To the Members of the Access Board:

Please reconsider your position on truncated domes and particularly on audible traffic signals (ATS). Having them at every intersection is not a good idea for many reasons:

• They would be prohibitively expensive and a true waste of taxpayer money.
• They would be extremely noisy and would interfere with the sounds that the blind have learned to use as cues for mobility.
• They would diminish the mobility skills we've learned because we'd learn to rely on ATS and would certainly be in danger if they ever malfunction.
• They would send a wrong signal that blind people cannot travel independently.

ATS could be used at complicated intersections where several streets come together and where detecting a traffic pattern would be difficult. The domes would be appropriate when a curb is so flat that a blind person cannot otherwise detect the beginning of the street.

The blind can be taught mobility skills; this is where the money should be used, not in further polluting the environment with noise. The saying Give a man a fish and you've fed him for a day, but teach him how to fish and you've fed him for a lifetime, is very fitting here. ATS are "just a fish."

Thank you for your consideration.

Norma Gonzales Baker