Lone Star College-Montgomery chimes in to help visually impaired get to class

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- Lone Star College-Montgomery installed wind chimes in key locations around campus to help sightless students navigate from one building to another.

Most students quickly become familiar with the 210-acre campus, but for the visually impaired, getting from buildings A to B or buildings F to G can be challenging.

“What’s really cool is the chimes are tuned to different scales so I know which is C building and which is G building,” said Maria Salazar, a freshman at LSC-Montgomery who lost her vision when she was three-years-old to the rare cancer, retinoblastoma.

Maria is one of four sightless students at LSC-Montgomery, along with eight others who are significantly visually impaired.

“I have taught at LSC-Montgomery for 20 years and I still occasionally walk into the wrong classroom. We need all the help we can get,” says Kevin Sumrall, professor at LSC-Montgomery who applied for the college mini-grant to fund the wind chimes. “Audio-directional and tactile-directional signals are just like signboards and marquees that make our campus more user-friendly.”

It is not a perfect solution. There are windless days, and with a slight breeze, the chimes may only carry 10 to 20 feet.

“The chimes are meant to help ease the orientation process, but the challenge is still there,” adds Sumrall. “This is why it is important during any construction project to remember the sightless and be sure there are audio clues such as fountains and sufficient tactile signals in the pavement.”