Fun in University St Station

Ever since Travelling Buddy showed RantWoman how to find the elevator at Benaroya, RantWoman has been making fun discoveries and interesting observations every time she visits the station.

One night RantWoman took the elevator down from the Benaroy lobby, followed the wall around to the right as she got off the back of the elevator toward the station mezzanine. RantWoman happened to run her hand along the railing and detected braille along the top of the railing. RantWoman verified that it is indeed braille, not just texture. Alas RantWoman does not read braille very fast and did not linger to actually read it. She just proceeded into the station, turned left and found the elevator from the mezzanine down to the platform.

(Well, first RantWoman found in her path a solitary youth apparently texting away on his cellphone. RantWoman recommends not standing right in people's walking paths while texting.)

In the elevator, RantWoman found another fun surprise, a tactile map of the station, located to the left of the button panel and above it. Again, RantWoman already thinks she knows the station pretty well. She of course was wrong the night she and RantMom went to the symphony, but she also still has not fully read the tactile map. RantWoman nevertheless thinks it is very cool it is there.

Another evening, RantWoman hit the Benaroya just as something was letting out. The area in front of the elevator was packed so RantWoman decided just to walk a block to the Seneca St. entrance. RantWoman is lucky enough to be able to use escalators; most blind people RantWoman knows would not even try. Anyway, RantWoman naively thought maybe there should be an elevator at that entrance too, but has not found it. Sigh.

One entertaining thing RantWoman did find when she got to the platform: some kind of a doorway with a sign in large letters but no braille proclaiming that the door includes two utility closets and "Emergency Stair to Street." RantWoman here found herself with eccentric comments: a door that says "Emergency Stair to Street" MIGHT be a really good place to put some braille. If people need emergency stairs, there is a good chance things could be dark or smoky or with visibility obscured. In such environments, people might have trouble reading a sign that says "Emergency door to street." Enter the blind person a ready adapted to coping with bad visibility. Who would YOU want to be able to read directions to get out?