech engines, though I’ve never figured out how to use them on their own. They can be selected when using a third party product such as Window-Eyes. I don’t know for sure, but I think the main barrier to computer use and certainly to computer ownership by the blind remains the high price of computers and associated assistive tech. I did find the listing of 18% of blind as computer users shocking. Of course, I’ve used a computer for many years and thus am into mailing lists, usenet newsgroups, blogs and so forth like a duck’s into water. It still shocks me to find anyone who doesn’t have Internet access, much less who doesn’t have a computer at all.
Things are getting more and more difficult for web apps.
<
p>Flash leaves screen readers useless. “Pretty” pages which require jpgs or gifs to look pretty are often useless without being able to interpret the images. Not using markup correctly — css or otherwise — to block out text with a particular usage in a particular tag [headers, body, tables, etc] make it very difficult for a person using a screen reader to navigate.
<
p>As for the 82% of blind people who aren’t using a computer, I wonder: what do the stats look like for people under 50? People who’ve been blind 5+ years? I suspect that many of the blind who aren’t using computers are both older and somewhat recently blind. Seniors who’s eyesight has deteriorated are no more likely to be using computers than their colleagues at the nursing home, but they may be making up a large percentage of the blind population [I have no idea].
…it is highly unreliable.
<
p>…Germany seems to follow American “political correctness” (not to me a pejorative) about ten years behind, but when they do it they do it with a vengence. All intersections in our little town over there have depressed sidewalks at intersections, for wheelchairs of course, but they also help us bicyclists. Elevators at S- and U-bahn stations are going up everywhere. Is there anybody complaining? Not that I’ve seen.
<
p>Regarding computers, I have no idea. There is an entry in the Windows “Control Panel” regarding “Accessibility.” I toyed with it a few years ago, but since I didn’t need to use it, I didn’t try to learn it.
<
p>I can understand your shock at
<
p>I did find the listing of 18% of blind as computer users shocking.
<
p>but I wonder just how many of them realize that there are screen readers, or other ameliorative technologies that would allow them to efficiently use computers. Maybe not enough. I’ll give you another of my little stories. When I was a freshman in University, my (engineering dorm) roommate was legally blind (20/600, or vice versa). He didn’t need to use Braille–glasses worked, to a point–but he was absolutely brilliant. The idea that the US might, just might, ignore a significant portion of its potentially productive population is a crime. Or it should be.
I sit on the Commission on Disabilities in Salem. Most towns in MA have a similiar commission ever since enabling legislation in 1980. I regularly bring up disability issues in Salem on my blog.
<
p>I’m a visually-impaired, hearing-impaired person who has had his own adventures in crosswalks. Many walk signals are not visible from across intersections. Some of them have buzzers to notify pedestrians of walk signals.
<
p>The best of these signals have voice announcements and they ping so that blind people can locate them. They are at too few places; the only places in Salem with these are at Vinnin Sq., Salem State College and Marlborough Rd.
<
p>There is major road work going on in the downtown Salem area, and I’ve been trying to get the city and the state to improve sidewalks around the Salem Depot area. I wanted to get those nice voice signals around the T entrance, which has a lot of people using it, and the courthouse, but the state put in buzzers. I hope to get one of these at my intersection and further down Bridge St., two places that are included in the big meta-road-project in my neighborhood.
<
p>Other problems for mobility-impaired included rutted sidewalks, utility work that puts poles in the middle of sidewalks and loose and broken bricks. I could finish out my term dealing only with these issues and have plenty on my plate.
<
p>As far as computer issues, I’m in IT so am well aware of the problems. Modern versions of Windows do have built-in screen readers though people usually have to buy a third-party program to really make use of this. Vista has speech recognition, though I never used it. I did have to use text-to-speech technology when recovering from eye surgery that left me temporarily blind.
My blog is at http://salemmassblog.blogspot…. Forgot to mention this.
We operate a Braille Trail -a walking trail with ropes, and braille signposts to describe what is there – a lavender bed, a rock pile, etc., to encourage both safe walking and tactile stimulation.
<
p>Years ago, I worked in the Kennedy Bldg. in Boston. I was the only fully sighted handicapped person, and served as eyes for our group of about 14. The Federal Government employs MANY blind people, especially in an area like Taxpayer Service, which is a telephone service system. Each had a braille copy of the tax code, in a floor to ceiling bookcase, but really, memory served for many questions. I learned to use slate and stylus, as I would braille up things like employment notices which had to go to every employee, and distributed them on a thermoplast machine. I imagine thermoplast has been made obsolete by computer, so knowing how to do that is ike my ability to make mimeograph stencils, but working with people of varying degrees of sight was interesting.
<
p>BTW – Stomv – it sounds like the curb cuts were designed with just wheelchairs in mind. It’s interesting – after all these years, archetecture and engineering schools still don’t have ADA as part of mandatory curriculum, and that’s why we have mistakes like this. In fact, about 4 years ago, they built an entire regional hub Transportation Center in Hyannis – and the whole thing had no curb cuts, no automatic doors, no handicapped bathrooms – cost a million to retrofit.
when I was in law school in the early 1970s, it was well known that one of the most observant judges on the US Federal Tax court was totally blind.