[Blindtlk] The Cost of Independent Travel

[Gary Wunder]

Hello Ray, and all of the people who have contributed thoughtful posts here.
I think we should acknowledge that driving is a risky proposition as it now
stands. I don't know what the statistics are now, but one argument I
remember back in the days of the Vietnam war was that we killed more people
on our nation's highways every year than we lost in the jungles of Asia.
Errors in judgment cost lives. Most of the time people take driving
seriously, but there are many distractions which caused drivers to pay less
attention to the road than they should. Well-known examples are cellular
telephones, checking one's makeup in the mirror, or trying to be the
disciplinarian for the children in the back seat.

Currently there are airplanes which are designed in such a way that they
cannot be flown without the assistance of a computer. They are simply not
airworthy unless a computer is constantly adjusting the air foils or
surfaces of the plane which come in contact with the air. In these
situations, these complicated vehicles aren't run by just one computer.
There are always multiple computers and coordinating software which is
designed both to share the workload and detect the failure of a unit and
reassign its tasks. This will certainly be a part of anything we design to
be purchasable by blind drivers.

There has been significant speculation about the cost of a vehicle we
design. It is much too early to know what that cost may be. Part of the
equation will depend on how much of what we develop is usable by sighted
people. Scanners are cheaper today because they have a marketplace which
extends well beyond the blind. The same is true with speech synthesis. The
same is not true, however, of screen reading applications, although there
are some uses which industry has for what they call screen scraping
technology.

We have speculated here about who will be able to afford a car modified so
we can drive it. I suggest that any society which is willing to spend $6000
on the BrailleNote to make a person more efficient in reading, writing, and
taking notes in class or on the job will be very willing to help front some
of the costs of a vehicle. This will be true for several reasons. First,
there are many jobs which blind people are capable of doing but which are so
underserved by mass transportation that we do not have access to them.
Second, there are many jobs in this economy which directly rely on operating
a vehicle. Over the road trucking is a splendid example. My sister currently
works for a company delivering parts from one location to the other. If we
can begin to get a handle on creating a blind-drivable vehicle, we will open
up a wide range of jobs which simply aren't practical for us to do today.



Some have quite reasonably expressed the concern that developing this
vehicle won't automatically mean we are able to drive it, because of current
law and the need for insurance. These are important considerations and will
pose significant challenges for us, but until we have a vehicle which is
really workable, there is no way to take any meaningful action on these
fronts. Identifying them as challenges as appropriate. Considering them as
reasons not to do the project misses the mark. It is, in transportation
terms, putting the cart before the horse.

Ray, you offer the concern that we are placing too much emphasis on
technology. In many respects I agree with you. I think it would be tragic if
we decided to no longer teach handwriting because so many devices were
readily available for typing or otherwise turning information into text. It
is tragic when people who cannot see well enough to read and write print
aren't taught to use the slate and stylus. none of this alters the evolving
requirement of society that we be able to communicate with each other in
ways which older technology will simply not allow. I can't use the Internet
with my slate and stylus. I don't miss those days of typing my papers only
to realize that my ribbon was poor or that someone had set the typewriter to
stencil. I don't for one moment want to go back to the day when the ringing
of a telephone would mean losing my train of thought and being unable to go
back and determine whether or not I had entered the comma after my last
phrase or placed two spaces after the period. I hope we never have to go
back to a time where we write three or four drafts of a paper, having each
time to start by fully retyping that which was good and altering that which
we wanted to change. Wordprocessing has changed our world forever, and I'm
glad it allows us to participate in the kind of discussion we're having
here.

Warmest regards to all,

Gary