[BlindTlk] blind friendly cities

[Humberto Avila]

Hi, William, 

My name is Humberto and I live in Seattle, Washington. Well, I actually live in a smaller town nestled within the city of Seattle, to the north, called Shoreline. 
By my personal definition, Seattle would be considered a "blind-friendly city." Here is why: 

1. Their buses run 24/7 meaning you can for instance, go to a church choir rehearsal in the late evening relatively close to home and take a bus home or even use the Light Rail and get home as well. Light rail also runs 24/7. In the smaller city that my Parens live and where I used to live, there is no such supportive transportation options and even the regular buses run until like 6pm or so which is not convenient if I would like to run errands or something as a blind person. By contrast in Seattle you can because the transit is better equipped and the workforce is there to do it. 

2. Paratransit services: You can schedule your rides with a call taker most mornings and afternoons or you can do so at your convenience entirely online 24/7 by yourself. There will even send you reminders by text or phone call 10 minutes prior to the van / bus arriving at your pickup point. And their ETA systems for checking where the driver is are top-notch and you can see the info online or through a short phone call away, ran by an AI who can tell you the estimated time you can expect to be picked up, and bus number, ETC. 
3. Major agencies for the blind are there: I have my state Braille library, the Lighthouse for the blind, state services for the blind, and others are in the same city conveniently doing their thing and this means there will obviously be more blind people sharing the same in-town resources and going out and about circulating in the city and thus, by the virtue of having a number of us it may mean either by nature or through collective advocacy, making the city more accessible. Which meakes sense. In my city, by the way, bo NFB and ACB have strong presence making it even more likely that Access will be taken into account. 
David Andrews is correct in the part the more transit options, more willingness for access is useful.
4. Lastly, having access to all this stuff, better transit, better sidewalks, and even better and bigger infrastructure means it may also you have to shell out more money just to live. I pay quite a bit for rent, but that's because I live right on the avenue where there is the constant parade of cars nonstop and everything is more accessible and there's more security (I live on my own). But that means my salary is greater, too, competing with the inflasion and averages for median living, ETC. So yeah, ... I've had the luck of landing a decent job with benefits which can afford me living in this city, but someone who may be in a fixed or low income, or most sadly, unemployed, which is quite many a blind person in America, a balancing act is what needs to happen. In But yeah.... 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 11, 2024, at 5:41 AM, David Andrews via BlindTlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> You are asking a pretty nebulous question. What is "blind friendly?" It will vary from person to person, depending on what is important to you, and I don't know of one place where all that kind of information would be.
> 
> Things to consider would be, public transportation, paratransit, services, agencies, employment, walkability, people you know there, agencies, and many others. You will have to decide what is most important to you, then look for cities with it. \
> 
> The bigger the city, in general the better the public transportation, but then it may be more expensive to live there. It is a balancing act.
> 
> Dave
> 
> 
> At 03:03 PM 8/10/2024, you wrote:
>> Does anybody know where I can find out which is the most blind friendly city in the USA?
>> 
>> Thanks
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> William Vandervest
>> 
>> timelord09 at comcast.net
>> 
>> Win10 latest revision
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> There are none so blind, as those who will not see.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> William Vandervest
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> u
> 
> 
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