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!