Haven't read the article, but as a blind person myself, nope. Much of the infrastructure designed to "help" us is so inconsistent, non-intuitive or broken that I don't bother using it, far preferring my own skills and knowledge of my surroundings.

For instance, I have an audible signal near my house. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes one side of the street works, and which side that is varies from day to day. In Austin, we have a variety of signal designs with no standard placement and, in some cases, a non-intuitive pattern of beeps which you can only learn by listening to the traffic patterns and correlating them with the sounds. So, in short, if I walk up and press a button, I have no indication whether that button will give me an audible signal, and historically giving me a signal is no indicator of getting one in the future. I feel truly sorry for anyone who actually needs the things. For my part, traffic never lies unless you get a bad driver, in which case an audible signal wouldn't save you anyway.

Thanks for reading my mini-rant on the fucked-up state of shit to "help" blind folks. :P