Greetings and felicitations:
Regarding electronic travel aids for the blind, I would agree with
the points made by both David Andrews and Mike Freeman,
particularly those referring to the greater availability of good
cane travel training in the United States and the fact that these
devices have, in the past, been designed by other people--not blind
consumers themselves. I would also add another factor to consider
here. If memory serves, every electronic travel aid ever released
to the market has cost more than a thousand dollars. I remember
the K spectacles costing three thousand dollars or something in
that range. This is very difficult to justify when you consider
that a good, light weight cane purchased from the National
Federation of the Blind costs a mere $25. You can break alot of
canes before you come up to the price of just one electronic travel
aid.
This is not to say that I am staunchly opposed to electronic travel
aids. I just think that designers and developers of such devices
should consider economics (how to make it cheap) and the
requirements of blind travelers as they develop such devices. In
the past, this has not been done very well (cheapness and design
requirements). By the same token, we in the NFB need to stop
having a knee jerk reaction that opposes *ALL* electronic travel
aids. We should consider each on its own merits and tell the
designers why we like or dislike any new device we are shown.
Also, I think we need to develop some criteria for an electronic
travel aid that we would find useful. Here are a few from yours
truly.
First, it has to be relatively inexpensive. It is, after all,
competing with the cheapest travel aid around: the long white cane
at $25 per unit. I think that if an electronic travel aid were
really helpful, blind people might pay a couple of hundred bucks
for it. We would certainly *NOT* want to pay a thousand dollars or
more.
Second, the device has to provide us with information in such a way
as to increase our efficiency of travel or increase our ability to
learn about the surrounding environment without sighted assistance.
How such a device would do this is difficult for me to imagine, but
I think that it could be done if we do not limit our thinking on
this subject.
Finally, I think that an electronic travel aid must be able to
function with *ABSOLUTELY* *NO* *MODIFICATION* to the environment.
We should not have to rely upon programmed maps, infrared emitters,
guide beams, imbedded wires, etc. Aside from economy, this is the
beauty of the long white cane. We can use it *ANYWHERE*!
I welcome comments and suggestions--particularly, if you folks on
this list can help me come up with more specific design criteria
for an electronic travel aid.
Regards,
Curtis Chong
curtisc@winternet.com
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