[Blindtlk] To Drive or not to Drive: that is the question

[nikki Wunderlich]

I agree with a lot of the points you mentioned in your email, but I'm just
looking at it from a financial prospective, and I do not think the cost will
go down enough for me to be able to afford a car in my life time, so I will
probably always rely on public transportation, family, and friends as well
as cane travel to get me from point A to point B. 

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of humberto
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2011 10:42 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] To Drive or not to Drive: that is the question

This question, indeed, sparkled a lot of thoughts on me, I would 
like to share a few.
First, driving a car, and driving for generations, and driving as 
is taken for granted, is part of our lifestyle in America, and is 
part of our American society to have a car and drive. Yes it is 
taken for granted, but people have driven cars for many years, 
and they still do it. Driving a car has become a part of an 
essential part of everything we do about transportation. People 
drive to go to their jobs, to go grocery shopping, to do a trip, 
and pretty much everybody transports by car. Although the gas 
prices are flying now, society is still making arrangements so 
that they can go to work and play, by driving. People are now 
sacrificing their budgets just because they want to be able to 
use their cars and get wherever they want to and keep enjoying 
the freedom of driving.
Blindness, although is a minority, is, shall be, and one day will 
be, part of the majority. Blind people, must be included into 
society. This means, we must do, as blind people and part of this 
sighted structured world, do what our society, the majority, the 
sighted, can do and, yes do it slightly different with nonvisual 
techniques, but do so just like our society. To this end, blind 
people, as the rest of society, must be able to take the same 
things for granted, and the same opportunities that the sighted 
communities take for granted. This means that if the rest of 
society can drive cars and enjoy the freedom of driving cars, and 
have enjoyed such freedom for many years, we must start thinking 
of possibilities of driving a car that the blind can drive. Look 
how far we've gone in the federation with the Blind Driver 
Challenge, and how the blind driver drove the car in front of 
thousands of people, and in the middle of an * INTERNATIONALLY 
well KNOWN * car race speedway! So, if we've gone this far, we 
can push for more, even more! We can finally be part of society 
and be able to drive, by making this DREAM reality and pushing 
for the legalization of this car, and making it readily available 
to the blind and demonstrating to our sighted, majority society 
that we can do the same things they can do! Blindness shall not 
be left behind, and by making this car available, and by 
equipping a car, with the right technology and interface hardware 
and software, and with the right engineering technology, we can 
drive and enjoy the same freedom they have enjoyed for years and 
will continue to enjoy for years to come.
So, I hope this sparks some interesting discussions, and hope to 
see you at any NFB convention, and hope my opinions help you, and 
I hope to see you driving around!!!!!!! * smile *
Cheers,  Humberto


> ----- Original Message -----
>From: Darian Smith <dsmithnfb at gmail.com
>To: Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org
>Date sent: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:30:00 -0700
>Subject: [Blindtlk] To Drive or not to Drive: that is the 
question

>I have heard from many, blind and sighted alike that the blind  
being
>able to drive will be  looked  upon as  something  absolutely 
iconic
>and life-changing.  Assuming  that this opinion is in fact widely
>believed,  what do you think this means for us as blind people 
now?
>Also what does it mean, if we never do  drive? Is this to say 
that our
>lives  are not full?  Not complete?  And will never be?
> I'm curious as to your thoughts  on this.

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