I also find this article to be rather balanced.  Worth sharing along the
line.  I have posted it to the vicug-l list.

Steve
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 07:52:03 -0600
From: David Andrews <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Multiple recipients of NFBnet NFB-Talk Mailing List
    <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Fwd: Audible Crosswalk Signals Divide Blind Community ---  Devices
    Are Common in Europe, But Opponents Say They Can Stigmatize  and Distract


>I originally read the following on NewsLine, and found the article to be pretty balanced and complete.


Dave



>Subject:      Audible Crosswalk Signals Divide Blind Community --- Devices Are
>               Common in Europe,
>               But Opponents Say They Can Stigmatize and Distract
>Audible Crosswalk Signals Divide Blind Community --- Devices Are Common
>in Europe, But Opponents Say They Can Stigmatize and Distract
>By Jeffrey A. Tannenbaum
>Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
>
>03/13/2001
>The Wall Street Journal
>
>(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
>
>To public-works officials in Baltimore, it seemed like a good idea:
>Install the city's first audible traffic signals, to both aid blind
>pedestrians and help the U.S. play catch-up on a promising technology.
>But last October, when officials laid plans to outfit four intersections
>with beeping devices, they ran into unexpected flak -- from some blind
>residents themselves. The nonprofit National Federation of the Blind,
>which maintains that audible signals are usually unnecessary, objected to
>the proposed locations. The group says the spread of needless audible
>signals would reinforce stereotypes of the blind as people who need huge
>amounts of help.
>
>So Baltimore tabled the plan -- only to trigger a protest by members of
>the nonprofit American Council of the Blind, which had sought the signals
>in the first place. Now Baltimore is going ahead with a slightly altered
>plan, months behind the original timetable. "It doesn't make it easy,
>from a public-policy perspective, when two groups of the blind differ
>drastically on these signals," says Sheila Dixon, president of the city
>council.
>Division within the blind community has slowed adoption of the
>audible-signal technology in much of the country, says Lois Thibault,
>research coordinator for the U.S. Architectural and Barriers Compliance
>Board, which makes rules under federal disabilities law. The so-called
>accessible signals beep, chirp or give voice messages to alert the blind
>when a "Walk/Don't Walk" signal changes. Some devices emit noises
>automatically, while others require activation by a button.
>By some estimates, there are roughly 5,000 communities in the U.S. that
>have some audible signals. Many are on the West Coast, such as San
>Francisco and Seattle. Ms. Thibault and others say many blind individuals
>have requested audible signals near their homes, but the requests often
>meet opposition from other blind people. Clashes over proposed signals
>have arisen in recent years not only in Baltimore, but also in
>Minneapolis, Vancouver, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Hot Springs, Ark,
>according to advocates for the blind.
>Though declaring itself "flexible" since 1992 on the issue of audible
>signals, the National Federation of the Blind confirms that its chapters
>-- and sometimes just individual members -- occasionally oppose requests
>for signals. "If there is a plain four-way stop and no good reason for an
>audible traffic signal, the mere request of a single individual would not
>justify it," says James Gashel, director of governmental affairs.
>Indeed, the wrangling in Baltimore led the city to change one of the four
>locations slated to get the signals to a more complicated intersection.
>The federation believes the signals, if used in intersections that aren't
>especially complex, can stigmatize the blind. The group also believes
>that money used for signals could be better applied to programs such as
>job training for the blind. Some members think the devices can even be
>harmful at times.
>Scott Labarre, a 32-year-old Colorado lawyer, says he was once distracted
>by a beeping signal and thus nearly stepped in front of a moving car. "I
>was afraid my cane was going to get crunched, if not myself," he says. In
>Salt Lake City, 52-year-old Ray Martin says audible signals "are useless
>to me. . . . I've been taught the proper skills of cane travel."
>The National Federation viewpoint tends to reflect the opinions of the
>most mobile and cane-savvy of the blind, sometimes known among themselves
>as "super blinks." The American Council, which advocates changing
>facilities to help blind people, tends to speak for the less mobile --
>and more numerous -- members of the community. Both groups say they
>represent all blind people.
>Marlaina Lieberg, a 51-year-old Seattle resident and member of the
>American Council, says she was once hit by a car in Boston when a "Walk"
>light changed sooner than she expected. An audible signal would have
>helped, she says, calling the issue a "no-brainer." She adds: "Why
>wouldn't you want any cue you could possibly use to enhance your safety?"
>
>Accessible signals are already widely used in Europe, Japan and
>Australia. Bob Panich, owner of a company that installs such signals in
>Australia, says: "We're most surprised at the U.S. being so far behind in
>this regard, knowing that the U.S. also has antidiscrimination laws and a
>powerful deaf/blind lobby."
>The U.S. is moving to catch up. Following intense lobbying by disability
>coalitions, Congress in 1999 made federal funds available for accessible
>signals in the same way it was already available for such things as
>sidewalk wheelchair ramps. Only traffic signals that are along public bus
>or rail lines are eligible. The devices typically cost $400 to $500 per
>box, with eight needed for a four-corner intersection.
>In addition, a key federal manual for highway engineers late last year
>included standards for accessible signals for the first time. The action
>removed a huge stumbling block: communities' fear of liability suits if
>they installed signals without uniform standards.
>"A lot of communities didn't know what to put in. Now a standard is
>available," says Julia Wilkie, a project engineer at MDU Resources Inc.'s
>Wagner Smith unit, which installs and maintains traffic signals for 140
>Ohio communities.
>Another boost for accessible signals came in January, when a federal
>advisory panel endorsed the devices, making a federally mandated phase-in
>likely within a few years. Such a mandate could require that new
>intersections or ones being rebuilt include accommodations for the blind.
>
>The signals promise to take some hazardous guesswork out of the way the
>blind cross streets: They listen carefully for traffic sounds, then take
>their chances. When Mr. Labarre, the Colorado lawyer, needs to cross
>Denver's Colorado Boulevard where it intersects Mexico Avenue, there is
>often heavy traffic moving along Colorado. So he listens for that traffic
>to stop for a red light. When he thinks he hears that, he enters the
>crosswalk, sweeping a white cane back and forth in sequence with his
>steps. Crossing "is not terribly complicated," he maintains.
>But the procedure seems terribly intimidating and risky to many other
>blind people, who are happy when they encounter audible signals. "You
>know precisely when the walk signal is on," says Christopher Gray, a
>46-year-old San Francisco technical writer. When standing at Shattuck
>Avenue and Center Street in Berkeley, Calif., Mr. Gray says he hears a
>chirping sound if pedestrians crossing Shattuck have a "Walk" signal;
>otherwise he hears a cuckoo sound.
>Several trends in traffic control have been making it harder for the
>blind to predict when lights will change. Computerized traffic flow, for
>example, sets traffic lights depending on such things as traffic density
>instead of at regular timed intervals. Advocates of audible signals say
>that at least a dozen blind pedestrians have died while crossing streets
>during the last three years, though whether an audible signal would have
>changed the outcome isn't always clear.
>Berl Colley, a 58-year-old computer programmer in Lacey, Wash., says he
>was once struck by a car and badly bruised. "Now, every time I cross the
>street, I wish I had some audible indication that I should go," he says.
>While the disagreements among the blind have slowed the advance of
>audible signals, marketers think the industry is poised for a leap
>forward. "It's going to be another two years before it really takes off,
>but it is building momentum now," says John McGaffey, president of Polara
>Engineering Inc. The Fullerton, Calif., firm, has sold audible signals
>for several hundred intersections, including many in Las Vegas.
>Meanwhile, Novax Industries Corp., Vancouver, has outfitted about 1,000
>intersections in the U.S. and Canada during the last six years.
>Most accessible signals are heard by all within earshot, but there is
>another promising technology to help blind pedestrians. In San Francisco,
>about 100 blind people carry special receivers marketed by Talking Signs
>Inc., a small company in Baton Rouge, La. The receivers pick up
>infrared-light signals from transmitters installed inside buildings and,
>in a few cases, at intersections. Users can hear a computer-generated
>human voice describe the surroundings and the status of any traffic
>lights.


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