Perkins is an amazing institution here in Watertown, and as a result we have a higher percentage of blind folks than most other communities nearby.
A quick example of this: The city is in the middle of redesigning our main square. We're lucky to have engaged Jeff Speck who's known for his work on Walkable Cities - he was able to, for the first time at the planning stage of a project - do a site walk with representatives from the blind community and Perkins to understand their perspective crossing streets and how they deal with infrastructure that isn't designed for them today. To literally hold their hand as they cross in front of ~7 lanes of traffic and understand their needs before a shovel hits the ground, will hopefully make that project a big success for our area.
krikou 33 days ago [-]
Will check this out with a lot of interest when HN hugging will be over - we are building https://accessiblesurveys.com a survey tool for everyone. It tries to go beyond web accessibility standards (by including Sign language, Easyread versions or read aloud into forms).
Not sure we are on the Perkins Database yet !
y-curious 33 days ago [-]
The main website works, but your link is timing out for me. Looks like HN users hugged it to death :/
Glad to see that so many of us are interested in creating a better life for people with disabilities, though.
ohjeez 33 days ago [-]
The happiest reason for a hug!
jt2190 33 days ago [-]
I’m getting a hug of death…
It’s The Howe Innovation Center at the Perkins School for the Blind’s database.
DrillShopper 33 days ago [-]
Resources like this are going to be invaluable in the future as the Trump DoJ eventually works to get rid of the ADA. If that is anything like their focus on DEI (which already includes accessibility for the disabled) then they're going to kill as many of these companies as they can with litigation.
wing-_-nuts 33 days ago [-]
It's been a little startling just how fast companies rolled back their DEI initiatives when trump was elected. It really paints a picture of just who all was actually committed to it, and who was paying lip service.
It makes me wonder about future accommodations as well. WFH has made my disability a 'non issue', but I can totally see a roll back of the ACA just making it that much harder to ask for it.
DrillShopper 33 days ago [-]
There are very few companies actually committed to it. For most it was a recruitment tool, but now that the culture has shifted they have no use for it. Now that it's a liability they won't fight for it.
Which is what most of the marginalized people I know said from the start. I hate that they were right.
mparnisari 33 days ago [-]
ERR_TIMED_OUT :(
blackeyeblitzar 33 days ago [-]
Page doesn’t load for me. But on a related note, I was amazed by this recent article from Neuralink:
A quick example of this: The city is in the middle of redesigning our main square. We're lucky to have engaged Jeff Speck who's known for his work on Walkable Cities - he was able to, for the first time at the planning stage of a project - do a site walk with representatives from the blind community and Perkins to understand their perspective crossing streets and how they deal with infrastructure that isn't designed for them today. To literally hold their hand as they cross in front of ~7 lanes of traffic and understand their needs before a shovel hits the ground, will hopefully make that project a big success for our area.
Not sure we are on the Perkins Database yet !
Glad to see that so many of us are interested in creating a better life for people with disabilities, though.
It’s The Howe Innovation Center at the Perkins School for the Blind’s database.
It makes me wonder about future accommodations as well. WFH has made my disability a 'non issue', but I can totally see a roll back of the ACA just making it that much harder to ask for it.
Which is what most of the marginalized people I know said from the start. I hate that they were right.
https://neuralink.com/blog/a-year-of-telepathy/
A Year of Telepathy - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43019352
* SCP = Second Chance Pool, explained at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308