Call Your Stops! It's The Law! but call them clearly.

When I used to live in Southern California, I used to follow the operations of the Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD), which eventually became the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). When a bus operator was given their assignment for the day, it was placed on a piece of paper called a "paddle". The term "paddle" goes back to the old days when the bus run assignments and times were printed on wooden boards that looked like paddles.

In the RTD/MTA world, there is a message on all of the paddles that reads "Call Your Stops! It's The Law". A reminder to operators to follow the provisions of the ADA that require transit operators to call stops.

Some transit operators have looked at various ways to call the stops. In cities like Denver and Chicago, there are automated voice announcements on the rail system to announce the next stop. On some other systems, such as here in Phoenix, GPS based automated stop calling systems are used. Unfortunately, the GPS systems are sometimes inaccurate and therefore will not always call the correct stop or not call the stop until the bus passes the stop.

The one thing that these automated systems have in common is that the systems use the same voice throughout the system on each bus/train. This means that a blind user or other patron who is dependent on the stops being called will always hear the familar voice instead of the different voices of different operators.

On a recent trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, I have decided to ride BART from SFO Airport to the city.

The BART station platforms have synthesized speech systems that are used to advise of current trains on the platform as well as the departure times of future trains.

With my recent exploration into issues that affect the blind and visually impaired, I decided to try something. I decided to take my seat and close my eyes (I was tired from the trip already) and I was planning to depend on BART to properly call the stop in order for me to determine which stop to get off at.

The first thing I have noticed was that the quality of the speaker in the train was very bad. It was almost up there as the stereotypical fast-food restaurant drive-thru speaker. Not only that, but the train operator had some lingual difficulty saying the station names. Oh yeah, did I mention that BART still uses their train operators and not an automated system to call the stops on board the trains?

Now, even though I am familiar to the basics of BART, I am not totally familiar with the stations along the route, especially the names and locations of stations along Market St. So, I came on board this BART train, unfamilar with the system and depended on BART to get me to the right station.

I needed to get off at the Powell St. station. I was meeting my sister in Union Square.

As we get closer, I have noticed mumbling that sounds like "Civic Center". I knew that was one of the stations along the route but I did not know how many stations there was between Civic Center and Powell. I do know if I was to hear something like "Embarcadero", I better get off that train or else I will wind up in Oakland. After Civic Center, I have heard something that sounded like "Pawastree". Because I needed to go see my sister, I opened my eyes and noticed, yes, I am at Powell St. I exited the train.

I think that my experiment has proven that a blind, visually impaired or other user who is visiting a particular city (like San Francisco) can not always depend on the names of the stations being clearly called. Seasoned users of the system may be able to count stops to their station but for us visitors, we are at the mercy of the train operators, at least when we are riding BART.

I really hope this changes soon.

p.s. I did the same experiment on the way back to the airport. I was able to hear the stops much clearer on that train and I was able to exit the train to the SFO station.

Learning Braille

Last Thursday, I started taking a class that will hopefully hold out to be interesting. I am starting to learn Braille Transcription. This class is taking place at The Foundation For Blind Children in Phoenix, AZ. This course, which only starts once a year and goes through the entire year prepares students to take the Braille Transcription Certification from the Library of Congress.

Certified Braille transcribers are responsible for the translations of books, texts and even sheet music into Braille. Many of them work on a volunteer basis for many organizations. While there are other options these days for the blind to experience literary works such as through audio books or through "e-books", there will always be a need for paper publications written in Braille.

American Braille is done in two "grades". Grade 1 Braille is simply the alphabet, punctuation and various special punctuation marks specific to Braille. Grade 2 Braille takes what was learned in Grade 1 but then makes commonly used words and syllables into a more contracted format for a more compact document. In some ways, I associate learning Grade 1 Braille as like learning Japanese hiragana and katakana where learning Grade 2 Braille is like learning Japanese kanji. The training I am going through is intended to make me proficient in Grade 2 Braille.

Myself, I want the skills taught in this course to be able to understand Grade 2 Braille and be able to use it for both writing (either using a computer driven embosser, through the use of a manual brailler or the good ol' slate and stylus) and reading (by touch, not viewing the paper). I don't know how deep this course will get into reading by touch, so I have taken the liberty to learn this piece myself. I am hoping that someday, my Braille and adaptive technology skills will allow me to advance in my current job or allow me to find employment elsewhere.

While I have always a fairly close connection to the blind community and an interest in adaptive technology, I think this new found interest is partially motivated by my current employer. I am very happy that they are trying to do their best to make the workplace adaptive to those with visual impairments. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go. While we may have adaptive technology like JAWS for Windows, we still have ancient ancillary equipment in the office that hinders full accessibility and we also have to educate others in the workplace such as management, the union and other peers on the adaptive technology that we use, why it is important and what else can be done to make the workplace accessible for our current employees as well as future employees with disabilities.

I am currently very involved with this initiative and I am proud to say I have made many new friends as a result of this relationship. I look forward to a very prosperous and productive 2007 for everyone who is involved with this initiative.

Farewell to a childhood friend

I have been informed that Bruce Allen Brodsky, a person who I have known since the late 1970's was found dead at his home on Wednesday. The cause of death is unknown at this time. He was (I believe) about 45.

I first met Bruce when I was about 9 years old. He lived across the street. He had set up a model railroad in his garage. I was a transit bus (SCRTD) fan and there is obviously a connection between busfanning and railfanning, especially at a young age.

As I grew up, Bruce was there like a big brother. Bruce was responsible for me getting an interest in aviation, which indirectly has lead me to the career that I have today. Bruce also got me into CB radios, a hobby that eventually evolved into my interest in Amateur Radio and eventually to the Advanced Class ham license that I hold today.

Bruce also introduced me to Zzzygot Dial-A-Joke and some of the aspects of phone phreaking. This eventually lead to my interest in phones, the creation of REC Networks as a telephone entertainment service and eventually a 20-year career in the telecommunications industry.

In fact, the first voice ever heard on a California Comments (the original name of REC) recording was Bruce calling my machine and saying the words "it works!".

Back around 1980, I introduced Bruce to one of my sisters. They eventually got married and had two children. At the time of his death, they were going through a contested divorce.

Bruce was a very significant part of my life and was a significant influence for virtually everything that REC Networks is into these days. I credit Bruce for a lot of this.

I will miss you my friend. I love you like a brother. Sayonara tomodachi. Unfortunately, Bruce never had a chance to meet Michelle.