by Christopher Gray
As long as I have been a member of ACB, a key buzzword going around in the organization has been "access," or its synonym, "accessibility." What does that concept of access really mean? For each of us, there is almost certainly a private meaning. For me, the meaning of "accessibility" has changed markedly over the course of my life. I cannot believe how much my thinking has evolved over the years. At age 12 or 13, I wasn't about to be seen traveling around with a cane outside, at school or around my neighborhood. There was no way I would bring such embarrassment onto myself! By age 17 and on my excited way to university, I had learned that carrying a cane was not a badge of disability, but rather a means of gaining access to a whole world of fun and activity I had denied my more tentative younger self.
In the early to mid-1970s, there was much greater debate than there is now within the blind community about the effectiveness of and need for audible pedestrian traffic signals. Part of me saw their possible benefit, but there was another part that shrank back from their loud noises and the attention they doubtless called to me and my travel skills. Oh, how I did not wish to endure that attention. And only slowly over time was I able to either ignore the fact of such attention, or to realize that much of the "attention" was perhaps more inside my head than in the real world around me. Partly, this has to do with growing up, but there is that element of becoming secure with oneself and putting together a realistic approach to what it actually means to be a functioning blind person. It was a far different thing to understand emotionally as well as believe philosophically how much we deserve the same right as blind people to know auditorially what others see visually. Each of us has gone through a private coming to terms with these and so many other issues related to our personal philosophy of blindness and accessibility to the world around us.
So what about a public definition? Here is one for the word, "access," from the quite-accessible web site dictionary.com: "A means of approaching, entering, exiting, communicating with, or making use of: {example}, a store with easy access.
"The act of approaching. The ability or right to approach, enter, exit, communicate with, or make use of: {example}, has access to the restricted area.
"Public access. An increase by addition."
These are intriguing definitions, particularly the one for "public access" which clearly allows for access to encompass additions of or additions to something to make it more available. This idea bears some serious consideration as we undertake future accessibility efforts in ACB.
As president of ACB and as a blind person, I have advocated and fought for access many times. In San Jose, Calif., we had astonishing difficulty with accessibility to public transit for many years. Finally, a small group of us sued as individuals, and our local chapter of CCB joined with us. Over time, we were able to make significant improvements in that transit district. The simple fact is that we fight for access every day whether for allowing a guide dog into a taxi or working with our cities to install accessible traffic signals.
But as true as these necessities are, as much as we are forced to continue the fight for access in many arenas and on practically a daily basis, how many times have you stopped lately to rally around the access that we as blind people already have? This year alone, significant numbers of talking ATMs have finally been deployed throughout the country. In Des Moines, many of us, including me, had never used a talking ATM before. Now, they are in many of our neighborhoods and towns.
ACB won a significant battle for described video and now several broadcasting networks are beginning to produce a handful of described shows. A year ago, this access seemed stalled due to the short-sightedness of those who would have tied the matter up in court.
Laser canes, accessible voting, accessible gambling machines, and yes, perhaps even more accessible paper money: these are all either on the horizon or already in existence. These are just some of the cool things that are being made accessible around the U.S. today.
Do you use the Internet? Several Internet sites have gone out of their way to make themselves unreservedly accessible to people who are blind. Albertsons.com created a web site specifically for blind and visually impaired users. A whole new array of shopping possibilities exists there. Paying bills online is no longer just a neat idea; blind people are doing this all over the country with dignity and independence.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I can get pretty frustrated when I think of how far we have yet to go to gain anything like complete accessibility. Taking a moment, however, to reflect on what we are about and how much success we have had helps us know that we can and will go further in the months and years to come. Yes, some of the days may be long, but they will give way to fruitful months and years of progress for ACB and for blind people throughout the world.
In closing, please let me acknowledge all of the work that everyone in ACB has done. You've worked tirelessly and these are some of your results. Whether you know it or not, you are making magic and creating a better world.