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From: Ted.Young@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Ted Young)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Subway Safety
Message-ID: <15296@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 31 Oct 90 03:05:18 GMT
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[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

In a message to Tom Gerhart Jeff Salzberg wrote:
"If tactile strips were installed on subway platforms, 99% of sighted
riders would not realise the purpose of said strips.  Unless there were
an inordinate amount of publicity accompanying the installation, few
sighted employers would even know that tactile strips exist; even fewer
would use the lack of same as an excuse to not hire blind employees."
Maybe so Jeff but there are at least two questions left.

1.  Would those strips help blind travelers?  I have seen a lot of
people taking this for granted.  If you can't pick up the edge of
the platform with your cane would you really be able to detect such
a strip?  Further, those strips have nothing at all to do with
blind people stepping between cars.  As some sage pointed out here,
you use your cane to feel for a step or a floor before you step.
Yes, I am a daily subway traveler.

2.  Whether or not the strips would be noticed by everybody, what
about the cumulative affect of spreading around unwanted and
unneeded adaptations.  Surely you would agree that eventually most
people would draw some incorrect and unhealthy conclusions about
the needs of blind people.

Ted

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