For decades, Ann Brash rode the train into downtown Chicago from suburban La Grange, then relied on her orientation and mobility skills to traverse city streets as a blind person working as a claims specialist for the U.S. Social Security Administration.
Chicago’s lack of accessible pedestrian signals – devices that emit sounds or vibrations to let visually impaired and deafblind people know when to cross – had been a long source of frustration and fear for Brash, and around 15 years ago, she began writing letters to city officials pleading with them to install such devices.
