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----------------------  Original Message Follows  ----------------------
On Mon, 13 Apr 1998, Steve Zielinski wrote:
> 
> 
> Al,
> 	I wonder if part of the reason that NFB promoted a high tech 
> method of platform edge detection was because it was hoped that a device 
> could be made small enough to be inobtrusive for the blind person to 
> use.  In that way, a blind person would get whatever benefits come from 
> knowing where the edge was without the view that it is a special thing 
> for the blind, tactile strips out in full view, etc.  Also, I suspect the 
> NFB leadership feels that one way or another, some form of warning and 
> edge notification method will become prevalent in the country and they 
> better try and find a method that will not conflict with the notion of 
> needing to not be conspicuous.
> 
> 	My general feelings about detection strips are different than 
> what they were in the past.  I really don't care if they are there or 
> not, but do find them to be a little useful when they are there.  Useful 
> but not necessary.  A number of the key subway and L stations here in 
> Chicago have them, most do not.  I do find that when a station does have 
> one, I fell more comfortable moving at a more quicker pace.  Not a huge 
> necessity, but useful.  I suspect in time, as the population grows older 
> and generally become more feeble, these detectable strips will become 
> standard material.  Given that as a fact, assuming it to be true, and 
> most definitely the population will age, then it was necessary for the 
> NFB leadership to try and circumvent the inevitable with high tech, non 
> obtrusive, gizmos.  Just some thoughts.  
> 
> 
Your points are well-made and well-taken.
My views on the tactile warning strips themselves are close to yours.
There's nothing terrible about having them around, and they can be a
little helpful.  What I mind very much--and what I take it NFB folks
generally mind very much--is the pathetic portrayal of the blind that is
splattered before the public like a dismembered corpse to justify the
outcry for them.
My vague memory of the presidential release I mentioned earlier suggests
that you're right:  if a warning system was to come, our people may have
thought, let's at least try to hide it a little.  Well, I can understand
that view; other things being more or less equal, I can even promote it.
Other things aren't equal, though:  high-tech items of all types break
more often than simple things like truncated domes.  I thought, and (from
what little I know about them) the tests apparently indicated, that the
gismos didn't work well and therefore would certainly be dangerous if
relied upon.  Given our argument that tactile warning strips could be
hazardous by lulling people into relying on them, therefore putting those
people at some peril when they are on platforms without them, it seemed a
lousy idea indeed for us to be promoting a system that very probably would
not be reliable from day to day on the same platforms.  
I also thought, and still think, that we should decide that either blind
people as such don't need the damned warning system or that we--or some
segment of us--do need them.  If the first, we should stick to our
original guns and not help the government waste money.  If the second,
then the only sensible solution is something tactile on the platform,
something as easy to use as Braille, something whose strange newness will
wear off in time.  And whichever course we took should come after an
extensive convention discussion and a vote.  Shifting positions is
sometimes the right thing to do, but it should be done openly, not quietly
behind the scene while we say it's not happening.  (Yes, I know other
people and organizations do the behind-the-scene bit, and I know how
little respect they get while they chirp about staying their course.)
Well, although I went on at length about subway warning systems for the
blind, my main aim was to suggest that we will usually be better off if
we're as public about our mistakes as we are about what great ideas we
think they are at their beginnings.  I try to live by that concerning my
own life, and I hope I'm getting better at it.  The purpose certainly
should not be to put on a grand show of it, or to fall into some moder fad
about proving how vulnerable we can appear:  to me, that would be just
plain nonsense!  Rather, it should be always to worry more about truth
than image.  Sometimes we do this well, sometimes not.  And I do mean we,
not just our leaders.  (I mean people like me, who once who once stupidly
thought that access to ATMs wouldn't be a major problem or that voting by
way of a sighted assistant was good enough in the long run.)
Anyway, take care!  I hope you find this useful.
Al
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