That moment I heard a blind woman explain why she hates those beeping crosswalks

Her point was that beeping crosswalks force her to rely on sound cues designed for sighted people instead of the tactile paving she actually uses, and now I can't stop noticing how many public access features are just bandaids for bad design - what's a disability feature you've seen that actually makes things harder for the people it's supposed to help?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_logan1mo ago

Wait, she actually said the beeps are for sighted people not blind people?

gonzalez.rowan1mo ago

Four crosswalk buttons near my apartment make different sounds depending on the direction and honestly I never thought about it that hard. Like yeah the beeps are helpful for knowing when to go but the whole point of them existing in the first place was for blind people. I get what she's saying though, if you look at how they actually work in practice the design kinda assumes sighted people will use them as a secondary cue while blind folks rely on the tactile stuff and the environment. Feels like one of those internet debates where people get way too pressed about something that's mostly just a design quirk.