'Being Independent for a Reasonable Price'

Related materials

Article: Sight for the Blind and Speech for the Deaf

Article tools

Printer friendly	E-mail article	Subscribe	Order reprints
	Discuss any Chronicle article in our forums
Latest Headlines Universities Must Disclose More Data on Animal Research A court settlement requires the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make public more information about research on animals, prompting some academic researchers to worry about further attacks by animal-rights extremists. 2-Year Colleges Streamline Student Aid and Focus on Counseling For Provost Who Fled Lebanon, U. of Dayton Is His 'Village' Letters Home From World War II Soldiers Are Found in College Basement

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dan Rossi, a blind systems administrator at Carnegie Mellon University, has an impressive résumé. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and to the base camp at Mount Everest, and frequently sky-dives. Given his evident self-sufficiency, one wouldn't expect him to use the assistive technologies he is now helping students design. But he says such tools help him live the way he wants to live, even if he doesn't necessarily need them.

"My personal philosophy is that independent access is pretty important," he says.

"As much as I've kicked it around in my head, I'd be surprised if technology ever gets good enough that it's faster or more convenient than me fanning out five bills to my wife and saying, 'Which one's the 5?' Still, even with that, being independent for a reasonable price, I'd be willing to pay the price because it means I don't have to ask."