Navigating the downtown Phoenix area may seem like it could be difficult for someone with visual impairments, but the city has developed resources for those with disabilities and is continuing to push for more aides.
“As a blind person, I use traffic as an aide all the time,” said Dan French, a member of the city’s Commission on Disability Issues. He said although heavy traffic in downtown seems like a danger, it helps him orient himself.
“I could cross the street and not know it if there was not traffic,” he said.
The commission produced a pamphlet in response to one of the most common missteps by the public–interfering with service animals. French keeps a stack of the pamphlets in his dog’s vest, to pass out to strangers who try to stop him to pet his dog when he’s crossing a street.
“It’s always been a problem, and always will be… People will a pet the dog and say, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this’ or ‘the dog looked at me’—like it’s the dog’s fault,” said Katherine Schneider, a retired psychologist who is blind.
Schneider spoke to a class at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and said although people have good intentions, they can err out of ignorance. She said she was skeptical the pamphlets would work because of all the incorrigible dog lovers out there, but thought it was a good effort.
The pamphlet also lists the terms under which a service animal is welcome in a place of business, but French said he’s been told by restaurants his dog was not allowed inside, even after he explained it was a service animal. That situation occurred before the pamphlets were produced.
“Now that we have these pamphlets, I always have one in my backpack, and if I get any guff, I just pull it out and say ‘here, read it!’” French said. He added that people in the downtown area are generally more understanding.
“It’s nice to have assistance when we need it… and especially down here, down around these buildings it seems like there’s a lot of help,” he said.
French said downtown Phoenix is easily accessible as well, especially because of the automated signals at each intersection. He said the ones in downtown Phoenix are very helpful but he would like to hear them give audible information, such as street names, in the future.
“I went to Western Michigan University and we had automated signals there, and pretty much, they were the best: Western Michigan Avenue, wait. Western Michigan Avenue, go,” French said.
Peter Fischer, the Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator for the Phoenix Equal Opportunity Department said Phoenix is working on installing more automated signals. He said there has been discussion in the Street Transportation Department to add more information to automated pedestrian signals. For example, instead of just saying ‘wait’ or ‘go’ it would tell a pedestrian they are crossing a certain street.
“It’s helpful when it works… I teach people not to depend on that,” said Amy Lewis, a certified orientation mobility specialist, about the automated signals. Lewis, who is visually impaired and works at the Foundation for Blind Children, emphasized the importance of knowing how to navigate without technology’s shortcuts.
“It’s a great resource, but you need a plan B,” she said.
Lewis said while she can work with people of all ages she currently works with kids, helping them orient themselves in their surroundings and understand what’s going on around them. She works to help people learn to navigate from point A to point B as safely and efficiently as possible.
She said the ease of which someone can navigate downtown Phoenix really depends on their age and the concepts they already understand, which varies depending on the severity of the visual impairment, and the age at which it started. Because she works with children K-4, some of whom have been blind since birth, most are unfamiliar with traffic flow, or that there is usually a sidewalk on both sides of the road. She said adults usually have an easier time, but teaching concepts like those to children is her favorite part of her job.
“There’s a lot of concepts we learn by incidental learning, which is just watching somebody else, so if you’ve never been able to see… it’s understanding those basic concepts so they can understand people if they ask for directions,” she said.
Contact the reporter at Alena.Sanderson@asu.edu.
