5 ms·

Haven't read the article, but as a blind person myself, nope. Much of the infrastructure designed to "help" us is so inconsistent, non-intuitive or broken that

Haven't read the article, but as a blind person myself, nope. Much of the infrastructure designed to "help" us is so inconsistent, non-intuitive or broken that I don't bother using it, far preferring my own skills and knowledge of my surroundings. For instance, I have an audible signal near my house. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes one side of the street works, and which side that is varies from day to day. In Austin, we have a variety of signal designs with no standard placement and, in some cases, a non-intuitive pattern of beeps which you can only learn by listening to the traffic patterns and correlating them with the sounds. So, in short, if I walk up and press a button, I have no indication whether that button will give me an audible signal, and historically giving me a signal is no indicator of getting one in the future. I feel truly sorry for anyone who actually needs the things. For my part, traffic never lies unless you get a bad driver, in which case an audible signal wouldn't save you anyway. Thanks for reading my mini-rant on the fucked-up state of shit to "help" blind folks. :P

ooqr 10y ago
Are you an engineer? I ask because you're on Hacker News. I've long been curious what the day to day workflow is for a blind engineer. Particularly if there are any folks doing software development. I'd be tempted to believe the kind of pseudo-visual thinking required for software design is exercised more in someone who has to construct their surroundings without visual input. I'd also be happy to be told I'm wrong. I seek to understand.
- jcranmer 10y ago
  I know at least two blind people who worked on actual coding (in C++). Obviously, both of them had rather important advice to give the accessibility team. :-)
- lizzard 10y ago
  Here's a fairly recent post (or two) about being blind and a developer. https://www.parhamdoustdar.com/2016/04/03/tools-of-blind-programmer/ https://www.parhamdoustdar.com/2016/04/03/tools-of-blind-pro...
- aptwebapps 10y ago
  The topic has come up before: https://hn.algolia.com/?utm_source=opensearch&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=opensearch&query=blind%20programmer&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?utm_source=opensearch&utm_medium=sea...
jzwinck 10y ago
Thanks for that, it's very interesting. The blind people in my city seem to just walk around using their senses without special tiles. Once in a while they speak up and ask someone to help them, but not often. As a cyclist I sometimes feel the same as you: special accommodations are often inconsistent or inadequate to the point that they are not useful except to casual users. And I don't think there are casual blind people.
caf 10y ago
So, in short, if I walk up and press a button, I have no indication whether that button will give me an audible signal... Probably for that reason, the audible signals around here are audible all the time - there's a slow tempo signal for "stop" and a significantly more urgent, higher tempo signal for "go".
ajdlinux 10y ago
Move to Australia, where we have a standard audible pedestrian signal/button design used nationally... http://theconversation.com/sublime-design-the-pb-5-pedestrian-button-26232 http://theconversation.com/sublime-design-the-pb-5-pedestria...
- tudorw 10y ago
  Here's a UK one, I love showing friends and random old people it's there, it's usually news to most people! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-22706881 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-22706881
  - ajdlinux 10y ago
    Interesting - here in Oz the vibrating device is on the face above the push button. I'm not sure whether it's easier to locate if you're blind/vision-impaired and thus actually need it, but it's certainly a bit more obvious for sighted folk.

ooqr 10y ago

Are you an engineer? I ask because you're on Hacker News. I've long been curious what the day to day workflow is for a blind engineer. Particularly if there are any folks doing software development. I'd be tempted to believe the kind of pseudo-visual thinking required for software design is exercised more in someone who has to construct their surroundings without visual input. I'd also be happy to be told I'm wrong. I seek to understand.

jcranmer 10y ago
I know at least two blind people who worked on actual coding (in C++). Obviously, both of them had rather important advice to give the accessibility team. :-)
lizzard 10y ago
Here's a fairly recent post (or two) about being blind and a developer. https://www.parhamdoustdar.com/2016/04/03/tools-of-blind-programmer/ https://www.parhamdoustdar.com/2016/04/03/tools-of-blind-pro...
aptwebapps 10y ago
The topic has come up before: https://hn.algolia.com/?utm_source=opensearch&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=opensearch&query=blind%20programmer&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?utm_source=opensearch&utm_medium=sea...

jzwinck 10y ago

Thanks for that, it's very interesting. The blind people in my city seem to just walk around using their senses without special tiles. Once in a while they speak up and ask someone to help them, but not often. As a cyclist I sometimes feel the same as you: special accommodations are often inconsistent or inadequate to the point that they are not useful except to casual users. And I don't think there are casual blind people.

caf 10y ago

So, in short, if I walk up and press a button, I have no indication whether that button will give me an audible signal... Probably for that reason, the audible signals around here are audible all the time - there's a slow tempo signal for "stop" and a significantly more urgent, higher tempo signal for "go".

ajdlinux 10y ago

Move to Australia, where we have a standard audible pedestrian signal/button design used nationally... http://theconversation.com/sublime-design-the-pb-5-pedestrian-button-26232 http://theconversation.com/sublime-design-the-pb-5-pedestria...

tudorw 10y ago
Here's a UK one, I love showing friends and random old people it's there, it's usually news to most people! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-22706881 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-22706881
- ajdlinux 10y ago
  Interesting - here in Oz the vibrating device is on the face above the push button. I'm not sure whether it's easier to locate if you're blind/vision-impaired and thus actually need it, but it's certainly a bit more obvious for sighted folk.