COSTA MESA : Debate Over Audible Signal for Blind

Jan Graves thought that she had made a simple request when she asked the city to install an audible traffic signal on Fairview Road in front of Orange Coast College.

What she stepped into was a blistering battle between the nation’s two largest organizations for the blind, which has been raging for nearly three decades.

“I had no idea what this would turn into,” said Graves, 56, a self-employed massage therapist who has been blind for 12 years. “I just wanted an audible signal.”

The special traffic signal emits a noise, usually a “cuckoo,” buzzing or bird-like chirping, sound at the green light for the blind and sight-impaired.

The idea is simple. The politics is anything but.

The mention of audible signals angers leaders of the nation’s oldest blind group, the National Federation of the Blind, founded in 1940. Audible signals, they say, are dangerous and provide a false sense of security.

But those signals have passionate support from leaders of the American Council of the Blind, which splintered from the other group in 1961. The two organizations ave been locked in a national rivalry ever since.

American Council leaders say the signals are a vital aid not just to the blind but to elderly people with vision problems. Without the signals, they would be stuck at home, said Robert Acosta, president of the council’s California chapter.

The National Federation of the Blind, considers the signals a menace that stigmatize blind people.

“The question is, ‘Are blind people good to have around?’ ” said federation chief Marc Maurer. “Do you have to restructure the whole world for blind people to live in it? If you put up this audible traffic signal, what it says is that blind people are not competent to handle the world as it is. Nonsense.”

Though Graves requested the signal at the March 5 City Council meeting, it is not on the agenda for the council’s meeting tonight. But the battling groups plan to send out their troops when the issue is raised again.

“We really want to push this,” Acosta said.

Huntington Beach, which has installed audible signals at 13 intersections, has had success with them, said Bruce Gilmer, a city traffic engineer. That city also never experienced the controversy now looming in Costa Mesa, he said.

City officials in Salt Lake City, which has audible signals at 25 intersections, and Oakland, which installed them at 35 places, speak highly of the devices.

“It worked out for us,” said P.D. Kiser, who oversaw the installation and maintenance of the signals in the late 1970s and early ‘80s in Salt Lake City. “I’m not saying it would work for everyone, but we had a large percentage of blind people working in downtown.’

In Oakland, some residents complained initially about the signals but that has died down, said Iyackuddy Jeeva, the city’s supervising transportation engineer. The city has just approved funding for an additional 19 signals.

In Costa Mesa, the two sides are ready to fight.

John Bates, president of the Orange County chapter of the National Federation for the Blind, is not a resident of Costa Mesa but plans to oppose the signals for those members who are.

That’s just fine with Graves.

“I’d like to come face to face with Bates,” Graves said. “Just tell him to stay out of my town.”