WEBVTT

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So, stepping down out of the bus,

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I headed back to the corner

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to head west en route to a braille training session.

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It was the winter of 2009,

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and I had been blind for about a year.

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Things were going pretty well.

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Safely reaching the other side,

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I turned to the left,

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pushed the auto-button

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and waited my turn.

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As it went off, I took off

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and safely go to the other side.

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Stepping on to the sidewalk,

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I then heard the sound of a steel chair

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slide across the concrete sidewalk in front of me.

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I know there's a cafe on the corner,

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and they have chairs out in front,

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so I just adjusted to the left

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to get closer to the street.

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As I did, so slid the chair.

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I just figured I'd made a mistake,

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and went back to the right,

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and so slid the chair in perfect synchronicity.

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I went back to the left,

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and so slid the chair,

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blocking my path of travel.

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Now, I was officially freaking out.

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So I yelled,

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"Who the hell's out there? What's going on?"

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Just then, over my shout,

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I heard something else, a familiar rattle.

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It sounded familiar,

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and I quickly considered another possibility,

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and I reached out with my left hand,

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as my fingers brushed against something fuzzy,

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and I came across an ear,

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the ear of a dog, perhaps a golden retriever.

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It's leash had been tied to the chair

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as her master went in for coffee,

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and she was just persistent in her efforts

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to greet me, perhaps get a scratch behind the ear.

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Who knows, maybe she was volunteering for service.

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(Laughter)

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But that little story is really about

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the fears and misconceptions that come along

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with the idea of moving through the city

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without sight,

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seemingly oblivious to the environment

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and the people around you.

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So let me step back and set the stage a little bit.

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On St. Patrick's Day of 2008,

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I reported to the hospital for surgery

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to remove a brain tumor.

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The surgery was successful.

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Two days later, my sight started to fail.

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On the third day, it was gone.

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Immediately, I was struck by an incredible sense

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of fear, of confusion, of vulnerability,

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like anybody would.

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But as I had time to stop and think,

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I actually started to realize

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I had a lot to be grateful for.

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In particular, I thought about my dad,

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who had passed away from complications

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from brain surgery.

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He was 36. I was seven at the time.

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So although I had every reason

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to be fearful of what was ahead,

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and had no clue quite what was going to happen,

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I was alive.

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My son still had his dad.

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And besides, it's not like I was the first person

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ever to lose their sight.

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I knew there had to be all sorts of systems

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and techniques and training to have

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to live a full and meaningful, active life

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without sight.

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So by the time I was discharged from the hospital

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a few days later, I left with a mission,

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a mission to get out and get the best training

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as quickly as I could and get on to rebuilding my life.

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Within six months, I had returned to work.

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My training had started.

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I even started riding a tandem bike

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with my old cycling buddies,

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and was commuting to work on my own,

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walking through town and taking the bus.

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It was a lot of hard work.

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But what I didn't anticipate

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through that rapid transition

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was the incredible experience of the juxtaposition

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of my sighted experience
up against my unsighted experience

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of the same places and the same people

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within such a short period of time.

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From that came a lot of insights,

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or outsights, as I called them,

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things that I learned since losing my sight.

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These outsights ranged from the trival

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to the profound,

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from the mundane to the humorous.

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As an architect, that stark juxtaposition

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of my sighted and unsighted experience

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of the same places and the same cities

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within such a short period of time

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has given me all sorts of wonderful outsights

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of the city itself.

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Paramount amongst those

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was the realization that, actually,

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cities are fantastic places for the blind.

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And then I was also surprised

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by the city's propensity for kindness and care

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as opposed to indifference or worse.

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And then I started to realize that

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it seemed like the blind seemed to have

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a positive influence on the city itself.

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That was a little curious to me.

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Let me step back and take a look

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at why the city is so good for the blind.

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Inherent with the training for recovery from sight loss

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is learning to rely on all your non-visual senses,

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things that you would otherwise maybe ignore.

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It's like a whole new world of sensory information

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opens up to you.

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I was really struck by the symphony

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of subtle sounds all around me in the city

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that you can hear and work with

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to understand where you are,

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how you need to move, and where you need to go.

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Similarly, just through the grip of the cane,

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you can feel contrasting textures in the floor below,

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and over time you build a pattern of where you are

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and where you're headed.

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Similarly, just the sun warming one side of your face

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or the wind at your neck

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gives you clues about your alignment

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and your progression through a block

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and your movement through time and space.

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But also, the sense of smell.

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Some districts and cities have their own smell,

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as do places and things around you,

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and if you're lucky, you can even follow your nose

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to that new bakery that you've been looking for.

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All this really surprised me,

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because I started to realize that

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not my eye-sighted experienced

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was so far more multi-sensory

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than my sighted experience ever was.

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What struck me also was how much the city

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was changing around me.

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When you're sighted,

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everybody kind of sticks to themselves,

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minds your own business.

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Lose your sight, though,

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and it's a whole nother story.

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And I don't know who's watching who,

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but I have a suspicion that
a lot of people are watching me.

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And I'm not paranoid, but everywhere I go,

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I'm getting all sorts of advice:

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go here, move there, watch out for this.

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A lot of the information is good.

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Some of it's helpful. A lot of it's kind of reversed.

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You've got to figure our what they actually meant.

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Some of it's kind of wrong and not helpful.

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But it's all good in the grand scheme of things.

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But one time I was in Oakland

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walking along Broadway, and came to a corner.

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I was waiting for an audible pedestrian signal,

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and as it went off, I was just about
to step out into the street,

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when all of a sudden, my right hand

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was just gripped by this guy,

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and he yanked me arm
and pulled out into the crosswalk

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and was dragging me out across the street,

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speaking to me in Mandarin.

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(Laughter)

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It's like, there was no escape
from this man's death grip,

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but he got me safely there.

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What could I do?

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But believe me, there are more polite ways

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to offer assistance.

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We don't know you're there,

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so it's kind of nice to say "Hello" first.

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"Would you like some help?"

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But while in Oakland, I've really been struck by

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how much the city of Oakland changed

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as I lost my sight.

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I liked it sighted. It was fine.

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It's a perfectly great city.

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But once I lost my sight

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and was walking along Broadway,

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I was blessed every block of the way.

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"Bless you, man."

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"Go for it, brother."

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"God bless you."

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I didn't get that sighted.

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(Laughter)

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And even without sight,
I don't get that in San Francisco.

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And I know it bothers some of my blind friends,

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it's not just me.

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Often it's thought that

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it's an emotion that comes up out of pity.

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I tend to think that it comes
out of our shared humanity,

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out of our togetherness, and I think it's pretty cool.

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In fact, if I'm feeling down,

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I just go to Broadway in downtown Oakland,

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I go for a walk, and I feel better like that,

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in no time at all.

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But also that it illustrates how

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disability and blindness

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sort of cuts across ethnic, social,

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racial, economic lines.

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Disability is an equal-opportunity provider.

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Everybody's welcome.

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In fact, I've heard it said in the disability community

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that there are really only two types of people:

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there are those with disabilities,

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and there are those that haven't
quite found theirs yet.

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It's a different way of thinking about it,

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but I think it's kind of beautiful,

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because it is certainly far more inclusive

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than the us-versus-them

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or the able-versus-the-disabled,

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and it's a lot more honest and respectful

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of the fragility of life.

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So my final takeaway for you is

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that not only is the city good for the blind,

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but the city needs us.

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And I'm so sure of that that

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I want to propose to you today

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that the blind be taken as
the prototypical city dwellers

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when imagining new and wonderful cities,

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and not the people that are thought about

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after the mold has already been cast.

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It's too late then.

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So if you design a city with the blind in mind,

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you'll have a rich, walkable network of sidewalks

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with a dense array of options and choices

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all available at the street level.

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If you design a city with the blind in mind,

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sidewalks will be predictable and will be generous.

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The space between buildings will be well-balanced

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between people and cars.

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In fact, cars, who needs them?

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If you're blind, you don't drive. (Laughter)

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They don't like it when you drive. (Laughter)

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If you design a city with the blind in mind,

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you design a city with a robust,

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accessible, well-connected mass transit system

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that connects all parts of the city

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and the region all around.

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If you design a city with the blind in mind,

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there'll be jobs, lots of jobs.

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Blind people want to work too.

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They want to earn a living.

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So, in designing a city for the blind,

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I hope you start to realize

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that it actually would be a more inclusive,

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a more equitable, a more just city for all.

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And based on my prior sighted experience,

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it sounds like a pretty cool city,

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whether you're blind, whether you have a disability,

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or you haven't quite found yours yet.

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So thank you.

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(Applause)