Orientation and mobility are distinct areas that assume importance in any discussion of transportation access and the visually impaired. Mobility has to do with moving about physically in the everyday environment, in traffic, etc. Orientation concerns finding one's way through the environment.
Traditionally, people who work with the visually impaired have concentrated on problems of mobility. Orientation and Mobility specialists mostly deal with training in use of the long cane or guide dog; engineers design clear path indicators and obstacle detectors; vocational counselors (mostly sighted) must recommend employment opportunities requiring minimum travel novelty since orientation skills are seldom well enough developed to enable non-visual travelers is take new routes without assistance.
Little has been done about orientation, usually concentrating on rote learning of fixed routes used repetitively. Very little concern is shown for such psychological factors as the importance of independence (mast people dislike calling "help" to find out which station this is and what train is coming. This Paper is concerned with factors affecting orientation, especially in public transportation environments.
The instructions that blind people give to other blind are very specialized and no general solution seems possible -- the use of raised-line maps, compasses, and other aids is not widespread. Sighted people who give directions invariably use visual clues for directions -- with signage playing a major role. In orientation for sighted people, particularly in urban settings and in connection with public transportation, the signs are indispensable when using a new route or waiting for a bus or train where more than one variety loads.
An important factor in travel is the ability is reach a destination without asking for help except that presented by the system's environment. One cannot always find someone reliable who is willing to give accurate directions. Blind people are constantly accosted by well-meaning sighted folk who grab their arm and push them into danger, confuse right with left, and generally make orientation very disorienting.
When confronted with harassed bus drivers ("Can't you read -you blind or something?"), dangerous subway platforms ("Is this a train door or the space between cars?"), uncertain vehicle destinations ("Is this the S or the 227?"), scalp-endangering overhangs, and shin-barking installations ("quicker to sweep under that suspended sign"), the visually impaired traveler is hard put to know where she is. let alone how is get somewhere else. The result is an understandable unwillingness is undertake new routes or destinations.
The use at Braille as a solution to any of this is often proposed by people unfamiliar with certain basic facts. Although Braille is useful for limited applications like elevator buttons, it is seldom of any importance in using public transportation, except in guides, schedules, or other textual printed matter. Very few visually impaired people can use Braille and most proposals put forth are as absurd as putting "phone booth" in Braille on a phone booth.
Engineers at Smith-Kettlewell Institute developed a system in 1979 that might prove an effective aid to independent travel by visually impaired persons. The system is called "talking signs" and consists of small infrared transmitters encoded with the kind of information usually present on printed signs. Wherever a talking sign is located it constantly emits a signal which, when intercepted by a small receiver carried by the traveler, speaks its message, which gives the user the same kind of information a printed sign gives sighted people.
The system was developed with funding from federal sources, since the US. government has in place a panoply of barrier removal regulations. Since its development, the system has been tested extensively at the Institute -- some transmitters have run continuously for ten years without failure.
Demonstrations and evaluations have been widespread and use of the system is gaining ground. Eight years ago students used them to became familiar with the layout of a California university campus. Recently, a "cross campus" evaluation of Talking Signs, involving 16 subjects, took place at the San Francisco State University. A brief test/demonstration at a particularly difficult BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station was undertaken in 1987. Today, a semi-permanent installation of 93 transmitters provide wayfinding information to visually impaired transit passengers at the Powell Street subway station. All of these evaluations resulted in a very positive outcomes for naive subjects in promoting independent navigation in unfamiliar environments.
Although the language of section 504 makes it clear that all public buildings and transportation systems should be accessible, no real-life permanent installation exists. There are standards, written and in preparation that recommend the talking signs as a solution to orientation problems of visually impaired travelers. Over the years since their development, many conferences have seen demonstrations at the devices and it may be that now is NOW!
During much of our history it has been a custom to justify war because of its salubrious effects on the economy and its generation of enthusiasm and togetherness. The subtitle is taken from a famous essay whose specifics escape me, but the phrase says it well. When the great depression was stultifying America's continued move towards universal prosperity, the onset of World War II turned things around and the threat of recessions has generated a Cold War, a war on Poverty, and a War on Drugs to try to provide the aforementioned moral alternative to the real thing, but they were only marginally effective.
The Military-Industrial Complex has become a symbol of greed, waste, and corruption and it may be that a moral alternative could be found in the process of totally rebuilding the infrastructure of the planet as a completely accessible environment for us all. The first such attempt has focused on transportation with an enormous network of roads for the billions of vehicles we use along with their maintenance facilities. If we are to remove obstacles posed by the various "barriers" to access we must recognize the extent of what needs doing to remove architectural, language, cultural, and privilege obstacles.
A good model for this project is the removal of obstacles for people with disabilities including but not limited to mobility and sensory impairments. The project of "The Accessible Planet" is a model of the potential for enormous projects that could provide meaningful employment for those who heretofore made devices whose main impact was the destruction (immediate or potential) of the planets population -- animal, vegetable, and mineral.
The will of the people was clearly reflected by the unanimous passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act ADA) and various declarations such as the UN's "Decade of the Disabled". An example of the undertakings are curb cuts, which were widely installed with almost no opposition.
A prototypical undertaking now under way in San Francisco is "The Accessible City Protect" whose centerpiece is a sign age system using infrared transmitters to provide orientation information for the print-handicapped. It will ultimately also use such signs to attack the language barrier by transmitting the messages in many languages simultaneously. This and similar projects could impel a huge undertaking worthy of the title and possibly fuel the economy.
Orientation for blind travelers is not built into the environment except in special cases like Braille elevator buttons. Because of this there is an almost demeaning dependence on begging for help. Aside from its effect on independence there are other factors of significance.
Sighted pedestrians have street signs, building numbers, and other visual sign age to provide location information. They can also find where to cross streets while blind people get no clue on where to cross, since crosswalks are frequently not located at corners and curb cuts are not universally related to crosswalks (and when they are, only mark crosswalk terminations). If the blind pedestrian finds the crosswalk entrance by previous training, curb cut, or post-mounted switch she must still guess about the status of the crossing signal.
If the guesses as to location of crosswalk start and signal information are correct, there remains the problem of knowing, while crossing, if one is remaining in the crossing lane since while crossing there is an added mobility problem due to the difficulty of navigating in a straight line without nearby echoing structures or curb edges. In some cases the traveler is unsure when she has reached the end of the crossing since the cross walk may have its "corner" at some remove from the curb corner.
There have been attempts to solve the signal information problem with audible devices which emit sounds which the pedestrian can hear from across the intersection. The main problems are that the information is ambiguous (the blind pedestrian is not sure which way she faces), and there are other audible devices (back-up warnings on vehicles, sidewalk elevators, etc.) competing as safety warnings. Because these devices are always emitting sound, there is also the problem of noise pollution. These problems have been solved in San Francisco where a prototype pedestrian crossing system has been under test for the past 3 years. The visual signs have been supplemented with small, inexpensive infrared transmitters coded with appropriate information. A blind pedestrian with a suitable receiver can tell where she is, the condition of the traffic signal, and where and when to cross. The requisite information for San Francisco's signs are presented tersely: street name, block number, and direction of travel (e.g., "Market", "1300 Block", "Facing South.").
The traffic signal information is terse, interspersed between location designators, readable only from positions within the cross walk, and worded to give the same information available to sighted pedestrians, e g. "green", "yellow", & "red". Whatever words are used, the most important considerations are avoidance of patronizing protectionism and equal access to the same information available to people with retinas. Any system will require training, which can be minimized with short, clear messages. The location signs containing orientation information are readable from a greater distance than the crossing signals so that they may be located by a receiver at some remove from the corner. They are be mostly omnidirectional so that one can read them at an angle, even to the point of reading either "1300" or "1400" with a slight angular movement of the receiver. The crossing signals need only be readable from directly across the street -- from within the confines of the cross walk so that they can serve as beacon, locator, and signal.
The individual sign elements are powered by the current available within the signal unit. The signals are triggered and timed by the same switches used by the conventional signals. The hardware is all off-the-shelf components mounted on circuit boards with terminal points for power and switching inputs.
The electronic units are mounted within standard traffic signal unit to ensure weather protection. The power supplies use less than a watt of electrical power. (They also could be run from the intermittent source expected in a traffic signal.) The timing signals are obtained from the pedestrian unit ("ped-head").
Devices testing has been going on for 10 years at Smith-Kettlewell so the transmitters have proven trouble-free. The installation promises no environmental extremes since all the components have been manufactured be usable in military and/or space applications.
Compatibility with already installed devices is assured and they present no problems for the system since they use so little power. The training for pedestrians will be designed to be compatible with current practices in orientation and mobility training, both with cane and guide dog trainers participating. The devices should be as easy to learn and use as their counterparts are for sighted travelers -- analogous to teaching signal use to children and people from other cultures.
Distribution of receivers and training in system use will be in the hands of various agencies, such as Lighthouse, Living Skills, Guide Dogs or the blind, and other groups. Details about the system and receiver availability will first be disseminated through various training programs, such as the programs at San Francisco State University and the Living Skills Center.
As the usefulness is established, we can expect members of organizations for the blind to become resources for publicizing The Accessible City to others. At a time when the crosswalk system has gained wide enough availability to have useful to the local citizens , we can institute press releases, TV demonstrations, etc. so that other communities can take note of the applicability of this to the problems faced be blind people all over the world. The City can take pride in serving as the first full-scale demonstration of pedestrian accessibility and point the way for blind people to begin to get their fair share of the sign age information so long denied them. At various conferences concerning traffic safety and transportation for the handicapped, we can exhibit the system and people all over will think of it as the "San Francisco System"!
If you are visually impaired, you have the right to the same information available to other citizens, such as: what street corner you are on; the destination of an approaching bus; the location of public phones; the boundaries of crosswalks; the address of public buildings; and the room number of your attorney - in case you must bring legal action to secure accessibility to public accommodations. If you cannot read you are entitled to know which way to the baggage claim area and not to use the elevators in case of fire. If you are dyslexic or in any way print handicapped you have the right to know if the traffic control system is advising you to wait or walk.
During World War II in England, signposts were removed to prevent anticipated German invaders finding London. For the print handicapped this condition remains a constantly disorienting reality. In 1979 the accessible planet project began with an accessible lab entrance on the fourth floor of a building in San Francisco. It enabled blind travelers to easily find a particular room using an inexpensive gadget but it promised much more: if one could find room 405 of Smith-Kettlewell's Rehabilitation Engineering Center, one could find appropriately marked bus stops, ticket counters, rest rooms, and all the other doings sighted people were finding rather easily using printed signs. All that remained was to put the signs everywhere! Component reliability was tested by having active units operate indoors and out for ten years under continuous use. We made sure they operated properly in bright sunlight and that the recorded messages were clear and of the proper length -- Now it is important to make sure their existence is made known around the world. San Diego City College tested them as campus building locators for orienting new students. Convention conference rooms were labeled and the American Council of the Blind passed a resolution calling for their widespread installation. The Washington, D.C.. National Rehabilitation Hospital has had an extensive demonstration system. Currently, Talking Signs are installed in the New York Lighthouse for the Blind (170 signs), pedestrian crossings in downtown San Francisco (18 pedestrian control signs) and San Francisco's Powell Station (BART and Muni) (93 signs). The company is under contract for the new San Francisco Main Library (208 signs) and a pending contract for Yerba Buena Gardens and playground (130 signs). Significant interest has been expressed by Bay Area transit providers, the Moscone Center, the Ferry Landing, new San Francisco Courthouse and San Francisco International Airport. There is one sign in the window of a restaurant in San Francisco and a manufacturer in Wisconsin has made a prototype for retrofitting telephone booths with location signage. Several other city traffic and transit departments are exploring their installation, as well as a shopping mall in Ohio, an airport in Oregon, and hotels hosting disability conventions.
The test of "reasonable" accommodation proposed in Department of Justice regulations relates to the cost of such things as ramps and curb cuts, and remotely accessible sign age is much less costly than those installations. So the cost/benefit ratio clearly favors their immediate widespread installation and that awaits the insistence of those who feel a need for obtaining their right to use the environment with ease and dignity, as guaranteed by ADA.
The signs installed here in San Francisco are typical of those discussed. The traffic signals have been mounted downtown in the vicinity of Fifth and Market Streets. They are positioned so that the information conceding the status of the crossing indication (signal data -- "red", "yellow", "green") can only be detected by a receiver within the crosswalk, enabling the user to know when she wanders from the proper line. The other information gives important orientation cues ("Fifth Street", "Facing West", "Zero Hundred Block"). The orientation messages can be detected when the receiver is within about a hundred feet of the corner but the signal data is only available when within a few feet of the curb. Another type sign (e.g., "Elevator") has relatively less power if it is used indoors.
The research that developed this technology was performed under several grants by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center at The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute and private funding by the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Foundation. TALKING SIGNS is a registered trade mark of Talking Signs, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA.