First, SPOG president Lim (?) apparently has not noticed issues such as ICE agents in masks and unmarked vehicles doing all sorts of tactical driving nonsense, swarming and ramming cars, failing to ducment, lying to children to entrap parents... Should RantWoman go on?.
Today there is new reporting about people being hired into ICE , given badge and gun with nowhere near the level of vetting and training that SPD officers go through. And now SPD is expected to collaborate with these frauds in the name of protestor safety??
How far does anyone think that "collaboration" should fly?
At the Portland ICE facility, there is now an understanding that Portland police will interact with protestors about anything that is not federal property.
RantWoman has no information about protests at any ICE facility inside Seattle. Scratch that: recently someone was detained at immigration court while showing up as required at a hearing. Save that point for a different post.
RantWoman is not plugged into any protestor networks involved in the kind of swarm protests that rocked news cycles in Minneapolis, but at this point, RantWoman encourages people thinking about protesting not to be naive, to be aware of what they are getting into.
And if police are worried about protestor safety, show up with body cam and dash cams ON. Be prepared to document situations. Start there. And do not try to spin collaboration with out-of-control thugs as "public safety."
First, please enjoy this lively commentary with some fun, yes, fun engineering details about how actually a light rail on a floating bridge actually stays afloat.
RantWoman also enjoyed some hints of festivity at stations she did not make it to. For more on the RantWoman experience, please read on the other side.
First the wardrobe, with thoughts of POSSIBLY stopping by a #NoKingsDay event: Nothing organization specific. A #WhiteCaneDay T-shirt under a hoodie that said "ICE OUT" in a long-winded, pedantic and harder to read way: "the GPS coordinates of your mother's cervix at the time of your birth have no bearing on your value as a human being." The hoodie turned out to be a great weight, warm enough in the morning, not too warm when the sun came out.
RantWoman is thrilled that the #CrosslakeConnection is open. RantWoman appreciated mostly cheerful sunny weather. RantWoman definitely applauds all the parents getting kids started early, even the tiny ones who fell asleep on the bus or while waiting for the bus.
RantWoman probably has some "Dear Accessibility community...here is an opportunity to preview..." email she has not read. RantWoman and Ambassador Thwack the #WhiteCane caught a bus unencumbered by much knowledge of the day's schedule. Plus RantWoman wanted to check out the Rainier Avenue entrance to the Judkins Park station.
Meh. Whose bright idea is it to put the bus stop nearly a block away from the light rail entrance. RantWoman will be interested to see what actually happens about scooter and biker share users stowing their vehicles in the designated areas.
Also, issue a bullhorn for the nice woman whose job it was to stand behind the pull down barrier and tell people over and over that the opening of that entrance was going to be delayed.
Never mind the delay. Hanging out where RantWoman was turned out to be an easy way for friends to find her. Excitement was contagious, even with the heavy crowds and long waits
RantWoman had an invite to an opening day meet and greet but realized that sleep was going to have to take priority. RantWoman also had to decide not even to try to get into a line to walk up the hill to the 23rd Avenue entrance where people were allowed to board sooner than from Rainier.
After about the third delay in the promised opening, with the line getting longer and longer, RantWoman decided to skip the thought of any inaugural ride. Instead, RantWoman did an errand involving the 7, the E line, a detour for lunch at IHOP and an ibuprofen, Despite some nasty pain issues, it felt good to walk to catch the 40 to Northgate.
The southbound 2 line was already packed, but RantWoman basically zoned out. At every station, lots of people got off, but an equal or larger number got on. RantWoman was lucky to have a seat. RantWoman would have preferred to face forward, but managed with a side seat.
RantWoman would like to say the view over the lake was glorious. RantWoman would like to say that, but the train was too crowded to catch more than a glimpse of sky and open water, with views of trees as the train rolled through to Bellevue City Center. RantWoman decided that was as far as she needed to go before heading back to the Judkins Park station.
Score a couple bright spots:
--After seeing construction for quite awhile, it was nice to see the train actually serving downtown Bellevue.
--RantWoman likes that the platforms seem wider than some other stations and that there is more space for people both to stand and to navigate along the tactile warning designs in the floor.
--It was fairly easy to find the elevator(s?) to go up and over to the return side of the tracks. One small grumble: RantWoman's glasses had turned dark but the hallway to the elevators could maybe use a little more lighting.
On the way back, RantWoman wanted to get off on the 23rd avenue side of the station so she purposefully headed for one of the rear cars. Again, the train was packed. A very observant guy indicated a seat next to him and then, when it was time to get off, stood and loudly asked people to move so RantWoman could get off the train.
Next, walk the direction everyone was headed toward the exit. Locate the elevator(s), again in a hallway where RantWoman might want a tad more lighting. Out the door, across the plaza, hoepfully to catch the #8 bus southbound. That was not to be. After various wanderings and directions, RantWoman decided to just take the 48 NB from the stop she could actually find and pick up the 8 at Jackson as part of her quest for bananas.
From there, life was easy. The only minor hiccup: somehow the pavement in the crosswalk at MLK and Union is, um, worn unevenly.
First, HEARTFELT condolences to the family of Mr. Nurun Alam and to everyone in the Rohingya refugee community in Buffalo NY.
RantWoman is shaking her tree of blind people contacts to see whether any blind people in Buffalo NY are familiar with the story below of Mr. Nurun Alam, a Rohingya REFUGEE. If RantWoman were a properly politic advocate, she might also collaborate with others to craft a carefully worded statement about why blind people--LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE US--should care about immigrant neighbors, blind or low vision immigrants, and assaults on Constitutional and civil rights, not to mention all the ways ICE/ CBP are making life MORE unsafe for everyone in the US. RantWoman will be grateful if all these comments lead to such statements.
In the meantime....
RantWoman's head is exploding about the heart-wrenching story of a nearly blind Rohingya REFUGEE left to die in Buffalo NY by Border Patrol agents. Aside from that outrageous level of cruelty, the whole story should make every jurisdiction in the country think twice or three or a dozen or seventeen times about handing ANYONE but the most dangerous criminals over on Border Patrol (ICE/ CBP) detainers.
According to the TV news report linked below, Mr. Alam was originally arrested in 2025 after an encounter with 2 Buffalo Police Department officers. RantWoman has not found reports of the original altercation but one post on X referred to some kind of stick that may have been used as a walking stick. Mr. Alam was held in the Erie County jail until there was some kind of plea deal, someone recently posted bond and he was picked up by "Border Patrol" Border Patrol apparently figured out there was no reason to deport him. There was also no reason just to dump him out in the cold to die in the snow.
RantWoman does not endorse middle-aged blind people getting into hand-to-hand battles with police officers. That said, several elements of the story make RantWoman wonder whether, in a properly functioning Department of Justice, there would be grounds for a federal civil rights investigation.
Google turned up reference to a now-deleted missing persons report on Facebook that described mr. Alam as about 5'7" and slightly built. So two officers? COME ON. De-escalation ANYONE? Someone? Anyone?
Next, we have someone who speaks minimal English quite possibly has age-related hearing loss, and probably has no idea what police officers might be barking at him.
Next we have a REFUGEE who probably does not have great associations with anyone in uniform but who, if he has any vision at all, probably reacts very badly to police officers.
Next, the "walking stick." RantWoman would definitely like to know more about whether Mr. Alam used whatever he was carrying as some kind of a mobility aid, either for support or as a tool for navigating his environment.
RantWoman is not a lawyer and HOPES that someone with more authority will re-investigate the original case.
For now, focus on the outrageous behavior by CBP and a fragile LEGAL REFUGEE left to die alone in the snow.
Documentation / media selections below.
Here are such media accounts and statements as RantWoman has been able easily to assemble, along with an observation that Grok, the Twitter /X AI validates accounts from several official sources.
TV Coverage of previous arrest
Border Patrol dump blind refugee 5 miles away from home—he was found dead on the street.
Officers dropped him off in front of a donut shop—didn't notify his lawyer or family he was even released.
When reported missing—local police said he was in ICE custody and stopped looking… pic.twitter.com/DKhS77qVqv
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan provided the following statement to News 4:
"A vulnerable man — nearly blind and unable to speak English — was left alone on a cold winter night with no known attempt to leave him in a safe, secure location."
The short version of this rant: will RantWoman just ride her usual bus Metro 48 to the #OpenThePaths conference with a few blocks walk to the Zillow Center? OR will RantWoman ride her usual Metro 48 bus a couple stops further, cross a street and catch a Metro 372 bus that would go practically to the front door of the Zillow center and mean much less total walking?
Stay tuned. RantWoman may or may not get arround to either documenting her travels in #ACCESSMap or explaining her thinking to the kinds of people who design trip planners. RantWoman has SO many other pathways to ranting before getting back to these details.
To heck with #SOTU2026 and multiple other news threads RantWoman would find it easy to have generalized ranting about. Let us stick to the annual #OpenThePaths conference at the TASKAR center at the University of WA.
First a rant about bleeping INTRUSIVE AI. RantWoman does NOT want AI to help her write email. RantWoman does not want AI to help her read her email or at least not as a default. And furthermore, ff RantWoman puts a search string into a search bar, the LAST thing RantWoman wants to see is some wordy AI verbiage. RantWoman wants a direct link to the even website. That did not occur. Hence the rant when RantWoman already needs to rant about other topics. Hence the hastag and RantWoman will look up other info she needs later.
A while ago, RantWoman promised readers some meditations about transportation and elder care and adult family homes. Steam will still rise from RantWoman's fingers if she tackles that today. Instead RantWoman needs to go off about her own new transportation constraints called minimal walking. After weeks of various leg weakness, muscle spasms, and other delights, RantWoman finally went to a doctor.
RantWoman got same-day x-rays. First RantWoman had to stand in a couple positions that reminded her, she probably has not one but two legs that are going to hurt sometimes. The diagonosis: Congratulations RantWoman, you have arthritis and other age-related issues which YouTube will offer abundant input about if one supplies one's birth year.
Arthritis??? I am too young to have arthritis!
Earth to RantWoman: look at your family tree. Uhhhh....
RantWoman walked out of the initial appointment calculating a path that would minimize pain because she had not recently munched any painkillers. Walk to Light Rail? Ummm? Walk to a couple different bus route options? Ummm.
Then RantWoman remembered a nearby bus stop and the Metro 65 which would take her directly to a Metro 48 stop she could ride to a Metro 8 stop and from there all the way home on the 8. Phew. What a relief.
With that window into RantWoman's current transportation thinking, RantWoman will now leave readers in suspense and report back after Day 1 on Thursday.
(Oh, Good! Just what RantWoman wants in the pedestrian environment allegedly increasing public safety: violent, poorly trained, unidentified, unaccountable goons. SURE. Sure, as in MANY local police officers and reportedly, even some people within ICE will attest)
One long continuous blast: ABDUCTION
(phrasing on the instruction sheet)
Regardless of where one comes down on federal officials grabbing people off the street, pepper spraying citizens trying to record what they are doing, and spewing lies, Lies, LIES (Can anyone tell RantWoman is a little biased?) RantWoman needs to go off about one aspect of the literal whistleblowing campaign: a bunch of whistles going off all around one is likeluy to be DARNED confusing to blind pedestrians. RantWoman also notes that there may be other people with mobility issues or personal reasons to need to find paths to safety, paths AWAY from places crowds may be running toward.
RantWoman bases the observation about difficulty identifying the sources of whistles on what she has heard in a number of videos about ICE / Border Patrol actions in Minneapolis and other cities. RantWoman has NO desire to use her limited eyeball time on videos getting analyzed in minute detail. RantWoman does, though, want to encourage people responding to whistle alerts to look around and #ASKDontGrab if someone nearby might need help finding paths to safety.
One more comment for #PWD who DO want to go to protests: there are any number of options for training and opportunities to game out different issues. RantWoman highly recommend both finding a compatible training / collaboration opportunity and just planning to go with a buddy.
Reference about the first amendment issue.
Blowing whistles is protected first amendment activity
Just when RantWoman was starting to groove on some new to her transit options in N Seattle (Yeah 365), RantMom will move soon, hopefully to a lovely Adult family Home on Boyer Ave E.
Location. Location. Location.
Location is so important that the RantSisters opted to skip visits to other Lake City locations suggested by the consultant assisting the RantFamily. If the goal is "comfort and quality of life," the Rant Sisters spending more time with RantMom and less time on transit is exactly on point.
The closest frequent bus route, the Metro 48 happens to serve Little Sister on one end and RantWoman on the other end. First day preview from bus stop to location was in a car. Irrepressible Nephew is good at spotting curb ramps but not so good at noticing sidewalk issues from the car.
Stops at Boyer on both sides of the street seem a little steep to RantWoman but Little Sister has a power chair.
RantWoman walked the sidewalk between the location and the bus stop the other day. The sidewalk is not brand new so it's bumpy in places. Little Sister at first dismissed RantWoman's observations but after a visit today thanked RantWoman for the heads-up.
Next comes visitors from Lynnwood on Light Rail. RantWoman has not put the route into a trip planner but did realize that in terms of easy connection to the 48 the best option would be to get off the Light Rail at the U District station and walk over to 15th Ave NE to get the 48. RantWoman remembers some nuance about the 48 ending at the U District station at least some of the time so probably a visit to the trip planner with some different date time combinations would be fruitful.
RantWoman generally does not try to plan / replan trips on the fly but does like to have general contours of the schedule in mind from planning ahead.
Anyway, the other option of course is to ride all the way to the University of WA station. RantWoman realized that option is less preferable just because the walk between the station and the 48 stop in front of the UW Medical Center is a pain and worse a pain to explain to another low vision person. RantWoman also notes that she may sometimes opt just to Uber part of the trip especially because of a vexing issue RantWoman REALLY needs to schedule her own medical appointment about.
Same tree different day outside RantWoman's window
It's fashionable for stress relief to tell people to "Touch Grass." It's Seattle. WHO IS ANYONE KIDDING? After atmospheric rivers have innundated parts of WA and less cold hardy souls have made it through a few spectacular days of cold and beautifully clear, Seattle is back to grey skies and heavy mist and need for 100 words to describe Seattle rain.
The tree counts, especially since RantWoman gets tobe deliriously grateful that in the small part of her vision which sort of works, RantWoman can tell the difference between the light and cloud patterns in the two pictures.
RantWoman means it about the title of this post. The list of current news items that could make RantWoman's head explode is too long already. RantWoman may or may not get around to penning her own reflections on 2025, couture, health, technology in general, Twitter or X, and numerous other topics. RantWoman WILL be posting about eldercare and transportation.
Instead RantWoman will be writing about two non-drivers, RantWoman accompanied by Ambassador Thwack and Little Sister in her wheelchair looking for eldercare that provides RantMom a lot more services than simple independent living. HOEPFULLY RantWoman will spare readers both the sordid details of a decrepitating body and at least most of the family emotional landmines.
Instead expect
--commentary about what kinds of vehicles are easy or difficult for people with different mobility needs to get into or out of.
--consultation about transportation options for candidate locations from multiple trip planners.
--comments from Walk Score, Access Map, and Find a Ride
We will start with one generalized rant: in some respects, Sunday is a GREAT time to visit candidate locations. That is whan bus service is sparsest, so how does life work under that condition.
HOWEVER, probably on NO planet will it be reasonable to try for a tour of three locations via transit on one day unless Irrepressible Nephew can drive his mother around and RantWoman can sync up with one of the people who has issued blank ride offers. RantWoman is not crazy about this option BECAUSE the POINT of demanding to test the get there on transit angle is specifically to evaluate everyday life realities.
Happy posthumous 91st birthday to RantDad. And special appreciation to all transit, deivery, and taxi etc. drivers, with a particular asterisk for resonance about a couple anniversaries of horrible tragedies. The tragedies never go away, even when there is much else to occupy people's souls.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone involved in food production and food distribution!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone however you do or don't celebrate.
The pink Christmas Cactus
RantWoman considers Thanksgiving at least as important as Christmas. Enough said.
This year, the prep got off to more of a rocky start than usual. Dial-a-Tirade available about software updates and AI that seems to fry RantWoman's phone and other forms of technological disdain for RantWoman's current realities. On top of that, RantWoman spent half an hour of her usual Wednesday morning hourlong webinar trying to figure out a new portal.
Another novelty: an invitation to dinner with nephew and woman friend in exotic LYNNWOOD, but not the part of Lynnwood in range of the Alderwood Zip service. (Earth to RantWoman: did you check Find-a-Ride to see whether the service area might have expanded? NOooo.)
Nephew is both chef and chauffeur, with an offer to fetch both his parents, RantMom, and RantWoman, all in one trip. RantWoman had to reality check this offer. RantWoman is recovering well, but is still feeling a little irritable after some surgery last week. The thought of being crammed in a car even with one's nearest and dearest just does not sound fun. RantWoman really did not want to request two roundtrips to assemble the whole clan. Somehow a request just to fetch RantWoman from a nearby transit location is too much. RantWoman is quite happy with some exercise and public transit before a holiday feast. More on that in a moment.
RantWoman also learned that Little Sister just assumed RantWoman would be bringing cranberry something. It is a VERY good thing RantWoman discovered a big bag of cranberries stashed in the bottom of her freezer and has been able to assemble TWO kinds of sauce. Uncooked relish will have to wait for another holiday and fresh instead of frozen berries.
Off RantWoman went to Google Maps with the freshly supplied street address. The options with a couple nuances: either Link + the Swift Blue line plus a walk with suggestions to have realistics expectations about walkability or E line plus a Community transit line that runs once an hour on Sundays and holidays. Also, expect rain.
The actual walking distance from a close bus stop to final destination does not look very long. It just involves interacting with Highway 99 and no indication of crosswalk options. So fabulous: just take Uber the last leg of the trip and expect that family harmony will last a little longer with the right transportation options.
Weirdly, I believe that one of the Black women Charlie Kirk referenced DID say that they benefited from Affirmative Action. Almost every Black person I met at Princeton somewhere along the way had to deal with crap about them not deserving to be there.
When the Skull and Bones society at Yale started to admit women, there was a quote about that was the way to ensure they were looking forte smartest people at Yale. I know it probably smarts to hear that looking outside of entitled circles is a good way to find the smartest people available, but there we are.
And Charlie Kirk is still a bizarre human being whose appropriation of the Bible does not at all line up with what I understand.
RantWoman has done enough ushering at different kinds of events that at some point, questions of herding people around and what different event attendees might need wander through RantWoman's mind.
Tonight's questions:
RantWoman has lost track of a link featuring a young woman interviewing to guys who are probably about her age. The guys were at the #CharlieKirk UVU eventand both reported about what happened after the fatal shot was fired, basically panic and everyone trying to flee, including some people who fell. RantWoman's first question: has anyone tracked injuries among the people who fell? RantWoman can think of lots of reasons to ask about this. Enough said.
One of RantWoman's instincts in many crowd situations is to look for paths through or out. This is partly because RantWoman and Ambassador Thwack prefer not to plow into people. People who have been to active shooter drills also get taught to think of either places to hide or ways to get away. RantWoman got only a fleeting look at the crowd. It did not appear that anyone had done anything to ensure there were aisles in the crowd. One commentator commented about the number of officers possibly being too few for the event. RantWoman has no opinion about that except that perhaps 10 or 15 student ushers could have helped ensure that there were aisles.
Next since RantWoman is around lots of wheelchair users and people who need signlanguage interpreting, RantWoman wondered idly where wheelchair users would have been and whether anyone requested sign language interpretation.
RantWoman will simply leave the wondering questions here for now and try to go about the rest of her commitments at least for a bit..
Starting: South Base of the Space Needle near the Howard S. Wright Memorial Fountain: 400 Broad St, Seattle, WA 98109
Ending: Washington Talking Book and Braille Library (WTBBL): 2021 9th Ave, Seattle, WA 98121
Timeline:
• 9:00 am - 9:50 Arrive at starting place
• 9:50 - Official Group Photo
• 10:00: The Walk begins!
• 10:45 : Speakers at WTBBL
• 1:00pm Event ends
WTBBL will host a reception and a vendor area! Details to come!
We are working to make this event more youth friendly! Stay tuned for more information.
You Cane Give Initiative is sponsoring a cane drive for this event! Wondering what to do with that old cane you no longer use in the closet? Is that drawer of used canes collecting dust and taking up space? Donate your old canes to the “You Cane Give” program. And turn that old cane into newfound independence for individuals in need.
We are so excited to announce Waymo as a Platinum Sponsor for White Cane Day 2025!
What is Waymo?
Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company, originally Google's self-driving car project, that develops and operates fully autonomous vehicles for public ride-hailing services through its Waymo One service. Using a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence, and detailed mapping, the Waymo Driver handles all aspects of driving to provide a safer, more accessible, and sustainable mobility option for users.
Waymo is coming to Seattle!
"We’re heading North – the Pacific Northwest to be exact! Today, we’re returning to Washington State as we lay the groundwork to launch our autonomous ride-hail service in the Seattle metropolitan area,” Waymo said in a post on X. - Learn more at King5
Interested in sponsoring White Cane Day? Learn more about our sponsorship tiers
RantWoman is again neglecting various local and global crises to tend to AMAZON DELIVERY ISSUES.
Amazon has DONE IT AGAIN.
Last week RantWoman ordered 3 items none of which would fit into her mailbox in the mailroom to be delivered on her Amazon Day.
Amazon Day came. No delivery.
RantWoman thinks she was even home and could have received the packages if someone had made the slightest effort to, say, knock on RantWoman's door.
RantWoman checked her Amazon app for delivery status. Shipped by USPS with something that purports to be tracking number.
Fascinating. The only thing more fun than one dumb hassle is TWO dumb hassles.
Finally, today, Monday a charming pink package delivery slip from the post office showed up in RantWoman's mail. Pink slip had acres of tiny print and some tiny handwritten notations. RantWoman whipped out her phone and blew things up large enough to make out both the handwriting and what purports to be a tracking number.
The PROBLEM: the tracking number on the annoying pink slip looks NOTHING like the tracking number in the Amazon app.
There is the promise of another delivery attempt the next day. RantWoman will even be in her building. RantWoman just has no way to know when her delivery MIGHT occur.
Just for grins this time, RantWoman here includes a screenshot of part of the delivery status .
Screen shot
And for FURTHER GRINS, relevant info from the USPS slip.
The USPS tracking number
And now...because RantWoman is procrastinating, some bonus free UX consulting, with absolutely no warrant that RantWoman's approach will work for a totally blind user, or an elderly person who has not spent their whole life steeped in tech.
Use the QR code! Miraculously the QR code takes one to a form about scheduling redelivery. The form is even auto-populated with the bar code number. The form asks for usual contact info: name, delivery address, phone, email.
There is no way on the form to be sure one has saved the data input so RantWoman went looking on the hamburger at the top left of the phone. Oh, here, some kind of login page. At this point RantWoman made one guess about whether she might have set up a sign-in on the USPS page. Nah. One guess is all RantWoman has in her tonight, but MAYBE RantWoman will try again tomorrow.
And, again, you're welcome for the free UX consulting.
Shameless repost: Mark your calendars for future Taskar Centerevents even if it's too short notice for the Seattle Design Festival
August 16-17 | Lake Union Park (Stall A1)
We’re thrilled to return to the Seattle Design Festival this year with our interactive installation, Mapping Belonging. Come explore how sidewalks data, lived experiences, and community design intersect and come together to improve accessibility in our communities. We will have games, real-time feedback displays, and prizes for participants for all ages.
Don’t miss these HIGHLIGHTS:
August 16th and 17th at Lake Union Park. AND August 18th at Carnation HopeLink covered area
Pedestrian Access Walkabout with the AVIV ScoutRoute app (Pop-Up Experience Zone, Stall A1) August 16 (Sign up here)
Join Realtime Feedback installation: See your feedback light up in real-time on our feedback ticker!
Mainstage Talk: "Mapping Belonging: Placemaking & Data Futures," on the Mainstage on August 17th, from 2:00–2:30 PM PDT.
Carnation HopeLink Walkabout: Continue the conversation in Carnation WA on August 18th! Join us under the covered area located at 4620 Tolt Ave, Carnation, WA 98014
Mark your calendars and sign up for the walkabout through this form!
Heads up for travelers! I-5 northbound will be closed from August 15–18 between the I-90 interchange and NE 45th St. Express lanes will be open 24/7 northbound — or better yet, take public transit!
We’re so glad you’re here! Please help us bring even more voices to the table. Forward this email to a friend who cares about accessible, inclusive communities. Invite them to sign up for the TCAT newsletter here and stay connected all year long.
Start an OpenSidewalks Club at Your School!
Do you know a high school student who wants to make a difference?
We’re launching OpenSidewalks Clubs through DemocracyLab this fall to empower youth to collect sidewalk data, share community stories, and explore urban design with real-world impact. Clubs receive access to tools, mentorship, and a growing network of peers working toward mobility equity. Sign up here to learn more and be the first to know when registration opens!
In Case you Missed it: OpenThePaths 2025
In March, TCAT proudly hosted our annual OpenThePaths mini-conference. We were honored to bring together an outstanding lineup of transportation and disability justice professionals, community leaders and transportation data experts who presented on the future of pedestrian accessibility. A huge thank you to all our community members and guest speakers for contributing to this important conversation! Catch up on conversations that lit up the room in this YouTube playlist.
Thanks to your advocacy, and a strong push from our legislative champions, we’re proud to report that as of July 1 2025, we completed mapping all Washington sidewalks that were in scope for the first biennium. This is a major international milestone and you can view and comment on the data in the OS-CONNECT viewer.
We deeply appreciate your continued support in building a more accessible world. Please don’t hesitate to reach out or use AccessMapto support your non-motorized travel! We can’t wait to see you at the Design Festival, in Carnation, in classrooms this fall, or in SCLIOs throughout this new biennium!
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, August 5th, 2025
Dr. Anat Caspi will be giving a presentation at the APTA Technology Conference, from 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM EDT
The world is on fire, several ways, several places and RantWoman needs to take a break from all that world politics stuff!
Why? RantWoman's lips are about to fall off and she is running out of her much preferred lip balm. RantWoman's most convenient way to get her favorite lip balm is to bundle an order with other items and then to pick her Amazon Day, a day when she is usually home to receiver her shipments.
RantWoman is just fine with Amazon Day delivery. RantWoman is just fine with collecting a bunch of orders and having them all come at once.
Some of the time that is great.
This post is not about the working great.
Well, one gripe is more of a question! What is the window before a delivery date gets kicked out a week to the next Amazon day?
RantWoman would be JUST FINE if Amazon clearly said something like "get your orders in two days before your Amazon day. RantWoman could MAYBE endure mumbling about "we just don't have what you want in stock and we need a whole week. RantWoman would handle that GRUDGINGLY. RantWoman's expectation and preference though is that if she chooses Amazon Day delivery, that means her NEXT Amazon Day
However, when RantWoman says she wants her orders DELIVERED, she means to her building and preferably to her doorway. Ignore the naysayers. RantWoman is capable of deciding for herself what theft risks she is willing to run. More to the point, RantWoman orders a lot of things that people don't necessarily want to steal.
The main point: RantWoman does NOT want either some hard to read postal slip OR some long tracking code that she is going to have to type in to usps.gov herself OR an invitation to take two modes of transit followed buy a not terribly ped friendly walk to the nearest holding station. Besides, the last time RantWoman had a problem about a package, RantWoman typed the tracking number in several times on different days and never found her items.
So this time, RantWoman WILL try again about the tracking number, but RantWoman is also griping LOUDLY.
And while we're at it, RantWoman wants a more satisfying way to communicate the nuances of her opinion than picking a box or texting with what is either a bot or an earnest young person halfway around the world at their first job taking gripes from irate customers.
RantWoman also wants some respect because at some point Amazon logistics called up RantWoman for driving directions to her building and in particular to the only door where drivers should be coming to deliver packages. So you're welcome
and PLEASE believe RantWoman: get my things here ON MY AMAZON DAY and NOT THROUGH the post office UNLESS you are sure the package will fit INSIDE RantWoman's mailbox.
RantWoman first attempted to interact with the map on her phone. Bad idea. RantWoman has a couple options for enlargement but it's too easy to lose context and full orientation clues.
RantWoman appreciates that there are directions aimed at pedestrians. RantWoman however is baffled by some of the text and the map doesn't help. For one thing RantWoman is confused by the appearance of bus stops. The cute little bus icon seems to be pointing perpendicular to the direction buses travel and RantWoman is completely confused by how to get from the bus stop to pedestrian-friendly paths, with or without traffic signals.
Well, one suggested routing suggests to RantWoman crossing Pacific St somewhere Montlake. RantWoman has used that street crossing. RantWoman does not like it nearly as much as the simple straightforward one near a bus stop. RantWoman hopes between signage and the "Ask a human algorithm that she can find the underground tunnel referenced in the directions.
RantWoman appreciates that the text prints out in large print. RantWoman wishes she could say the same thing about the map shown above. RantWoman's first effort to print the whole webpage yielded lovely readable text but the map took up about 1/4 of the 11" side of regular 8.5 x 11 inch paper.
Black and white printing also obliterated several of the lightly colored lines in the map.
But lo RantWoman is resourceful. RantWoman decided just to download the map image and print that. That is more steps than lots of people will want to try and RantWoman had to fight off several AI-based offers of "help." RantWoman now has an almost workable map.
HOWEVER, RantWoman how the miniscule map works for drivers, especially drivers unfamiliar with the area. Surely not only RantWoman but also at least some drivers would really appreciate an easily printable map, a page with only the map, with the text on another page.
There. Enough rant for now. RantWoman will now get to bed so she can pop out of bed and interact with the built environment well-rested.
PS. After whining and grumbling about all the travel disruptions over the weekend, RantWoman's travel experience was tolerable.
7+5 downtown busier than usual and a helpful police officer directing at what is a pretty simple street crossing anyway. The 5 did fill up with people who all debarked at stops near the Fremont fair.
Event with a guest working on Accessmap.app who is going to get an email with suggestions about something to indicate whether streets are arterials, minor arterials or residential streets.
After event, a walk from Greenwood to Aurora along the N side of N85th street, to save a couple street crossings.
E line to another stop.
(Ordinarily RantWoman would just take the E line downtown and transfer to the 8 at Denny. Separate whine about that not being viable right now.)
Walk to catch the Eastbound 40 to Northgate station, followed by 1 line to Capitol Hill and the 8 home from there. Train crowded and platform way more crowded than average. Train was terminated at Capitol Hill, single tracking and there were humans to guide people to the shuttles (or bus lines) downtown. RantWoman found this tolerable even with having to add an extra transit segment and the Juneuary temps and bluster.
Interests: Digital Inclusion, Languages and language access, walkability, accessibility, disaster preparedness.
When in doubt, laugh about something!
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com
PLEASE NOTE: I use both screen reading and screen enlargement. I would love to say Blogger is screen-reader friendly, but I am in no position to comment!
