[nagdu] Blind-Drivable Car at Convention
Tamara Smith-Kinney
tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Thu Feb 3 06:11:24 UTC 2011
Yeah, that it exactly. Because it's so Mitzi. Half the reason I'm so
thrilled about the drivable car for blind people is because it is a scenario
in which I can drive (okay, it's been 12 years, still not entirely over it)
but still *have my guide dog*!
When the subject of a cure for blindness used to come up -- for no
particular reason involving the presence of a white cane in the room -- and
what would the person standing nearest the white cane do and feel about it,
althought there was no real reason for asking, whichever member of the group
asked was just wondering ... /lol/ Sorry for the diversion there, but it
took me a long time to ever be sure I could keep a straight face and
maintain an attitude of listening while pretending to be perfectly ignorant
of the fact that some well-meaning overly well-coached in manners fool was
beating around the bush about the fact that I am, well, you know, I don't
mean to be offensive, but ...
Okay. Ten minutes later, we get to the question on everyone's mind (except
for the person standing nearest the white cane; the white cane has never
seemed to care): What would would you do? That's not the real question of
course, or at least it's not what the folks are really wondering. They're
wondering what it feels like to be blind. What does a blind person feel
about themselves being blind, about being blind. How can someone just
accept it like that? Is it cool? Or weird. Could *I* (not me, the blind
one) accept it and go on?
My answer back then was pretty pat: Only if the reversal of my vision loos
would allow me to both read and drive! Then I would add some detail with
occasional smile or grin or even rueful grimace to answer some of the
emotional questions while attempting to convey and overall message of ...
well, whatever.
Only since I've really started using Mitzi as a guide -- even back when I
was learning to be a handler, not a trainer, and she was still a major PITA,
I've had a moral dilemma with the driving thing and have lived in fear of
someone asking. /lol/ Okay, I'm overdramatizing, but even when DD and I
chatting idly about some medical advance or other over Saturday morning
coffee, I find myself worrying about where Mitzi fits in with a cure for the
blindness part of my not driving. I *always* picture her there in my mental
image, and I *always* picture getting out of the car with her and grabbing
the harness handle to go to work...
It's just silly, I know, but driving and still needing a guide dog makes
that mental image make sense for me.
Aside from my personal foibles that I don't take seriously beyond enjoying
the entertainment value unless there's something in it that useful in my
growth as a blidn person, I am very excited abou the development and public
demonstrations of the technology and its use by an honest-to-goodness blind
person for the reasons so many others have expressed far better than I
could. Will it become something those of us here now will someday use in
our daily lives? I would love that! In know it's not a guarantee, but it
is a happy, happy thought.
In the meantime, the concept of "blind" and that of "driver" are no longer
mutually exclusive in our cultural collective consciousness... True, there
are still parts of the overall puplation that can't wrap their minds around
"blind" and "work" but the idea is out there. It *will* sink in over time.
And it will change what it means to be blind for the majority culture.
Which will change things for those of us who are blind. Exciting stuff.
And maybe someday I'll have my little red sports car *and* my guide dog.
Don't get better than that! /lol/ Except for affordable adaptive tech for
all. Which will come eventually, too. Somday ...
Tami Smith-Kinney
-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Nicole B. Torcolini at Home
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 3:52 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Blind-Drivable Car at Convention
Tami,
That's so you...I can just imagine it. A red car, zooming down the road,
black poodle Mitzi sticking her head out the passenger window, tongue out
and ears flapping.
Nicole and Lexia (who does not stick her head out car windows)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'"
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 4:10 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Blind-Drivable Car at Convention
> Oh, but I want to live long enough to drive into town, parallel park
> beside
> a busy sidewalk then hop out for the car with my guide dog and walk the
> rest
> of the way to work (or shopping, I'm easy)! Or even with my whtie cane.
> Either way, it would be funny. Well, I guess not being able to see the
> looks on people's faces when they first start seeing those sorts of sights
> is a bit of a bummer, but I can imagine what they will be. /lol/
>
> I fear you may be right about attitudes and so forth. Then again, even
> though it seems like in some areas we're in a reverse pendulum swing, the
> wacked out economy and the housing crisis and the general shake up in what
> our culture at large has believed is the way things just are because
> that's
> how they're supposed to be could result in suprising changes in the social
> order once the dust settles. I admit, I tend to have a grim view
> sometimes,
> since historically the blind do not fare well in crisis based cultural
> upheavals... But then I realize it's very possible that we gained enough
> ground leading up to this, and we've benefitted from so many advances in
> technology, that we could come out even or even ahead... As would other
> disability groups, for the same reason. Hard to say, really, since the
> dust
> isn't finished rising into the air as far as anyway can maybe almost sort
> of
> agree.
>
> Still, someone was pointing out that blind people are getting a boost in
> terms of gaining employment because so many others have given up on even
> looking out of sheer discouragement. That's cool.
>
> So, who knows, maybe when the blind-drivable car comes onto the market and
> the infrastructure is there for it, they will actually allow blind people
> to
> drive it. I want that sporty red convertible! /grin/
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Buddy Brannan
> Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 2:31 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Blind-Drivable Car at Convention
>
> Hi,
>
> Oh, I'm completely with you on your analogy with the Wright brothers. Will
> we see blind people driving in our lifetime? I sure hope so. As I've said
> elsewhere (as have others, I'm sure), I believe the attitude and
> legislative
> barriers are going to be much harder to manage than the technological ones
> will. I think the technology will be ready in our lifetimes, but I'm not
> so
> sure that sighted drivers will be as willing to share the roads with us,
> and
> that's going to be the harder battle to win. (I suspect that by the time
> we
> *do* win that one, everyone will have automated vehicles and it won't
> matter.) Having said that though, the technological offshoots of this, and
> the developments that come of it in goodness knows how many areas, will be
> tremendous.
> --
> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
> Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY
>
>
>
> On Feb 1, 2011, at 4:58 PM, Rovig, Lorraine wrote:
>
>> Dear Buddy,
>> It is also worth noting, in a practical sense, that from the first flight
> by the Wright Brothers at Kittyhawk to the first step on the moon took 50
> years. I think this trip at Daytona Racetrack is the equivelent of a
> Kittyhawk for a blind driver. I wouldn't expect a Wright Brother to fly
> that airplane of theirs anywhere but on a closed beach until they solved a
> few more problems. On the other hand, fifty years isn't so long for such
> a
> huge leap of mankind as stepping on the moon. I expect blind drivers will
> be on the open roads in my lifetime. Here is a link to more information
> about the Daytona trip by Mark Riccobono as found on the NFB Website:
>>
>> Blind Man Drives Car Independently
>> The NFB announced today that for the first time a blind individual has
> driven a street vehicle in public without the assistance of a sighted
> person. Mark Anthony Riccobono, a blind executive who directs technology,
> research, and education programs for the organization, was behind the
> wheel
> of a Ford Escape hybrid equipped with nonvisual technology and
> successfully
> navigated 1.5 miles of the road course section of the famed track at the
> Daytona International Speedway. For more information on this historic
> moment, please read the digital news release with audio and video or the
> official press release. http://www.digitalnewsrelease.com/?q=nfb_daytona
> and
>> http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=760
>>
>> Lorraine Rovig
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf
> Of Buddy Brannan
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 4:24 PM
>> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Blind-Drivable Car at Convention
>>
>> No, there's no strip in the road. Speed strips" are vibraing things that
> are in a cushion under the driver's legs and up his back. These give
> information about whether he can speed up or slow down. The files on
> blindbargains.com are fantastic. BTW, I doubt that any blind people will
> drive the car on the open road. Putting aside the whole issue of not
> having
> driver's licenses and not being insured, I really don't think that the
> technology is quite ready for real world use. Probably won't be for some
> time yet. And count on legal hurdles and red tape beyond that before we
> can
> actually have a car that we can drive, and never mind the cost of having
> such a car modded. Think a van with a wheelchair lift is expensive? I'd
> bet
> this will be more.
>> --
>> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
>> Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY
>>
>>
>>
>> On Feb 1, 2011, at 3:23 PM, cheryl echevarria wrote:
>>
>>> neither did I.
>>>
>>> The biggest compliment you can pay me is to recommend my services!
>>>
>>> Cheryl Echevarria
>>> http://www.Echevarriatravel.com<http://www.echevarriatravel.com/>
>>> 1-866-580-5574 or 631-456-5394
>>>
>
reservations at echevarriatravel.com<mailto:reservations at echevarriatravel.com>
>>>
>>> Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Montrose Travel
> CST-1018299-10
>>> Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Absolute Cruise and Travel
> Inc.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Albert J Rizzi<mailto:albert at myblindspot.org>
>>> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog
> Users'<mailto:nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 3:18 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Blind-Drivable Car at Convention
>>>
>>>
>>> I did not hear anything about needing a strip on the road or anything
> like
>>> that to tell you the truth.
>>>
>>> Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
>>> Founder
>>> My Blind Spot, Inc.
>>> 90 Broad Street - 18th Fl.
>>> New York, New York 10004
>>> www.myblindspot.org<http://www.myblindspot.org/>
>>> PH: 917-553-0347
>>> Fax: 212-858-5759
>>> "The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who
> is
>>> doing it."
>>>
>>>
>>> Visit us on Facebook LinkedIn
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org>
> [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
>>> Of Cindy Ray
>>> Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 3:13 PM
>>> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
>>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Blind-Drivable Car at Convention
>>>
>>> There are probably plenty of software issues to iron out. Also, as I
>>> understand it, mostly the car has to drive on a strip that heops with
>>> the
>>> sensors, but I could be wrong. Blind Bargains has a podcast of the
>>> drive,
>>> complete with the crowd there, race announcers, and all, and a press
>>> conference. I think it is blindbargains.com though it could be .org.
>>>
>>>
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