[il-talk] Andy Slater on riding CTA as a blind person

Tue Apr 18 15:38:53 UTC 2017

Here are the comments, which include a response from Andy’s wife to a
commenter.  My comment is last.

Kelly

Comments (12)

"While he's generally comfortable getting around on his regular el and
bus routes, accessibility issues influence his travel decisions."

"Slater's mixed experience using the CTA is fairly typical of the
general disability community,"

Of course, the phrases "generally comfortable" and "mixed experience"
aren't going to get as many page views as "can be a huge pain in the
ass". So that's the one that's got to be used in the headline even
though, as one can see in the tenth paragraph, Slater clearly is
referring to something that in his mind is relatively minor and not to
the system in general..

Posted by The original IACon 04/10/2017 at 10:32 PM.

"Nothing stops me dead in my tracks like the sound
of an approaching car...don't creep on me, Christine!"

One wonders how the visually-impaired deal with nearly-silent electric
or hybrid cars. Are there any special laws or regulations for people
driving those vehicles? Instructions from those who sell those
vehicles to those who purchase them? It's good for society that
they're green; it's bad for pedestrians that their near-silence poses
a threat to those trained by years of habit to both "look and listen"
for approaching vehicles. More so the visually-impaired because the
"look" caution is largely diminished..

Posted by Angela Tallison 04/11/2017 at 11:18 AM.

Great story, although I have to note the irony that in the comic is
featured a panel stating "A cyclist on the sidewalk is a *major*
threat to a blind pedestrian.".

Posted by Skepticon 04/12/2017 at 12:58 PM.

THE ORIGINAL IAC

WTF MAN.

Posted by MJon 04/12/2017 at 4:19 PM.

Original IAC: I'm his wife. Your assumption about my husband's thought
process couldn't be more wrong. Imagine these things you assume are
minor inconveniences plague every situation in your daily life. They
soon add up to a huge pain in the ass.
Side note: when you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.

Skeptic: what exactly is ironic about being (at best) grazed by a
cyclist speeding down the sidewalk? Through "conversations" we've
learned cyclists assume pedestrians on a sidewalk can see them coming
and assume said pedestrians will get out of the way. As covered
before, when you assume you make an ass out of u and me. Also.
Cyclists need to get off the sideWALK. K. Thanks..

Posted by B Axeon 04/12/2017 at 8:24 PM.

The irony I am noting is that John wrote multiple articles last week
describing a disproportionate number of tickets written for people
cycling on the sidewalk on the West and South Sides. Missing is the
analysis was the fact that you note - adults aren't allowed to ride on
the sidewalk for a reason, it's dangerous for pedestrians.

"Skeptic: what exactly is ironic about being (at best) grazed by a
cyclist speeding down the sidewalk? Through "conversations" we've
learned cyclists assume pedestrians on a sidewalk can see them coming
and assume said pedestrians will get out of the way. As covered
before, when you assume you make an ass out of u and me. Also.
Cyclists need to get off the sideWALK. K. Thanks.".

Posted by Skepticon 04/13/2017 at 12:08 PM.

Skeptic: "The irony I am noting is that John wrote multiple articles
last week describing a disproportionate number of tickets written for
people cycling on the sidewalk on the West and South Sides. Missing is
the analysis was the fact that you note - adults aren't allowed to
ride on the sidewalk for a reason, it's dangerous for pedestrians."

Here's what I recently wrote on Streetsblog in regard to the CPD's
apparent zero-tolerance policy towards bike enforcement in
African-American communities:
"Its certainly true that the small minority of Chicago cyclists who
speed down crowded sidewalks, or mindlessly bomb red lights with no
regard for cross traffic, are a danger to themselves and others and
deserve to be ticketed. But the numbers of tickets issued in black
neighborhoods, and anecdotes from cyclists in Wisniewskis article,
indicates that, in these areas, the police are also ticketing for
harmless behavior such as slow sidewalk riding and 'Idaho Stops'
[treating a stoplight like a stop sign, or a stop sign like a yield
sign]."
http://chi.streetsblog.org/2017/03/28/trib…

Perhaps I should have clarified that by "slow sidewalk riding" I mean
walking-speed. Folks with vision impairments, please correct me if I'm
wrong about this, but my impression is that a person riding at around
3 mph on the sidewalk isn't any more dangerous to a blind person than
someone going that pace on foot..

Posted by John Greenfieldon 04/13/2017 at 12:59 PM.

" Original IAC: I'm his wife. Your assumption about my husband's
thought process couldn't be more wrong. Imagine these things you
assume are minor inconveniences plague every situation in your daily
life. They soon add up to a huge pain in the ass. "

I didn't say that these were minor inconveniences. My point was simply
that there seems to be a disconnect between the headline and the
article. The article doesn't suggest the phrase used in the headline
was meant to describe your husband's overall experience with the CTA,
but rather to one specific thing. In fact, the article states that he
is "generally comfortable" and has "mixed experiences". If this is
incorrect, your complaint falls on the article. I was just
interpreting it. My phrase "relatively minor" wasn't meant to suggest
anything being minor, just that the phrase in the headline seems
(according to the way the article is set up, which may be incorrect)
not to refer to his everyday experiences with the CTA but an issue he
has occasionally encountered.

You are absolutely correct that multiple minor (or more)
inconveniences will add up to a huge pain the the ass. There's no
doubt that anybody who is physically disabled would experience that.
But that's not what the quote was referring to. So that certainly
wasn't anything I was disputing. It's obvious from the like/dislike
numbers on my post that a lot of people misinterpreted what I was
saying..

Posted by The original IACon 04/14/2017 at 12:25 AM.

Except that the word of people who claim they are "slow sidewalk
riding at 3 mph" is about as dubious as those who complain they didn't
deserve their red light camera ticket.

And it's still hard to understand how cops writing just over a ticket
a day could constitute anything resembling a zero-tolerance policy.

But the larger point here is we have these rules in place for a
reason, and just because they aren't immediately apparent doesn't mean
they aren't worthwhile. Specific to this story, ADA has come a long,
long way in America and for sure Chicago. But the best infrastructure
can't compete with people who decide they don't need to use it as
designed.

"Perhaps I should have clarified that by "slow sidewalk riding" I mean
walking-speed. Folks with vision impairments, please correct me if I'm
wrong about this, but my impression is that a person riding at around
3 mph on the sidewalk isn't any more dangerous to a blind person than
someone going that pace on foot.".

Posted by Skepticon 04/14/2017 at 8:45 AM.

As discussed in the comments last week, a 2013 amendment to the
Chicago Municipal Ordinance legalized some sidewalk riding (and, no,
I'm not going to debate whether confusion about the definition of the
Loop is an issue):

Amendment to 9-52-020 Riding bicycles on sidewalks:

"Bicyclists of any age may ride on the sidewalks outside of the Loop
if the sidewalks is marked as a bicycle route, is used to enter the
nearest street or to get to a bicycle sharing station."

The fact is, it sometimes makes sense for adults to ride on the
sidewalk for short distances. There's a big difference between slowly
rolling down the sidewalk for a short distance in a manner that
doesn't endanger pedestrians, and recklessly speeding down the
sidewalk when you should be using the street. It's not difficult to
tell the difference between the two, so it makes sense for police to
ticket for the latter, but not the former..

Posted by John Greenfieldon 04/14/2017 at 3:34 PM.

"No, I'm not going to debate whether confusion
about the definition of the Loop is an issue."

Smart move because there is no debate: "The Loop" is a confusing,
antiquated term that should be chucked. Our great-great-grandmas knew
The Loop more or less by the boundaries previously stated. They went
there for theatres, restaurants, fancy-schmancy stores. But after WW2
big shopping centers like Oakbrook, Old Orchard, and others made that
trip less attractive. For a while the grannies kept going at Xmas for
the windows, The Walnut Room, Uncle Mistletoe, etc. But then the
fancy-schmancy stores migrated to the Mag Mile. So The Loop lost its
allure. Except for pickpockets.

Back when the term "Loop" had a clear meaning, adults riding bicycles
were seen as adults with mental problems. Today that's all changed.
Fine. But for the government to use the slang term "The Loop" in its
formal regulations is absurd! Just as it would be absurd to use the
slang term "Mag Mile" So....

CHANGE THIS:
"Bicyclists of any age may ride on the sidewalks outside of the Loop
if the sidewalks is marked as a bicycle route, is used to enter the
nearest street or to get to a bicycle sharing station."

TO THIS:
"Bicyclists of any age may ride on a sidewalk if it is marked as a
bicycle route, is used to enter the nearest street or to get to a
bicycle-sharing station."

Simple - like regulations should be..

Posted by Angela Tallison 04/17/2017 at 7:55 AM.

I am blind and ride the CTA daily. I transfer between the Red and Blue
lines at Jackson for my job in the west Loop. I have gone out of state
for blindness training and have learned from the most independent
blind travelers. I can navigate the Clark and Lake Station now without
much difficulty, but it was not this way before I spent the time to
learn the station, develop techniques for navigating it, and becoming
an experienced blind traveler. Many blind people are not as
independent as me and many blind people do not have the travel
problems of Andy so it can be problematic to generalize.

I discovered a few years back that CTA failed to enforce a contract
provision for its bus shelter signs. I learned this after obtaining
the contract on paper and scanning it into my computer. The CTA
eventually installed the beep tones. This was at a time before the
widespread adoption of iPhones by independent blind people. Now, real
time bus arrival information is available through fully accessible
iPhone apps like Ride Chicago and Move It. I would not find it useful
for audible signals by turnstiles or other train station elements.

The train announcements on exterior speakers identifying the
approaching train are controlled by the train operator. If the
operator is lazy and does not press the button to play the
announcement that identifies the train at stations with multiple
lines, then blind passengers need to ask what the train line is. This
failure by the operator is a violation of the Americans with
Disabilities Act. Blind people can report operators by reading the car
number on the trains door frame in Braille and reporting the incident
along with the car number to CTA, who will discipline the operator.
Unfortunately, many rail yard managers treat these reports like
customer service problems rather than civil rights violations.
I have had both bicycles and people break my white cane in two. While
bicyclists may not be observant, people who are texting are not either
and walk into me with their legs getting entangled in my cane. I would
rather bounce off a person though than a metal bike frame. I own a
tandem bike and live in a house next to a corner house. All sighted
pilots of my tandem have biked up the wheelchair ramp on the corner
and stopped in front of my house before we dismounted. It seems a
little silly to dismount in the street and walk the bike 20 feet when
people can easily be seen..

Posted by Kelly Pierce on 04/17/2017 at 12:12 PM.

On 4/18/17, Kelly Pierce <kellytalk at gmail.com> wrote:
> The article is below stripped of formatting.
>
> Kelly
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Riding CTA legally blind can be ‘a huge pain in the ass’
>
> Navigating public transit when you can’t see well isn't easy, musician
> Andy Slater says.
>
> By John Greenfield @greenfieldjohn
>
>
>
>  Photo caption: Visually impaired musician Andy Slater recently teamed
> up with Reader contributor Steve Krakow for a Chick tract-style comic
> on the dos and don'ts of interacting with blind people.
>
>
>
> Getting around Chicago via mass transit can be frustrating for any of
> us, but imagine what it's like for people who are legally blind.
> Visually impaired sound artist, rock musician, and recording engineer
> Andy Slater offered to share his experiences navigating the city on
> public transportation and floated some ideas to improve transportation
> access for folks with disabilities.
>
>
>
> A native of Milford, Connecticut, Slater moved to town in 1994 to
> attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and now lives in
> Portage Park with his wife, Tressa, and their 12-year-old son, whose
> very rock 'n' roll name—yes, his real name—is Baron Vonn Slater. Andy
> creates "organic-electric" soundtracks and sound design especially
> geared toward people with visual impairments, with the goal of evoking
> images and colors. He also sings and plays keyboards in the acid-funk
> band  the Velcro Lewis Group and records other acts at  Frogg Mountain
> studio in the West Loop.
>
> Slater's vision has gradually declined since childhood, due to
> retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary disease that involves the
> deterioration of the retina's rod photoreceptor cells. Symptoms
> include loss of peripheral and night vision, plus light
> sensitivity—Slater must wear two pairs of sunglasses to go outside on
> a sunny day. The condition can eventually lead to total blindness.
>
> Nowadays Slater can detect light and dark, shapes, and movement, but
> not much else.
>
> "There's a layer over my vision like snow from an old TV," he says.
> "It's this strange mix between a sort of neon purple and these black
> dots that kind of move around."
>
> In 2009, when his sight was somewhat better, Slater was walking from
> his home in Humboldt Park to Wicker Park when he was struck in a
> crosswalk at Division and Western by a turning driver who failed to
> yield. (Five years earlier, a drunk driver fatally struck Slater's
> acquaintance  Christopher Saathoff, bassist for Chin Up Chin Up, at
> the same intersection.)
>
> Slater suffered damage to his leg muscles and back and still has a
> "nasty scar" on his right arm. It took about a year of physical
> therapy for him to make a full recovery. While he'd previously been
> hesitant to use a white cane because he didn't want to draw attention
> to his disability, after the crash he began using one without fail,
> both for navigation and to warn other road users of his condition.
>
> Slater and his family currently live near Montrose and Milwaukee.
> Although they own a car, he frequently uses CTA trains and buses to
> pick up his son from elementary school near the California Blue Line
> station, commute to his studio near Lake and Ogden, and go to band
> practice in Humboldt Park.
>
> While he's generally comfortable getting around on his regular el and
> bus routes, accessibility issues influence his travel decisions.
>
> "If I have to transfer to another train line where there's no direct
> transfer, or if I have to leave the station, I generally don't bother
> because that's a huge pain in the ass even if there's [a customer
> assistant] there to help me," he says.
>
> For example, Frogg Mountain is only a few blocks west of the Morgan
> Green/Pink Line station. But Slater often travels there via the
> Ashland bus, because transferring from the Blue Line subway to the
> elevated tracks at the Clark/Lake station is a complex operation for a
> legally blind person. "It's just too taxing for me," he says. "I get
> turned around a lot in terms of where the stairs or turnstiles are,
> and I hate wandering around clueless and confused."
>
> One CTA feature that Slater says makes travel less confusing is the
> 350-plus bus shelters that beep to broadcast their locations to the
> visually impaired, and have a button you can press to get audible
> announcements about incoming buses.
>
> "If they took that idea and put it on the stairs to elevated trains or
> some of the turnstiles," he says, "that would help me a lot."
>
> While el stations that serve multiple lines usually have announcements
> about what color train is approaching, Slater says they don't always
> work. "That really pisses me off," he says. "If they have a situation
> where it's down, the driver should always announce it."
>
> Slater's proud that he's done his part to make the el a little more
> accessible for himself and other blind riders. During the buggy launch
> of the Ventra payment system, he realized that the fare card vending
> machines, which offer audible cues for payment, would state the
> balance on a customer's card, but wouldn't tell you whether it was a
> positive or negative sum. Roughly three months after he called Ventra
> and the CTA about the problem, he noticed it had been fixed.
>
> CTA spokesman Jeff Tolman confirmed that Slater deserves credit for
> bringing the issue to the agency's attention. He added that other CTA
> features to assist blind people include Braille text on the vending
> machines and station, platform, and railcar signs, audible alerts from
> the card readers at turnstiles, tactile platform edges, and automated
> stop announcements on buses.
>
> Aside from the aforementioned issues, Slater says he has had few
> accessibility problems on the CTA, although he can't say the same for
> his friends who use wheelchairs, due to the fact that 45 of the el
> system's 145 stations don't have elevators or ramps. The transit
> agency  recently announced plans  to make its entire rail system
> accessible—over the next 20 years.
>
> Slater notes that all people with disabilities are eligible for a
> reduced-fare card that allows them to pay only $1.10 instead of the
> usual $2.25 for a train ride, but they have to demonstrate economic
> need to qualify for a free-fare card. "Until every station is
> accessible, I don't feel it's fair to have to . . . pay [even] reduced
> fare for less service than other passengers."
>
>
> Slater's mixed experience using the CTA is fairly typical of the
> general disability community, according Gary Arnold, spokesman for the
> disability rights group Access Living of Metro Chicago. "Some things
> are being done well, but there is also room for improvement, so
> there's a continued need for advocacy," Arnold says. For example, he
> noted that, thanks to multiple lawsuits, all CTA buses are now
> wheelchair accessible. However, he added, the fact that the "Your New
> Blue" rehab of O'Hare branch stations doesn't include adding elevators
> to all the stations that lack them arguably represents a missed
> opportunity.
>
> Despite his severe visual impairment, Slater has become relatively
> comfortable navigating the physical aspects of our city's
> transportation system. "The biggest concern I have as a passenger is
> other passengers," he says."
>
> Specifically, Slater has had issues with people grabbing or pulling
> him on the street or in the subway, assuming he needs help without
> asking if he wants assistance. Not only is that patronizing, he says,
> it's dangerous because he might assume he's being mugged and
> instinctively overreact. It's especially problematic on a CTA platform
> or when he's walking under el tracks, because train noise is
> disorienting for people who rely on their hearing for wayfinding.
>
> Then there are the selfish folks on crowded railcars and buses who
> notice he's blind but fail to offer their seat. "Sometimes I'll
> purposely stand right in front of them and maybe knock my cane against
> their feet a little." He's even encountered jerks who've accused him
> of faking a disability because he has some remaining vision.
>
> Luckily, though, to date he hasn't had any problems with crimes common
> on the CTA, such as cell phone snatching, which he partly attributes
> to his burly frame and bushy beard. "I don't look like a vulnerable
> blind person—I look like I might mess someone up," he says.
>
> To ease his encounters with well-meaning, curious people—as well as
> clueless buffoons—Slater recently wrote a Chick tract-style comic
> called How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up? illustrated by cartoonist and
>  Reader contributor Steve Krakow. The handout serves as a
> dos-and-don'ts guide for interacting with blind people and lays out
> Slater's daily public space challenges in an alternately heartbreaking
> and hilarious manner.
>
> "I'm just a dude who wants to live life without ignorant, aggressive
> people interrupting me," he states in the intro.
>
> Hopefully decision makers and the general public will take some of
> Slater's suggestions to heart and help make the CTA more friendly to
> folks who can't see well.   v
>
> The Velcro Lewis Group play a release party for their album Taking
> Frogg Mountain with Dark Fog and Bionic Caveman on Thursday, April 20,
> 8:30 PM at the Hideout.
>
> Slater performs solo at High Concept Lab's open house on Saturday,
> April 29, 7:30 PM at Mana Contemporary Gallery.
>
>  John Greenfield edits the transportation news website Streetsblog Chicago.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 4/18/17, Sharon Howerton via IL-Talk <il-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Kelly, I was able to read part of the article about Andy; JAWS stopped
>> reading after explaining how much vision Andy doesn't have nowadays.
>> Maybe
>> it would be possible for you to cut and paste the full article and your
>> comments into a post?
>> I met Andy some years ago-glad he is doing OK.
>> Sharon
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: IL-Talk [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kelly
>> Pierce
>> via IL-Talk
>> Sent: Monday, April 17, 2017 12:47 PM
>> To: NFB of Illinois Mailing List
>> Cc: Kelly Pierce
>> Subject: [il-talk] Andy Slater on riding CTA as a blind person
>>
>> Blind musician and Portage Park resident Andy Slater describes to writer
>> John Greenfield about what it is like riding the Chicago Transit
>> Authority
>> as a blind person.  The article is in the current issue of the Chicago
>> Reader and can be found online at:
>>
>> http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/blind-musician-navigates-cta/Content?oi
>> d=26141365
>>
>> I had some comments that I placed in the comment section of the article.
>>
>> Kelly
>>
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>