When I was in college, most of the areas relevant to me became as familiar as my own home is today. The dormitories, classroom buildings, library and even streets surrounding the campus were easily navigated by me, a blind student with a white cane.

        But the student union — where much of the social part of campus life unfolded — remained elusive. There was no single path that led to the door, no simple way to locate that building's entrance without seeing it.

        I thought about that last week while being given a guided tour of Wright State University's student union by Samantha Broshear, a Wright State sophomore who is blind. The Hamilton native, a graduate of Talawanda High School, confidently pointed out elevators, rest rooms, information desks and offices, zeroing in on precise locations as she listened to spoken messages heard through a handheld receiver.

        On April 30, Wright State became the first campus in the nation to issue Talking Sign receivers to blind or learning disabled students who request them. Also called Remote Infrared Audible Sign Systems, this simple but brilliant technology makes it possible for a blind person to navigate an unfamiliar environment as gracefully as one who can read visual signs.
       

How it works

        Recorded messages are activated only when a transmitter's infrared beam is activated by a corresponding receiver. As Samantha moves through the student union, she scans with her receiver, pressing a button and listening for response.

        If she hears static, she is near a transmitting sign. The closer she moves to the sign, the clearer the spoken message becomes. By following the sound of the transmitted message, honing in on it with her receiver, she can walk directly though the door of a desired office, approach a food counter, locate an elevator, or find the “right” restroom.

        Talking signs were invented in 1980 by Dr. William Gerrey, a blind scientist, at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco.

        Serious manufacturing and distribution began in 1993, when Ward Bond formed Talking Signs, Inc., based in Baton Rouge, La. San Francisco, which many call the country's most accessible city, has installed signs throughout subway stations, museums, municipal buildings and at several busy intersections.

        The audible signs announce the presence and location of drinking fountains, ticket counters, pay phones, stairways, escalators and ATMs — in short, all of the myriad small components comprising public environments that sighted people take for granted. Receivers are available to blind people in San Francisco, free of charge, from the Rose Resnick Lighthouse for the Blind.
       

Talking signs increase

        The number of Talking Signs around the country and the world has been growing steadily, albeit slowly for nearly a decade. They can now be found in Norway, Japan, Italy and Scotland, as well has New York and Boston. Here in the Tristate, they can be found at the Cincinnati Children's Museum.

        The beauty of this technology is its invisibility. There are no constant broadcasts to annoy everyone in public places. The recorded message is only heard by a person holding a receiver, and only when the button is pressed to “read” a nearby sign.

        Wright State has led the way for colleges and universities with regard to accessibility for disabled students since the 1970s. Jeff Vernooy, Wright State director of Disability Services, says they don't plan to end this newest project with the student union. Next Talking Sign installations, he said, will be in the tunnel (which connects all major campus sites) and the library.

        Fortunately, I always managed to work it out with friends when I wanted to go to that hard-to-find student union. Still, I was never able to go there on impulse, by myself.

        There are more than 500 students with disabilities at Wright State, at least 35 of them with visual disabilities, and it is no small thing that none of them will again have difficulty navigating their student union gracefully and independently.

        Where else would Talking Signs be appropriate? Look around. Anywhere that a sign exists which can be seen, an audible sign would be of equal or greater value.

       Contact Deborah Kendrick by phone: 673-4474; fax: 321-6430; e-mail: dkkendrick@earthlink.net.
       

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