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.