Blind drivers coming to a road near you!!!

You’re running late for a meeting, and the last thing you feel like doing is braving L.A. traffic. You run out to the car, put your route to the office into the GPS, and pull up your fave playlist on your Ipod. When you pull up to the stoplight, you happen to glance to your left, where you see a Corvette revving her engine. You do a double-take as the Corvette moves out onto the freeway beside you, then passes you by… There’s a Guide Dog sitting in the passenger seat, tongue lolling, ears flying in the breeze… but the only person in that car is in the driver’s seat…

Hey, guess what, it’s not that far away. Before you know it, you’ll be seeing blind people all over the road, and not just in the cross-walks or on public transit.

I woke up this morning, and since I didn’t have to leap out of bed and make a mad dash for Yoga class, I turned on the TV for a moment, and came across a documentary on the science channel about robotic cars. The driverless cars had to negotiate their way through a sixty mile race-course without any human intervention. Tasks ranged from maneuvering through a traffic circle and parking lot, to merging on a high-speed freeway. The bots faced a dirt road, and had to figure out traffic jams.

While the technology was developed to save the lives of soldiers by sending automatons into battle, it’s effects will be far felt. Over ninety percent of vehicular accidents today are caused by human error. Not only would automated cars allow blind people to drive, and revolutionize safety for combat, it would completely change the face of civilian driving.

While some of you read this and moan because it would take away your cruising fun, or damage your ability to speed to a meeting, think about the bigger picture for a minute. It’s on the horizon, so get ready! I’ll be sharing the road with you before long, and baby, I can’t wait!!!

Oh, and before you ask, yes, I have driven a car before. :-d No, I will not divulge where or when.

This and other technological developments in the past fifteen years or so have completely changed how we as a society function, obviously, but it has really had an impact on how blind people access life, and accomplish their work. From specialized computers designed specifically for the blind, to cell phones and computers made for the general public that are modified for our use, more and more products are blind-friendly these days.

There are still plenty of hurtles to be overcome, such as inability to fully access print materials, but even that is changing. I can snap a picture of a document with a cell phone now, and read it, or scan it with a regular OCR scanner. Gone are the days of luging around a million pounds of Braille--now a meg or two of memory on a laptop or in a flash card and all my books are at my fingertips.

A common misconception is that blind person = musician. Not all of us make music, but for those of us who do, the days of being relegated to the studio or stage and bared from the control room are history. Thanks to David Pinto and Dancing Dots, we are now able to engineer and produce as quickly and proficiently as anyone else.

This accesability extends to almost every field. In medicine, in science, in politics, in law, retail, engineering and mathematics, there are blind people advancing the limits of what is possible every day.

Growing up, my dearest wish was to become a veterinarian. With advances in technology, that goal is probably attainable for an ambicious blind person today, or it soon will be. If, in a few years, your surgeon, president or police officer is blind, don’t be surprised.

It just proves there is no speed limit on ability.