Laura Park-Leach, M.Ed, COMS

October 11, 2002

I am writing in support of accessible pedestrian signals as stated in the PROWAAC report. We have had APS in our community for many years. Each Accessible Pedestrian Signal has been requested by an individual visually impaired person because he or she felt that they would be safer with the device than without the device. Some of the clients who have made the request and regularly use them are members of the National Federation of the Blind. I would like to state that it has been wonderful to have guidelines come out that help the traffic engineer understand where and how to intall the devices to provide consistency throughout our country. With the actuated intersections, it is critical that people be given the opportunity to have as much information as possible to begin the crossing with the maximum amount of time.

One point that routinely seems to be forgotten by dissenters is that the APS with vibrotactile
information is designed to help those that are both visually and hearing impaired to make safe crossings.  This greatly increases their chance of recognizing the changing of the signal through the vibration.   Dissenters that only consider people who are visually impaired and not those that are hearing impaired are discriminating against this subset in the population.

Please support APS!

Laura Park-Leach, M.Ed, COMS
Metrolina Association for the Blind