'Being Independent for a Reasonable Price'

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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."