[il-talk] Andy Slater on riding CTA as a blind person

[Dan Tevelde]

Hi Sharon,

One of the reasons you might have had trouble reading the article is because the site has a lot of advertising inside inline frames and JAWS may get stuck inside the frame when you are trying to read the article.  In addition the site isn't secure and some people might not be able to open it because their computer and browser settings lock out insecure sites.  Just giving the site a quick look indicated that the construction of it used outdated web conventions.  The people who maintain the site for the paper should adopt the latest security conventions like using secure socket layer certificates.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 18, 2017, at 10:33 AM, Kelly Pierce via IL-Talk <il-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> The article is below stripped of formatting.
> 
> Kelly
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> Riding CTA legally blind can be ‘a huge pain in the ass’
> 
> Navigating public transit when you can’t see well isn't easy, musician
> Andy Slater says.
> 
> By John Greenfield @greenfieldjohn
> 
> 
> 
> Photo caption: Visually impaired musician Andy Slater recently teamed
> up with Reader contributor Steve Krakow for a Chick tract-style comic
> on the dos and don'ts of interacting with blind people.
> 
> 
> 
> Getting around Chicago via mass transit can be frustrating for any of
> us, but imagine what it's like for people who are legally blind.
> Visually impaired sound artist, rock musician, and recording engineer
> Andy Slater offered to share his experiences navigating the city on
> public transportation and floated some ideas to improve transportation
> access for folks with disabilities.
> 
> 
> 
> A native of Milford, Connecticut, Slater moved to town in 1994 to
> attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and now lives in
> Portage Park with his wife, Tressa, and their 12-year-old son, whose
> very rock 'n' roll name—yes, his real name—is Baron Vonn Slater. Andy
> creates "organic-electric" soundtracks and sound design especially
> geared toward people with visual impairments, with the goal of evoking
> images and colors. He also sings and plays keyboards in the acid-funk
> band  the Velcro Lewis Group and records other acts at  Frogg Mountain
> studio in the West Loop.
> 
> Slater's vision has gradually declined since childhood, due to
> retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary disease that involves the
> deterioration of the retina's rod photoreceptor cells. Symptoms
> include loss of peripheral and night vision, plus light
> sensitivity—Slater must wear two pairs of sunglasses to go outside on
> a sunny day. The condition can eventually lead to total blindness.
> 
> Nowadays Slater can detect light and dark, shapes, and movement, but
> not much else.
> 
> "There's a layer over my vision like snow from an old TV," he says.
> "It's this strange mix between a sort of neon purple and these black
> dots that kind of move around."
> 
> In 2009, when his sight was somewhat better, Slater was walking from
> his home in Humboldt Park to Wicker Park when he was struck in a
> crosswalk at Division and Western by a turning driver who failed to
> yield. (Five years earli