Save the date: Saturday, March 5, 2011, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time. Why? Because the ACB environmental access committee wants to hear from you during our first ever office hours teleconference regarding three vitally important pedestrian access questions ranging from specific problems that you face as a pedestrian with a visual impairment, solutions to these problems based on your personal experience, and, finally, your thoughts regarding effective community-based advocacy.
As a participant in this teleconference, you may address any or all of the questions under discussion. In order to make the best use of our time, each participant will be allocated 3 minutes to address the committee. The questions are listed below.
When you are called upon to speak, you will be asked for your name, an e-mail address and, if you feel comfortable providing it on the call, a telephone number. The committee may wish to contact you in order to discuss in more detail something that you raised during the teleconference.
ACB President Mitch Pomerantz will serve as event moderator. The call will be recorded and scribes will capture your comments as well. To participate in the environmental access committee's office hours teleconference, please call (218) 936-4700 and use access code 130132#.
The three questions are:
1. As a pedestrian with a visual impairment, what do you consider to be the greatest danger or impediment to your traveling safely and independently in your community? For example, some dangers or impediments may be sidewalk obstructions, cars parked on or across sidewalks, the placement of trash cans, the lack of an accessible pathway through or around a construction site, people loitering at a corner, etc.
2. As a pedestrian with a visual impairment, what specific things do you feel should be done that would improve safer travel for pedestrians in your community? Examples may be the installation of accessible pedestrian signals, the installation of detectable warnings on curb ramps and blended corners, raised pathways through parking lots that link the public right of way with a building, the orientation of curb ramps so they are in alignment with the opposite corner, etc.
3. How can local communities address these concerns and how do you see your role as a citizen in this process?
The environmental access committee looks forward to your participation in this process that will enable us to determine the ongoing work of the committee on behalf of all pedestrians with visual impairments.
Respectfully,
Debbie Grubb, Chair, Florida
Christopher G. Bell, Minnesota
Tammy Cantrell, Mississippi
Larry Johnson, Texas
Eugene Lozano, California
Kathy Lyons, New York
Pat Sheehan, Maryland
Eric Bridges, Staff Liaison, Virginia
Kim Charlson, Officer Liaison, Massachusetts