[Nfbc-info] Braille Rally

[Chad Allen]

Yes. Not quite the same but it does involve blind folks behind the wheel which is cool. 

	I got the inspiration from a conversation I had with Mike Gibson while I was a student. I remember driving for the first time as a right of passage and I hoped students would get the same experience as teenagers get when they have their license granted to them. Mike talked about an event at a local race track called “Blind Alley Rally.” It was a pre-show form of entertainment he experienced in Idaho. Cars were more similar to the cars you would see in a smash-up derby in county fairs. The cars were stripped down so nothing could fall of of them and they were only able to drive in first gear. We knew that there would be no way to drive on a public street so it was a search for private land to host the activity at the CCB. I talked with farms, and arenas with large parking lots but no one was willing to give it a chance. 

	My girlfriend now wife Melissa took her driving lessons as a teen at a place called Master Drive which is a defensive\ racing school. When I pitched the idea, they were more than willing to try. Not only did they provide us with the space but they also let us use their facilities, their cars, and their trainers for the day. The owner oversaw the event as well and by the time the students were in the field, he was jumping up and down with the success of the drivers under sleep shades. It was a truly magical moments. Some the teachers of the CCB even came up to me later telling me that it was their first time behind the wheel. David Hyde later told me that he thought it was a dumb idea but that I changed his thinking after its success. But more than all of that, blind people proved again that given the opportunity, we are capable of anything. 



Best wishes,


Chad 


> On Jul 28, 2015, at 10:35 AM, Chad Allen <chad at chadallenmagic.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Rob,
> 
> 	I was a student at the Colorado Center for the Blind in 2001. I was student body President during that time for one term. As President, it’s our responsibility to develop a confidence building activity for the group. 
> 
> 	I was the first to develop a blind driving activity then. There is an organization in Colorado called Master Drive. The event was a great success. Newspapers, local news channels, and even a national paper showed up to check us out. We had about a three hours session in the classroom talking about the science of driving and then we all went out into the field to drive. It was a “sleep shade” activity and all the students were behind the wheel. We needed to maneuver through cones via audible commands and then we performed a skid recovery activity where the car hydroplaned on a wet surface. The drivers needed to point the car back in the direction the car was going after the skid. Everybody did it!
> 
> 	 It was great! The CCB still has that program and it was certainly a crowd pleaser.
> 
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> 
> Chad 
> 
> 
>> On Jul 28, 2015, at 8:46 AM, Rob Kaiser via Nfbc-info <nfbc-info at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Good morning all:
>> 
>> My mom just told me about an article she was reading in the paper about something called a Braille Rally.It is where sighted people drive and the blind passengers give the directions as to where to go on the course. Apparently, there is 1 in Spocan, WA & 1 in LA. I am just curious about this. 
>> Thanks. 
>> 
>> 
>> Rob Kaiser 
>> hm#(442)242-7044
>> email;
>> rcubfank at sbcglobal.net
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