[nfb-db] Travel

[John Lee Clark]

Mussie:

We have accessibility issues, too.  We're not sitting on the services we
have, but we keep pushing to get things even better.  Last Saturday the DB
association and the Department of Transportation had a meeting.  Ten DOT
people were there, fifteen DB, and some advocacy lawyers.  Some of the
stimulus money is being funneled to the DOT, so the meeting was to set up
priorities for meeting the needs of the DB community.  Tactile and narrative
maps, installing more vibrating signals at more intersections, and the
development of remote technology whereby we can "read" the intersection
lights so that the vibrating signals are not the only option, redesigning
certain elements of the light rail system and stations, and so on.  So we're
making sure we benefit from the stimulus money.

Seattle?  Yes, it has an active DB community, but the services, etc. aren't
that great, no.  The organizations depend a great deal on volunteers.  Our
services are many years ahead of theirs, but our community here is smaller.
I guess the LH for the Blind attracted a lot of DB people in the Seventies.
A majority of the DB community there is over the age of fifty.  So for about
twenty years, Seattle was the best, because elsewhere there were nothing
much.  But Seattle has not made much progress since.  Maybe one reason is
that the state legislature has one of the smallest annual budgets in the
nation.  I forget which it is, but the state doesn't have a major type of
tax.  This is why nonprofits and charities run a lot of things there.

One of the most important things we have is our Commission.  Under a special
provision, the Commission is allowed to aggressively lobby the legislature.
So we have five people whose jobs it is to educate legislators, broker
deals, twist arms, share news and alerts with the community, draft bills
that members of the community propose, find a senator and a representative
to introduce the bills, mobilize the community for rallies if needed, and so
on.  So we've come to have very close and powerful ties with the state
government.

But I took all of this for granted while growing up.  I thought all states
had the same.  But then my friend in Michigan organized a protest against
the school for the Deaf in Flint.  My wife and I went there to join him.
There, I discovered that nobody knew who's who in the Department of
Education.  They'd tried to talk with some higher ups, but got nowhere and
so were forced to protest.  It worked, because suddenly some bigwigs showed
up to try and put out the fires.  That was the first time the community knew
about those people and it was the first time the Department had heard of any
problems with the school.  There was a complete disconnection all along.  Ii
was shocked, because that would never happen here.  Our state law requires
that our community has access to information and access to lobbying, and
what's more the expenses of information sharing and access to lobbying and
lobbying activities would be paid for by the state.

So that trip to Michigan made me realize that we've got something great
going on here.  When I started to travel all over for Hawk Relay, this would
be confirmed.  I have yet to visit a state where things are better in terms
of services.  I haven't visited all fifty, but I've been to all the eastern
states and the Midwest and the deep south plus Washington state and
California.  Three states have bigger and leivelier DB communities than
Minnesota--Seattle, Louisiana, and Boston.  Of the three, Boston has the
best services.  For example, Boston offers more SSP hours to more consumers
than the other two.  But Minnesota is tops.  But it doesn't have the biggest
or the most active DB community, no.

So there are just different elements in different places.s  The best in one
thing may not be the best in another.  For example, Seattle has the most DB
people who work.  But that's thanks in large part to the LH.  Still, work is
work, a paycheck is still a paycheck.  

So it depends on what you value the most.

John