But Blind People Don't Drive

When we took on the work to create the real-time traffic site for the San Francisco Bay Area we were asked to make the site as section 508 compliant as possible.  Rather than asking ourselves, "What is the letter of the law for Section 508?"  We chose to ask "What does accessibility mean?"

We met with the Elderly and Disabled advisory committee for the project and worked closely with the dynamic and boisterous Erika Webb from Quintus Design.  Our goal was to create a site that was not just accessible - but useful - to people with disabilities.

The challenge where was the real-time traffic map.  The literature at the time said it was not possible to make a dynamic geographic-information-systems based site that was accessible. We put a lot of time and thought into it and, in the end, created a real-time map with a variety of color palettes as well as a text-based mirror site that included all the information of the map, but in a format that a screen reader would have rapid access to specific information.

While we were working these out, some exasperated team members objected, "But blind people don't drive!"  After all, the whole point was to tell people where to drive, right?

Wrong.

A real-time traffic site should never tell people where to drive.  That's not the point.  The point is to tell them when it's good to go and what routes to avoid.  To time shift their trip.  To change mode.  To not clog the roadway.

Now, consider the trip of someone who is visually impaired.  Their trip needs to be scheduled in a way most of us would consider unacceptable.  First they schedule their ride.  Either by a caregiver, a private service, a taxi, paratransit or transit.    With the exception of transit, that vehicle then needs to come get them.  Then the go someplace - usually paying some amount of cash per trip. Now, imagine you are in the Bay Area where things are often a cross-region hike.  Your cab first has to get to you.  If traffic is bad, you may have already had to wait for that longer than anticipated.  Now, the moment you get in the cab, you are charged for time.  If you get out onto 880 and sit ... that costs you real money, real fast.  At the same time, it annoys the cab driver because they cannot get out and get other fares.

So blind people have a greater need for this detailed information than perhaps anyone else. Since we launched the site, we've received several kudos for the accessibility, the best worded came the other day:

Just wanted to commend you guys on including a colorblind-friendly option for  the traffic congestion maps.  I had been looking at the map with the regular  color scheme, lamenting the fact that it's almost useless for a red/green  colorblind person, when I checked out the other color options. This is the  first time I've seen us colorblind folks accommodated anywhere! It's much  appreciated.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Eugene Gogerman,  Esq.

Note the key word "anywhere".  The solutions to these issues were conceptually easy to implement.  The exact color palettes to a while to work out.  But the problems were still minimum compared to the cost of closing out a large segment of people from having access to information generated with their tax dollars.

Comments

[Dona]

Interesting entry. One of my best friends has been blind from age 12 but she is the best person in her family to give driving directions.

Great example for those people who are naysayers when it comes to making useful and accessible sites.