...but what if we could FLY
It's a real question
I was recently in a business meeting where we were talking about “the future.” There was one other blind person in the meeting – an acquaintance named Matt who is great and always has some quiet brilliance to share.
We were talking about the prospect of a self-driving car and Matt had to push it to the next level. He asked us if we’d ever heard of the startling, future-is-now, maybe-tech-Utopian-pipe-dream, maybe-Orwellian-disaster-machine, BLACKFLY. Which is, I guess, some type of semi-autonomous deregulated vertical flight personal aircraft? Seriously, if you’ve ever geeked out over 'The Rocketeer,’ or dreamed of a carless future, click that link.
Anyway, the idea Matt was offering up was, basically, if I remember correctly: You think self-driving cars are going to change everything? What about if people start just, flying? (*obscure FAA bureaucrat faints*)
I don’t know if Matt was talking specifically about blind people or not, but I am. So I’d like to know, from the many brilliant minds out there, those of you who know blindness intimately or from a distance, what would it mean for us “visually impaired” folk if we could fucking fly?
Just so we’re basically on the same page, let’s assume these Blackflies hit the market, designed with accessibility in mind, such that a blind person can:
Independently own and operate their own aircraft
Manage emergency situations through remote guidance
Receive the regulatory green light to move independently through the skies
Those are big assumptions, I know, but, like, seriously: watch the videos of this thing. Either these people are totally lying to us or this is not actually that improbable.
It’s not fair for me to ask this question without attempting to answer it myself. So after a little brainstorm, here are some of my theories about what independent flight (and frictionless transportation, more to-the-point) would mean for blind people:
Employment prospects would soar.
This might seem like a “no duh” observation but, in the era of remote work transportation shouldn’t matter, right? Wrong. Jetpacks may seem far off but, much as I hate to admit it, equil access to all the web and software products that make up our remote work environments might be even more of a challenge. Because of this, the vast majority of blind folks (and elderly, non-technical people for that matter) are never going to become truly competitive in today’s remote work environments. At least not without some landmark court cases and a more progressive government. With independent air flight, blind people will be able to meet with friends, family and business associates in person and in the field, where we (arguably, but not absolutely) have a much better shot at competing on a level playing field.
The Cupid effect.
It’s tempting to be crass here but I won’t because we’re just getting to know each other again. How to put this…. the ability to soar around on our own, not have to ask anyone for permission to travel, come and go from homes, restaurants and other places of dating at a moment’s notice… as our autonomous vehicles took off, so, too, would our love lives. I could write a whole other piece (and probably will) about the sight-dominated norms and customs that keep blind folks from gettin it on as often as they might otherwise. But as it currently stands, if a blind person is trying to get to sexy-town, somebody’s gotta drive them. Get it?
Inclusion and awareness might vanish into thin air.
I think it’s probably important to remember that no technological advance exists in a socioeconomic vacuum, and if by some miracle blind people got access to their own flying saucers, I guarantee you –– you’d never see us again. The truth of the matter is, the hardest part about being blind is being watched, scrutinized, chided, guided and criticized by people on the street. And if we didn’t have to step foot on the street again, most of us probably wouldn’t. Maybe that’s a win for our mental health. But would it be a win for inclusion? I doubt it. To that same effect, flying vehicles would bring a whole new meaning to the “flyover” effect that absolutely crushed inner cities during the freeway construction and white flight of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Imagine the class division if you, a common “walker,” didn’t even know you were being passed by overhead? I’d like to think that if it happened, blind folks would have an equal opportunity to be that upper crust doing the passing, but realistically we’ll be fighting the same accessibility battles of today, in the skies, on land, in space?
So there’s some ideas. As you can see what I’m most interested in is what happens to us socially. And moreover, what happens to society? What if this was the only legit way for blind people to independently get around? Would the various state departments of vocational rehabilitation that are already paying for our laptops and braille devices and bus passes also start buying us autonomous light aircrafts? Why not?
The main point that is worth noting, which you’ll hear over and over again here, is that the biggest struggle we face is access to frictionless transportation. Even with rideshare services like Uber and Lyft the idea of using, say, three or four different rideshares in a row just to run two errands seems impractical even for the wealthiest of us. What’s the annual income tipping point for blind folks to just suck it up and hire a personal driver?
Once frictionless transportation is solved, I think all the other walls will fall. But until then, we walk – just like our old pal Jesus – one foot, in front of the other.
For now, I’ll keep an eye on the flying aircraft situation. You keep your eyes on the road, or you’ll kill us both.
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