Kate Mayer
 October 25, 2002

     
Dear Access Board,

I am opposed to proposed plans to install detectable warnings and audible traffic signals at intersections across America. Many blind people may feel that such devices are helpful or even necessary, but the fact is that good travel skills make these modifications moot. The unfortunate reality is that blind people are often not afforded the opportunity to develop these crucial skills.

I received training at the Louisiana Center for the Blind that has enable me to hold jobs and travel independently in Louisiana, New York and, currently, Illinois. I commute daily to downtown Chicago on public transportation. I use a long white cane, my hearing and my skills of observation to navigate safely through busy, crowded streets and sidewalks. I move quickly and would never stop to activate an audible traffic signal and wait to listen to it. There is enough noise downtown without signals chirping and beeping to add to the din.

Did it ever occur to you that a blind person moving directly toward a pole to activate a signal would send chills up the spines of the sighted? They think we won't stop in time and will run right into the pole! Your proposal makes a class of people the public generally thinks to be somewhat odd and unusual look even more so by making us adopt strange stopping and reaching behavior at each intersection.

One other thought: Will these devices tell us when vehicles are running the red light? There is one thing that technology will never be able to replace, and that is common sense. My safety is most protected by my own God-given ability to size up my circumstances. Listening to traffic is the surest way to determine what the vehicles are doing. Lights do not provide that information, even to the sighted.

Please consider that funding of the magnitude proposed for this project could provide the blind of America with a personal chauffeur for life, eliminating the need for any of us to step foot on a public walkway again. Realistically, the investment would be best used to give blind people opportunities for meaningful training that would enable us to participate on equal terms with our sighted peers and change public attitudes through example and experience.

Thank you for your consideration.

Kate Mayer

Data Systems Analyst
Implementation and Setup Unit
ABN AMRO Services Company

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