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Our names are John and Tom TeBockhorst, and we are members of the National Federation of the Blind. We would like to comment on the Access Board's proposed draft ruling.

We have been members of the NFB for eleven years, and in all that time, we have used our canes to get anywhere we want to go safely. We strongly feel we do not need detectable warning tiles on tran platforms, curb cuts, and other drop offs and ledges. We can find them perfectly with our canes or dogs. We also feel that we do not need audible traffic signals. We can cross streets safely by using our traffic training skills. By stopping when the perpendicular traffic is going and go when the parallel traffic id going.

My brother went to a orientation center and learned to cross streets under sleep shades. I learned how to travel independently by learning from other confident blind people in the National Federation of the Blind. We learned how to find drop offs, curb cuts, ledges, and escalators. This is the way all blind people learn to cross streets and find obstacle, by using our canes.

We feel the money spent to install these things that blind people don't need could be better spent on things blind people need. This would include Newsline for the Blind, better Braille literacy for kids, text books in alternative formats for blind kids at the same time their sighted peers have theirs, Jobline, blindness skills for seniors, and many other things that blind people need.

So please take our comments into consideration and we strongly oppose the Access Board's final draft guidelines. Keep out of the final ruling about installing detectable warning tiles and audible traffic signals. Thank you for taking the time for reading our comments.