[nfbwatlk] Transit Guide-Bots for Blind Passengers?, Route Fifty presented by Government Executive, May 17 2015

Tue Jun 16 20:11:14 UTC 2015

Despite what I said in an earlier post, the ultimate secret to mobility for
blind people is just getting out there and moving!  I don't care nearly as
much about the technique as about the result.  
It's more time efficient to phone taxis and more fiscally prudent to take
the city bus.  If I had the funds, I'd opt for the taxi.  Since my bank
account doesn't rival that of Bill Gates, I'm glad I feel confident taking
transit.  I'm glad I feel confident taking a walk for my health, but I
wouldn't like it very much if there were neither taxis nor transit
available.  My world would be restricted to those things within walking
distance.  Then again, if I lived in a place with neither taxis nor transit,
I'd be much healthier, and I'd also find ways to borrow or pay for the use
of somebody else's wheels.

If we want our blindness to be just one among countless of our
characteristics, we need to become problem solvers.  The universal inclusive
design people are right to the extent that they want to eliminate
unnecessary disinsentives and roadblocks.  They're wrong to the extent that
they take our problem solving capacity out of the picture.  We need to make
sure that we don't take ourselves out of the running by failing to develop
our problem solving capacity.

As for employment, I tend to agree with you, Mike, that it is a much more
important issue than how we move.  If we think about the emerging economy
creatively, our experience as problem solvers will put blind people in a
competitive advantage, perhaps for the first time in history.  Finding an
employer to hire us is likely to become increasingly problematic because
experts seem to agree that we're in the midst of an economic upheaval as far
reaching as the industrial revolution.  Some say that the underlying
unemployment rate for all workers may reach as high as fifty per cent.  I
find it hard to imagine what a world like that will be like!  It seems
likely to me that we're moving toward a system where we'll all be ME
Incorporated, shopping our skills and talents around to people who pay for
our work on an ad hoc basis.  That will challenge us, but I believe we can
create tremendous opportunities for ourselves if we start rethinking the way
we approach employment.

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike
Freeman via nfbwatlk
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 7:38 AM
To: 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'
Cc: Mike Freeman
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Transit Guide-Bots for Blind Passengers?, Route
Fifty presented by Government Executive, May 17 2015

What do you expect? Many blind iPhone users seem to be waxing ecstatic about
the Be My Eyes app! The common denominator here is that neither the blind
nor the sighted often seem to believe that the blind can come up with their
own solutions to problems engendered by the lack of sight.

And can you imagine what these robots would do under current operating
systems? They'd go nuts!

Wish people would worry less about the blind navigating their environment
and more about putting the blind to work!

Mike Freeman

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Prows,
Bennett (HHS/OCR) via nfbwatlk
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 7:11 AM
To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List
Cc: Prows, Bennett (HHS/OCR); Nightingale, Noel
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Transit Guide-Bots for Blind Passengers?, Route
Fifty presented by Government Executive, May 17 2015

Hmmm is right! So, we want sighted guides everywhere?

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Nightingale, Noel via nfbwatlk
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 2:07 PM
To: nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Nightingale, Noel
Subject: [nfbwatlk] Transit Guide-Bots for Blind Passengers?, Route Fifty
presented by Government Executive, May 17 2015

Hmmm...

Link:
http://www.routefifty.com/2015/05/transit-guide-bots-blind-passengers/113020
/

Text:
Transit Guide-Bots for Blind Passengers?
By Bill Lucia
May 17, 2015

An assistive robotics project is exploring how advanced technology could
make it easier for people with visual impairments to navigate cities.

A blind person is traveling on the subway. The train they're riding on pulls
into a stop, the doors open and the person exits. Waiting there on the
platform, to help guide them through the station, is a robot.

"Making a robot do that, there are some challenges, but it's not as
challenging as it used to be," said Aaron Steinfeld after describing the
scenario involving the guide-bot during a recent interview. Steinfeld is an
associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics
Institute in Pittsburgh, where he specializes in human-robot interaction.

He and others at the university are working on a project that aims to
incorporate robots, smartphones, mobile applications and crowdsourced
information into a system that can help blind people navigate complicated
and unfamiliar urban environments, such as transit stations.

"If you have a disability, it can be rather difficult to just get up and go
somewhere because of the planning and the information that you need at your
disposal," Steinfeld said. "That's where information technology and
assistive robot systems could really shine."
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