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.