Hi guys, The second thing that I want to throw out there before I forget about it and maybe we can wait for two weeks, is a philosophical disagreement that we are having within my NFB chapter. Our bus service, Tulsa Transit has recently made drastic changes to routes and schedules. They naturally didn?t think about us at all and didn?t put any accessible signage up. Some of the sign poles are unique but we can?t count on the city of Tulsa not to start using them for speed limit signs. We are advocating for braille bus stop ID numbers. This would allow us to enter a bus stop ID number into a text message and text it to a number where Tulsa Transit will give us the next times for that route to show up at that stop. This is fantastic but Tulsa just made a change in September where everyone in town must be at a bus stop or they will not board. Previously Tulsans we?re allowed to flag down a bus anywhere it was safe to board. The reason they get rid of the flagging system was that it slowed down connectivity. People were flagging a bus 30 and 40 feet from each other just because they did not want to walk down to a bus stop. Director of Tulsa transit wants to give blind people special cards that will allow them to flag down buses anywhere without allowing everyone in town to do so. Naturally we don?t want to be singled out like this and if all of us can?t do it none of us should do it. Some members of my chapter want to demand that Tulsa return to the flagging system. When I first moved to Tulsa I reached out to the transit company to get information on citizen organizations rider organizations advisory Council?s etc. I was told that they didn?t have anything like that and no matter where I looked, I could get no information. Four years later, the NFB chapter decided to write a letter directly to the director regarding these new changes. Suddenly we got response. We got attention. Tulsa Transit became very interested in our opinions. I think they have been extremely responsive to us in putting together a miniature task force to help solve the three main problems that blind passengers brought up in this letter from NFB. They could have used a virus emergency as an excuse to drag their feet and do nothing but have already began research on tactile signage that would be appropriate. They also know that we want to see this sign and approve the braille before they buy thousands of them. I?m really rather thrilled with the suddenness of their response and don?t want to punish them for being willing to work with us after all this time. Back to whether or not Tulsa should flag down a bus. Naturally we are all agreed the blind people do not need special treatment and that if the entire city is not allowed to flag down a bus, then we?re not going to take a special card to allow us to do it. I think that if we force Tulsa Transit to flagging after eight months of training drivers to stop doing it, we are going to create chaos. We are not going to just have a bunch of confused drivers as we do today, we are going to have confused and angry drivers. I think that the director of Tulsa transit would be sure to tell his drivers Who will likely pass it on to complaining passengers that it is because the blind of Tulsa reared up against them and made them go back to flagging that ?you are going to miss your bus ?. Some of us think that this is an unreasonable request, not a reasonable accommodation. Personally, I feel that it is unreasonable not just because of the chaos it will cause but because there was a time before technology in before the ADA went blind people still managed to locate bus stops. I think these old school techniques will serve us well and we can continue to work with Tulsa Transit until we fix the problem. Also, no one at Tulsa transit is going to be happy with us if we suddenly demand that the entire city flag. They could start dragging their feet and be much less cooperative than they have been over the last three months. This goes back to what I said about punishing them for reaching out and trying to make progress with us. this is a philosophical divide for our Chapter and I want to know if we are way off base here. Am I right? Is it unreasonable to expect the entire city to go back to flagging down buses? Am I the one who?s wrong? Is this a reasonable accommodation that could fill the gap between today and the day when the accessible signs arrive? Thanks for your help guys, right or wrong, this is the kind of philosophical reinforcement I need from my own people. Orientation and mobility teachers probably deal with buses and mass transit in general more than any other of our Chapter members just because it is frequently our jobs to be on them all day. I really appreciate all of your opinions whether they agree with mine or not. Sent from my iPhone