I am a Resource Teacher who happens to be blind. I have worked in this area of education for 22 years, and am very independent. One of my greatest joys is being able to travel with a cane independently. There is no place in the world that I cannot go. I do not need special traffic signals that talk or make some other kind of noise. I do not need special landmarks installed to let me know that I am coming to a street. What is most interesting, is that I am also on our town's planning commission. One of the city workers told me about these detectable bumps that would help blind people know when they are coming to the street. He said that that would take a lot of work and money. I told him that it would be a stupid plan. It makes those of us who are blind look helpless. Please treat me with dignity and let me use my skills to safely cross streets. My letter should be more polite, but I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life.

I hope that you will hear the blind and our real concerns. Please don't assume that we need things that we don't need. Thank you for your concern, but please put it in the right place.

Darrell Walla

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