0:00:03.170,0:00:06.151
So, stepping down out of the bus,

0:00:06.151,0:00:07.896
I headed back to the corner

0:00:07.896,0:00:11.284
to head west en route to a braille training session.

0:00:11.284,0:00:13.394
It was the winter of 2009,

0:00:13.394,0:00:15.815
and I had been blind for about a year.

0:00:15.815,0:00:17.948
Things were going pretty well.

0:00:17.948,0:00:19.855
Safely reaching the other side,

0:00:19.855,0:00:21.316
I turned to the left,

0:00:21.316,0:00:23.920
pushed the auto-button for[br]the audible pedestrian signal,

0:00:23.920,0:00:25.844
and waited my turn.

0:00:25.844,0:00:27.933
As it went off, I took off

0:00:27.933,0:00:29.606
and safely got to the other side.

0:00:29.606,0:00:31.702
Stepping onto the sidewalk,

0:00:31.702,0:00:34.396
I then heard the sound of a steel chair

0:00:34.396,0:00:38.552
slide across the concrete sidewalk in front of me.

0:00:38.552,0:00:40.469
I know there's a cafe on the corner,

0:00:40.469,0:00:42.115
and they have chairs out in front,

0:00:42.115,0:00:43.511
so I just adjusted to the left

0:00:43.511,0:00:45.355
to get closer to the street.

0:00:45.355,0:00:48.995
As I did, so slid the chair.

0:00:48.995,0:00:51.076
I just figured I'd made a mistake,

0:00:51.076,0:00:52.914
and went back to the right,

0:00:52.914,0:00:56.409
and so slid the chair in perfect synchronicity.

0:00:56.409,0:00:58.774
Now I was getting a little anxious.

0:00:58.774,0:01:00.387
I went back to the left,

0:01:00.387,0:01:01.676
and so slid the chair,

0:01:01.676,0:01:04.284
blocking my path of travel.

0:01:04.284,0:01:07.286
Now, I was officially freaking out.

0:01:07.286,0:01:08.871
So I yelled,

0:01:08.871,0:01:12.132
"Who the hell's out there? What's going on?"

0:01:12.132,0:01:14.384
Just then, over my shout,

0:01:14.384,0:01:17.069
I heard something else, a familiar rattle.

0:01:17.069,0:01:18.915
It sounded familiar,

0:01:18.915,0:01:20.778
and I quickly considered another possibility,

0:01:20.778,0:01:22.709
and I reached out with my left hand,

0:01:22.709,0:01:26.113
as my fingers brushed against something fuzzy,

0:01:26.113,0:01:28.664
and I came across an ear,

0:01:28.664,0:01:32.926
the ear of a dog, perhaps a golden retriever.

0:01:32.926,0:01:34.915
Its leash had been tied to the chair

0:01:34.915,0:01:36.652
as her master went in for coffee,

0:01:36.652,0:01:38.444
and she was just persistent in her efforts

0:01:38.444,0:01:41.782
to greet me, perhaps get a scratch behind the ear.

0:01:41.782,0:01:44.394
Who knows, maybe she was volunteering for service.

0:01:44.394,0:01:46.773
(Laughter)

0:01:46.773,0:01:49.182
But that little story is really about

0:01:49.182,0:01:52.381
the fears and misconceptions that come along

0:01:52.381,0:01:55.284
with the idea of moving through the city

0:01:55.284,0:01:56.607
without sight,

0:01:56.607,0:01:59.568
seemingly oblivious to the environment

0:01:59.568,0:02:02.468
and the people around you.

0:02:02.468,0:02:06.369
So let me step back and set the stage a little bit.

0:02:06.369,0:02:08.928
On St. Patrick's Day of 2008,

0:02:08.928,0:02:11.515
I reported to the hospital for surgery

0:02:11.515,0:02:13.709
to remove a brain tumor.

0:02:13.709,0:02:15.796
The surgery was successful.

0:02:15.796,0:02:18.965
Two days later, my sight started to fail.

0:02:18.965,0:02:22.487
On the third day, it was gone.

0:02:22.487,0:02:24.584
Immediately, I was struck by an incredible sense

0:02:24.584,0:02:28.473
of fear, of confusion, of vulnerability,

0:02:28.473,0:02:30.922
like anybody would.

0:02:30.922,0:02:33.414
But as I had time to stop and think,

0:02:33.414,0:02:35.165
I actually started to realize

0:02:35.165,0:02:38.089
I had a lot to be grateful for.

0:02:38.089,0:02:41.085
In particular, I thought about my dad,

0:02:41.085,0:02:43.282
who had passed away from complications

0:02:43.282,0:02:45.385
from brain surgery.

0:02:45.385,0:02:50.476
He was 36. I was seven at the time.

0:02:50.476,0:02:53.169
So although I had every reason

0:02:53.169,0:02:55.401
to be fearful of what was ahead,

0:02:55.401,0:02:58.035
and had no clue quite what was going to happen,

0:02:58.035,0:02:59.793
I was alive.

0:02:59.793,0:03:02.505
My son still had his dad.

0:03:02.505,0:03:04.392
And besides, it's not like I was the first person

0:03:04.392,0:03:06.005
ever to lose their sight.

0:03:06.005,0:03:08.154
I knew there had to be all sorts of systems

0:03:08.154,0:03:10.471
and techniques and training to have

0:03:10.471,0:03:13.033
to live a full and meaningful, active life

0:03:13.033,0:03:14.635
without sight.

0:03:14.635,0:03:16.782
So by the time I was discharged from the hospital

0:03:16.782,0:03:19.486
a few days later, I left with a mission,

0:03:19.486,0:03:21.616
a mission to get out and get the best training

0:03:21.616,0:03:26.780
as quickly as I could and get on to rebuilding my life.

0:03:26.780,0:03:30.828
Within six months, I had returned to work.

0:03:30.828,0:03:32.430
My training had started.

0:03:32.430,0:03:34.090
I even started riding a tandem bike

0:03:34.090,0:03:35.715
with my old cycling buddies,

0:03:35.715,0:03:38.412
and was commuting to work on my own,

0:03:38.412,0:03:40.887
walking through town and taking the bus.

0:03:40.887,0:03:43.650
It was a lot of hard work.

0:03:43.650,0:03:45.917
But what I didn't anticipate

0:03:45.917,0:03:48.889
through that rapid transition

0:03:48.889,0:03:52.637
was the incredible experience of the juxtaposition

0:03:52.637,0:03:56.577
of my sighted experience[br]up against my unsighted experience

0:03:56.577,0:03:59.250
of the same places and the same people

0:03:59.250,0:04:02.753
within such a short period of time.

0:04:02.753,0:04:04.649
From that came a lot of insights,

0:04:04.649,0:04:06.146
or outsights, as I called them,

0:04:06.146,0:04:09.535
things that I learned since losing my sight.

0:04:09.535,0:04:12.502
These outsights ranged from the trival

0:04:12.502,0:04:14.167
to the profound,

0:04:14.167,0:04:16.735
from the mundane to the humorous.

0:04:16.735,0:04:19.752
As an architect, that stark juxtaposition

0:04:19.752,0:04:22.266
of my sighted and unsighted experience

0:04:22.266,0:04:24.551
of the same places and the same cities

0:04:24.551,0:04:26.564
within such a short period of time

0:04:26.564,0:04:28.770
has given me all sorts of wonderful outsights

0:04:28.770,0:04:31.944
of the city itself.

0:04:31.944,0:04:33.818
Paramount amongst those

0:04:33.818,0:04:35.812
was the realization that, actually,

0:04:35.812,0:04:39.752
cities are fantastic places for the blind.

0:04:39.752,0:04:42.073
And then I was also surprised

0:04:42.073,0:04:45.441
by the city's propensity for kindness and care

0:04:45.441,0:04:48.921
as opposed to indifference or worse.

0:04:48.921,0:04:50.684
And then I started to realize that

0:04:50.684,0:04:52.673
it seemed like the blind seemed to have

0:04:52.673,0:04:56.742
a positive influence on the city itself.

0:04:56.742,0:04:59.996
That was a little curious to me.

0:04:59.996,0:05:02.556
Let me step back and take a look

0:05:02.556,0:05:07.918
at why the city is so good for the blind.

0:05:07.918,0:05:11.540
Inherent with the training for recovery from sight loss

0:05:11.540,0:05:15.411
is learning to rely on all your non-visual senses,

0:05:15.411,0:05:18.637
things that you would otherwise maybe ignore.

0:05:18.637,0:05:21.182
It's like a whole new world of sensory information

0:05:21.182,0:05:22.631
opens up to you.

0:05:22.631,0:05:24.159
I was really struck by the symphony

0:05:24.159,0:05:27.135
of subtle sounds all around me in the city

0:05:27.135,0:05:28.427
that you can hear and work with

0:05:28.427,0:05:30.309
to understand where you are,

0:05:30.309,0:05:33.114
how you need to move, and where you need to go.

0:05:33.114,0:05:35.838
Similarly, just through the grip of the cane,

0:05:35.838,0:05:39.752
you can feel contrasting textures in the floor below,

0:05:39.752,0:05:42.186
and over time you build a pattern of where you are

0:05:42.186,0:05:43.728
and where you're headed.

0:05:43.728,0:05:46.620
Similarly, just the sun warming one side of your face

0:05:46.620,0:05:49.449
or the wind at your neck

0:05:49.449,0:05:51.649
gives you clues about your alignment

0:05:51.649,0:05:53.342
and your progression through a block

0:05:53.342,0:05:56.847
and your movement through time and space.

0:05:56.847,0:05:59.280
But also, the sense of smell.

0:05:59.280,0:06:01.981
Some districts and cities have their own smell,

0:06:01.981,0:06:05.022
as do places and things around you,

0:06:05.022,0:06:06.814
and if you're lucky, you can even follow your nose

0:06:06.814,0:06:10.243
to that new bakery that you've been looking for.

0:06:10.243,0:06:11.952
All this really surprised me,

0:06:11.952,0:06:14.957
because I started to realize that

0:06:14.957,0:06:17.510
my unsighted experienced

0:06:17.510,0:06:19.945
was so far more multi-sensory

0:06:19.945,0:06:22.970
than my sighted experience ever was.

0:06:22.970,0:06:25.710
What struck me also was how much the city

0:06:25.710,0:06:27.342
was changing around me.

0:06:27.342,0:06:29.079
When you're sighted,

0:06:29.079,0:06:31.268
everybody kind of sticks to themselves,

0:06:31.268,0:06:33.081
you mind your own business.

0:06:33.081,0:06:34.348
Lose your sight, though,

0:06:34.348,0:06:37.147
and it's a whole other story.

0:06:37.147,0:06:38.626
And I don't know who's watching who,

0:06:38.626,0:06:42.175
but I have a suspicion that[br]a lot of people are watching me.

0:06:42.175,0:06:44.323
And I'm not paranoid, but everywhere I go,

0:06:44.323,0:06:47.352
I'm getting all sorts of advice:

0:06:47.352,0:06:49.672
Go here, move there, watch out for this.

0:06:49.672,0:06:51.749
A lot of the information is good.

0:06:51.749,0:06:54.235
Some of it's helpful. A lot of it's kind of reversed.

0:06:54.235,0:06:57.804
You've got to figure out what they actually meant.

0:06:57.804,0:07:01.357
Some of it's kind of wrong and not helpful.

0:07:01.357,0:07:04.368
But it's all good in the grand scheme of things.

0:07:04.368,0:07:05.904
But one time I was in Oakland

0:07:05.904,0:07:08.791
walking along Broadway, and came to a corner.

0:07:08.791,0:07:11.598
I was waiting for an audible pedestrian signal,

0:07:11.598,0:07:14.084
and as it went off, I was just about[br]to step out into the street,

0:07:14.084,0:07:16.116
when all of a sudden, my right hand

0:07:16.116,0:07:17.796
was just gripped by this guy,

0:07:17.796,0:07:20.208
and he yanked my arm[br]and pulled me out into the crosswalk

0:07:20.208,0:07:21.882
and was dragging me out across the street,

0:07:21.882,0:07:24.134
speaking to me in Mandarin.

0:07:24.134,0:07:25.542
(Laughter)

0:07:25.542,0:07:29.681
It's like, there was no escape[br]from this man's death grip,

0:07:29.681,0:07:31.404
but he got me safely there.

0:07:31.404,0:07:33.754
What could I do?

0:07:33.754,0:07:35.550
But believe me, there are more polite ways

0:07:35.550,0:07:37.723
to offer assistance.

0:07:37.723,0:07:39.245
We don't know you're there,

0:07:39.245,0:07:41.225
so it's kind of nice to say "Hello" first.

0:07:41.225,0:07:43.361
"Would you like some help?"

0:07:43.361,0:07:46.412
But while in Oakland, I've really been struck by

0:07:46.412,0:07:49.030
how much the city of Oakland changed

0:07:49.030,0:07:51.532
as I lost my sight.

0:07:51.532,0:07:53.699
I liked it sighted. It was fine.

0:07:53.699,0:07:56.275
It's a perfectly great city.

0:07:56.275,0:07:57.544
But once I lost my sight

0:07:57.544,0:07:59.859
and was walking along Broadway,

0:07:59.859,0:08:03.070
I was blessed every block of the way.

0:08:03.070,0:08:04.624
"Bless you, man."

0:08:04.624,0:08:06.887
"Go for it, brother."

0:08:06.887,0:08:08.637
"God bless you."

0:08:08.637,0:08:10.497
I didn't get that sighted.

0:08:10.497,0:08:11.833
(Laughter)

0:08:11.833,0:08:18.158
And even without sight,[br]I don't get that in San Francisco.

0:08:18.158,0:08:21.150
And I know it bothers some of my blind friends,

0:08:21.150,0:08:22.743
it's not just me.

0:08:22.743,0:08:24.792
Often it's thought that

0:08:24.792,0:08:27.936
that's an emotion that comes up out of pity.

0:08:27.936,0:08:31.049
I tend to think that it comes[br]out of our shared humanity,

0:08:31.049,0:08:34.159
out of our togetherness, and I think it's pretty cool.

0:08:34.159,0:08:36.019
In fact, if I'm feeling down,

0:08:36.019,0:08:37.927
I just go to Broadway in downtown Oakland,

0:08:37.927,0:08:40.586
I go for a walk, and I feel better like that,

0:08:40.586,0:08:43.857
in no time at all.

0:08:43.857,0:08:45.892
But also that it illustrates how

0:08:45.892,0:08:47.674
disability and blindness

0:08:47.674,0:08:50.394
sort of cuts across ethnic, social,

0:08:50.394,0:08:53.120
racial, economic lines.

0:08:53.120,0:08:56.955
Disability is an equal-opportunity provider.

0:08:56.955,0:08:59.398
Everybody's welcome.

0:08:59.398,0:09:01.959
In fact, I've heard it said in the disability community

0:09:01.959,0:09:04.461
that there are really only two types of people:

0:09:04.461,0:09:06.220
There are those with disabilities,

0:09:06.220,0:09:10.882
and there are those that haven't[br]quite found theirs yet.

0:09:10.882,0:09:13.003
It's a different way of thinking about it,

0:09:13.003,0:09:15.252
but I think it's kind of beautiful,

0:09:15.252,0:09:17.428
because it is certainly far more inclusive

0:09:17.428,0:09:19.533
than the us-versus-them

0:09:19.533,0:09:22.101
or the abled-versus-the-disabled,

0:09:22.101,0:09:24.879
and it's a lot more honest and respectful

0:09:24.879,0:09:28.183
of the fragility of life.

0:09:28.183,0:09:30.108
So my final takeaway for you is

0:09:30.108,0:09:34.176
that not only is the city good for the blind,

0:09:34.176,0:09:37.355
but the city needs us.

0:09:37.355,0:09:39.393
And I'm so sure of that that

0:09:39.393,0:09:40.989
I want to propose to you today

0:09:40.989,0:09:44.429
that the blind be taken as[br]the prototypical city dwellers

0:09:44.429,0:09:47.714
when imagining new and wonderful cities,

0:09:47.714,0:09:49.575
and not the people that are thought about

0:09:49.575,0:09:51.808
after the mold has already been cast.

0:09:51.808,0:09:54.861
It's too late then.

0:09:54.861,0:09:58.045
So if you design a city with the blind in mind,

0:09:58.045,0:10:02.630
you'll have a rich, walkable network of sidewalks

0:10:02.630,0:10:04.744
with a dense array of options and choices

0:10:04.744,0:10:08.176
all available at the street level.

0:10:08.176,0:10:10.498
If you design a city with the blind in mind,

0:10:10.498,0:10:13.618
sidewalks will be predictable and will be generous.

0:10:13.618,0:10:15.971
The space between buildings will be well-balanced

0:10:15.971,0:10:19.410
between people and cars.

0:10:19.410,0:10:23.467
In fact, cars, who needs them?

0:10:23.467,0:10:26.552
If you're blind, you don't drive. (Laughter)

0:10:26.552,0:10:29.915
They don't like it when you drive. (Laughter)

0:10:29.915,0:10:32.625
If you design a city with the blind in mind,

0:10:32.625,0:10:35.268
you design a city with a robust,

0:10:35.268,0:10:38.960
accessible, well-connected mass transit system

0:10:38.960,0:10:40.562
that connects all parts of the city

0:10:40.562,0:10:43.581
and the region all around.

0:10:43.581,0:10:45.647
If you design a city with the blind in mind,

0:10:45.647,0:10:48.466
there'll be jobs, lots of jobs.

0:10:48.466,0:10:49.796
Blind people want to work too.

0:10:49.796,0:10:52.235
They want to earn a living.

0:10:52.235,0:10:54.991
So, in designing a city for the blind,

0:10:54.991,0:10:57.060
I hope you start to realize

0:10:57.060,0:10:59.938
that it actually would be a more inclusive,

0:10:59.938,0:11:03.544
a more equitable, a more just city for all.

0:11:03.544,0:11:05.764
And based on my prior sighted experience,

0:11:05.764,0:11:07.742
it sounds like a pretty cool city,

0:11:07.742,0:11:11.089
whether you're blind, whether you have a disability,

0:11:11.089,0:11:13.573
or you haven't quite found yours yet.

0:11:13.573,0:11:16.185
So thank you.

0:11:16.185,0:11:20.185
(Applause)