Outside Travel

After practicing the different cane skills inside for a while. It will be a little longer so that I am sure they are well versed so I have less to worry about when we are outside.

In the normal progression of O&M a client will leave the inside environment for a sparse residential setting. For the first couple of lessons the client will be restricted to a single block.  No street crossings so relatively safe. In this setting I will reinforce the cardinal directions and introduce them to using audible clues.  During their travel outside they then will be introduced to blind travel rules like recovering after veering and detecting the road, gaining alignment (stop the ping ponging effect) Reinforce the upper hand technique.  Now the thing I have to learn this area myself.

Next is knowing how my clients are moving.  Most blind O&M specialists use a combination of bells and a mini guide.  A mini guide is a sonar system that makes noise or shakes depending on the distance an object is away from the end of the device.  I will not subject a Veteran to wearing bells.  So I will be using something like the mini guide.  Oh no another expense, I have been using the departments mini guide and found it hard to change the different sensitivities so I will be switching to  a cheaper knock off that has a two button configuration called the Ray.  Lets hope it works, or after my $100,000's that I have spent at Maxi-Aids I may be making my first return.

(Yes I will be adding pictures and video more often)

So how I use this is  when they are going down the sidewalk I point it to their side that is to the road at its highest sensitivity.  when it starts to shake and I know they have veered to close to the street.  At the street corner I get to the side away from the parallel traffic so I do not get in what is known as their sound shadow. Set the device to its lowest sensitivity.  The client also knows to tell me before they are going but just in case I know they are moving by the sound and the stop of the vibration in the Ray I then start my crossings as well. I keep my Ray on them and if it stops I know they are veering into the road.  If they Ray vibration gets stronger they are veering away from the road.  Luckily Cactus keeps me going straight.

Next installment will be my learning opportunity!

Using My Visual Strengths

With a Traumatic Brain Injury(TBI) or Cortical Visual Impairment(CVI) like mine I do have the rare ability to see in lower light.  With most visual impairments the opposite is true where people see in more light and see less in less in less light.  The only exception to this rule other than TBI is those with Cataracts.  Though Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness in the world it is the least problem of blindness in the United States.(Sorry little interesting side note.)

Luckily when a person is starting out to learn their actual cane skills they are in an indoor environment where lighting can be controlled.

So using this to my advantage I started learning to follow my clients and knowing how well they are doing first by standing closely behind them and seeing how far the cane goes from to side.  From there I learned the difference in sound if they were keeping inside their body and if they were hitting outside their body, or going way to the side of their body.  This is a skill that blind O&M instructors must learn but I got to learn it quicker because of my added visual acuity inside.

Now with Cactus her jingling chain and tags do start to drown out the sound. A rubber band is a quick fix but do not last long, it seems that a hair tie will stay on longer and also dampen the noise better.  My instructor also said muffling her sound will also be important to not let my client know that I am around or give them an extra Orientation clue.

Now on to the actual cane grip a standard blind O&M specialist practice is learning how the grip feels when clasping over their hands.  Know that most of these techniques for blind O&M specialists come from an organization that will never accept me because I use a dog (The National Federation of the Blind (NFB)).  The NFB has been training blind O&M specialist since the 60's when the University System refused to.  This is actually where most of the split in the US blindness community comes from.

Now teaching the distance of the cane arc and spread. to start I will have my student put their hands straight up front in the air and I match it on the outside of their hand from their I widen my stance so that my feet are to the side of my hands. This gives me the one to two inches past their shoulder length. This also straightens me out and squares me off of the student and helps me guess how far their cane should hit in front of them. Next I will have them practice moving the cane from side to side.  This simulates the constant contact technique.  Next is my first addition to my O&M bag O Tricks.  Painters tape and a puppy training bells.  So that I know that during the two point touch technique that the student is getting the proper clearance when they are coming off the ground and are not going to high.

I tape the puppy training bells to the ground in the center between my feet and then use a long piece of tape and run it from shoe to shoe. If the bells make a noise they are not picking their cane up high enough and if they hit the tape and it sticks a little they know they are picking the cane up too high.

For diagonal cane technique their is no change to the sighted instructor.

I guess I should again state that the purpose of this is to keep track of special tactics that I have to use as a blind O&M specialist who also uses a dog.  So this may not encompass all of the training I receive just some of the techniques I have to tweak for myself.

Going Up - Going Down.

Cactus actually is a plus on this next task.

Human Guide introduces the client to the navigation of stairs. Not much difference in taking the stairs using human guide or independently with the cane.  Well how Cactus and I take a stairs became a plus when I was under the blindfold and acting as the new client Ruth my partner followed the book and the correct technique and she paused at the top of the stairs, or at the bottom of the stairs.  Well it is good but it does not help me as the student to know is the stairs going up or down.

Now Cactus comes in when I was taking Ruth around Cactus and I got ready for going up the stairs in doing so because how I have to bend and also prepare myself with my left foot on the step this actually gave Ruth better clues to how the stairs were and where they were. I may have Dr. Kim and Dr. Wall Emerson's next research topic right here.  "The Importance of Human Guide Placement on Stairs."  Later when it was Ruth's turn to guide me again she started mimicking my actions with Cactus and it was an improvement to starting of a stair compared to what was is the accepted method in the book.

Next topic - Teaching Actual Cane Techniques.

Opening on Your Right.

So better late then never.

When traveling human guide through a door it is somewhat like the narrow passage with the addition of an extra physical action or verbal action on the guider to let the one being guided know which of their techniques to enact.  The audible cue may be door is opening out and to the left, or the physical cue may be a pushing in the door and a switch to the other arm when guiding someone with hearing issues.

Now we encounter a problem most people do not notice this and it shocked my parents and even my O&M instructor but Cactus is taught to take me to a door that opens on the right. Why you might ask because that is the easiest for us to navigate.  If we have to go through a door that opens on the left I have to execute dropping of the handle, a 180 degree turn, use my back to keep the door open, another 180 degree turn, and finally picking up the harness.

Can anyone see where a problem might arise?

Part of teaching human guide to a blind individual you have to teach them every possible situation including for Cactus and I the dreaded left opening door.  So ways Cactus and I may overcome this is by modifying our way of using revolving doors known as the switch.  Switch is a command that Cactus and I hardly ever use, and of course it is something she is not very used to.  Plus then we must also have the person being guided onto my left arm. So Cactus goes from my left arm to my right arm and the client goes from my right arm to my left arm. Other than what I have to do human guide training for doors is exactly the same for a regular instructor.

Told you some of this stuff would be boring.  Think this post was a little wordy for the small amount of information covered.  Next topic Human Guide and stairs.

The Blind Leading the Blind.

So one of the first things that a newly blind person and their family will be taught is the use of "Human Guide" formerly known as "Sighted Guide."  This happens hopefully before they leave the hospital or as one of the first lessons in early intervention and school for those who are congenitally blind.

This does not always happen, but families adapt and come up with their own versions.  Unfortunately these ways are usually very slow or dangerous.  Most notably in the movie "Sent of a Woman" Al Pacino plays the part of a stubborn blind Veteran who gets pushed around to everywhere he goes.  We joke in class because this movie sent back the field of Orientation and Mobility because of the lack of research that was done for the movie.

How human guide works is a blind person loosely attaches themselves onto the arm of the person guiding them and follows one step back and to the side.  When different obstacles occur like a door or a narrow passage the information is then systematically transferred to the blind person through deliberate movements of the person guiding.  (My classmates and I will be making some short videos to show some of the techniques that I am talking about)

Well in my first class we already had to adapt this.  Some were actually helpful to the person being guided.  First think about this Cactus is guiding me I am to her right and a step back, then we have a blindfolded student on my right arm to the right of me and a step back.  We are taking up a lot of room going down the hallway.   So what happens when we come to a narrow area in the hallway like an open doorway or just a tight squeeze or going through a bunch of non attentive college students.  Luckily Cactus and I have been a team for many years, and she is very good about alerting me to such obstacles.  So what must happen is that I get single file behind Cactus, then using the standard act like I am grabbing my left pocket get the student behind me.  Now how do I know we have passed the obstacle and it is safe for us to get out of the single file line?  Interesting question....  The explanation is tricky basically it is me trying to gage what the obstacle is using what is known as "facial sight"  No it is not actual sight.  Facial sight is feeling the difference in the air and sound of the world around you.  This is how well adapted blind people can walk almost a straight line down a hallway.  Then it is feeling the amount of pull from Cactus.  Cactus slows down when an obstacle is getting close, and speeds up after we get around an obstacle.

So now comes the fun part first Cactus and I go back to our normal traveling setup, then using that facial sight I must double check to make sure it is safe for me to bring the student back to our three wide format.  To do so I make a deliberate move with my arm act like I am trying to grab sideways my front right pocket.  Note for the first number of lessons I was blind folded as well to force me not use what residual vision I have and to really refine my skills.

Successes all of that just to traverse a fire barrier in the middle of a hallway.  How many of those exist in your place of work?

Next installment will be on going through doors.