Steve Jacobson

October 28, 2002

By now, your office has received many letters on the subject of audible and tactile traffic
signals. As you know it is an emotional issue for each of us for widely divergent reasons. The
easiest thing to do emotionally would be to place audible and tactile traffic signals anywhere
there is a signal. However, I don't believe this will serve us as blind people in the long run
nor will it serve society at large. Doing this avoids some questions that need to be asked and
could, in actual fact, increase the likelihood of injury to blind persons. Please allow me to
briefly address these points.

While there is some agreement among blind people that there are now some intersections that are
very difficult to cross, there are many, many intersections that blind people have been
successfully crossing for years. Contrary to the position some have taken, such intersections
are not being crossed only by those with superior travel skills, but by a wide range of blind
people. Our ability to succeed is based upon our ability to find other ways of doing things
that others do with vision. Therefore, before taking a position that every signal must have a
tactile or audible add-on, we need to understand better who will benefit from such signals?

What about those blind persons who feel that they cannot safely cross a standard intersection
without signals. Do we put special signals in for those people or do we just write them off? I
don't believe we do either. Again, contrary to most of what I read, there is really not a good
understanding as to why some people have difficulty crossing certain kinds of intersections. In
some cases, difficulty hearing or a lack of the ability to recognize spacial relationships can
contribute to such a difficulty, but to what degree will an audible signal help them cross an
open area? I suspect that sometimes special signals will help and some times they won't.
However, I submit that nobody knows exactly how much. And there is a real down side of not
knowing which is my third and final point.

If this issue is not studied carefully, the likelihood of injury or even death could be
increased by audible or tactile traffic signals. Without good quality travel training and/or
without understanding the role played in ones ability to travel by other types of disabilities,
an audible or tactile signal is nothing more than a push off the curb when the light is green.
The signal doesn't know who is turning right on a red signal, who is approaching the red light
at too high a speed, who stopped beyond the crosswalk thereby blocking it, and more. In some
cases, special signals will provide the edge that some need, there is little doubt of that in
specific situations, but it is essential that some of the difficulties being encountered must be
sudied and overcome through training matching their specific disability. Part of our ability to
travel safely depends upon our ability to derive information about our environment. To send
people who cannot derive adequate information about their environment into a busy intersection
based solely on whether the light has turned green is irresponsible. Doing so will result in
injuries that would not otherwise occur because of the false sense of security that such signals
offer persons with inadequate travel training or with disabilities whose impact we do not fully
understand.

Therefore, I call upon you to avoid requiring audible and/or tactile traffic signals at every
corner having a signal. Further, do what you can to foster a true understanding of this problem
by recognizing that training techniques need to be explored for those feeling that crossing a
standard intersection is not possible or safe. Develop standards for the incorporation of of
audible or tactile signals so the installation of such signals is done so in a uniform manner
that will truly help people and not just make people feel better while possibly endangering
them.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,

Steve Jacobson