WHEREAS, the Mass Transit Administration has announced its plan to install buzzers at subway doors in order "to make it possible for the blind to find the doors" - a decision which was made without consulting the blind to determine if a real need exists; and
WHEREAS, these "buzzers for the blind" will encourage all subway
riders to believe that the blind are helpless and will encourage newly blinded persons falsely to assume that they can travel only where buzzers exist; and
WHEREAS, the organized blind of Baltimore have attempted to prevent the installation of these buzzers through correspondence, meetings, by negotiation, and when all else failed, by picketing the MTA headquarters; and
WHEREAS, the views of the National Federation of the Blind have been consistently and flagrantly disregarded - a situation which cannot be tolerated; and
WHEREAS, these unnecessary and unwanted "buzzers for the blind" will cost Maryland taxpayers more than $48,000.00: now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of
Maryland in convention assembled in the City of Baltimore this 28th day of August 1982 that this organization condemns and deplores the "buzzers for the blind" and the insensitivity which they exemplify; and
· BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization appeals to the Maryland State Board of Public Works to stop the installation of buzzers on subway car doors; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon the Maryland State Board of Public Works to instruct the MTA that all future decisions affecting the blind must be made in consultation with the organized blind - the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland.