[Blind-rollers] Update from Melbourne

Mon Jun 3 05:17:03 UTC 2013

Hi, Penny,
I'm so excited to hear about your student and how he is doing with the
power chair!

Here are the answers to some of the questions in a previous e-mail.
You may already have the answers from other users, which is great.
Warning: this is a long post.

My first question is how do you manage to steer your manual chair in a
straight line when outdoors?
I have to push my chair with both hands while the cane is in one hand.
Then I have to swipe to tell what is in front of me. Then I push
again. I do have some use of my left foot which helps. However, it is
very slow and cumbersome. That's why I use the power chair when
traveling by myself outdoors. It's so much easier. It's a huge
difference!
Are you able to 'go anywhere' or do you have to stick to pre-determined routes?
I can pretty much go anywhere. The only limitation that I have is if
there are no sidewalks/ curb cuts. Even then, I discover them, and
keep it in mind for next time. I do a lot of in street travel by
shorelining. This is not doable on very busy streets, but for the most
part, I try not to be too limited on where I travel. I try to avoid
the busy streets by taking another route. If I move to a bigger city,
I plan to use the public bus system to travel. In the US, it is
mandatory for buses to be lift equipped with working lifts. These are
the same buses used by the average public. I'm not sure what the
transit is like there. About shorelining, I have to be very careful
not to go too far into the street and too far off the edge of the
road. It's definitely a situation where I have to pay close attention
because I have to make sure I avoid cars parked in the street and
holes for drains/sewers. Sometimes I will go a few blocks out of my
way because I know there are good sidewalks there.

How do you pick safe travel routes? Is this something you do yourself
or do you take a pair of eyes with you or do you get an O&M to come
out and assess
potential travel routes? The things I'm thinking about are the
location of curb ramps - how do you know what crossings have aligning
curbs and which don't?
I pick my own routes. I learned how to travel using structured
discovery like the other people at LCB. I would tell my instructor
which route I thought I would need to use to get there. Then, if there
was an area she knew was not accessible, she would help me revise the
route. This was after a couple of months in training. I'm not in
training any more so what I do now if I want to try a new route is
sometimes I'll just give myself a lot of extra time and go out and
explore. If I get to a place where there is no curb cut or sidewalk, I
just turn around or travel in the street. Sometimes I will ask my
sighted or blind friends if they have noticed curb cuts/ sidewalks in
a particular area. Usually my blind friends are better at answering
this question, but sometimes even they don't notice because they
aren't in wheelchairs. Usually the best thing for me to do is explore
on my own. As for aligning curbs, sometimes, I just have to cross the
street to discover it. If the curb cut is not there, I explore to see
if it is in that general area. Sometimes a person in a passing car
will give me good advice regarding this, other times, the person just
tells me that I'm in the street which is information I already know.
Regarding all of these, I use my cane to feel for the curb cuts,
sidewalks, or any other obstacle, just like other blind travelers.
Usually, at an unfamiliar crossing, I slow down when I hear the street
ahead of me. I stop to explore the corner with my cane to avoid going
off the sidewalk at a place where there is no cut.

How do you stop your chair from dropping off edges at the side? This
client has a few areas in his street where there are significant drop
offs to the
sides of the curb which could tip him sideways....
Again, I use my cane. This is why using a particularly long cane is so
important for people in wheelchairs. Also, sometimes people will tell
me, but discovering it with my cane is best for me because I'm more
likely to remember the drop off in the future. I have gotten stuck in
some drop offs, but usually after it happens in one area, I remember
it for next time and slow down when I come to the area. .

What things did you find the hardest to learn?
I don't know if this was the hardest, but most frustrating for me is
the location of doorways and ramps for people in chairs in businesses.
Part of structured discovery is finding these on your own. My issue is
that most of these are not at the same place as the main doorway/steps
for other people, or the curb cut is very much out of the way. I would
find the place where I guessed the doorway was located, but there were
steps. One thing that I did, and still do to help with this is to call
business in advance. I first make sure that the business is
accessible. Then I ask where the accessible entrance is. This helps
avoid much of the frustration.

Most important in all these questions is that teaching a blind person
in a wheelchair is really very similar to teaching any other blind
student. I know you've already started learning this. I remember
multiple times during my training, especially at the beginning, when I
would veer, get lost in parking lots, or get disoriented and get
frustrated. My instructor rightfully pointed out that these are
problems experienced by other blind travelers at the beginning of
training. By the end of training, I realized that, although there were
some things I had to do differently, there were very few things I
could not do with my cane and wheelchair. Another key, is that I do
pick my own routes, and I am in charge of my own travel. I take
responsibility for problem solving. Part of this might be asking
someone for advice or help, but I'm the one making the decisions about
my travel.

Treva

On 6/2/13, Penny Stevenson <Penny.Stevenson at visionaustralia.org> wrote:
> Hi there all,
> Thank you to all who have responded to me privately regarding their
> individual situations.
>
> On Friday I had a great session with my client and his Occupational
> Therapist. We took a power chair out onto his street. To put this lesson
> into perspective this is his third lesson with a long cane and second time
> he was in the outdoors with a power chair.
>
> He had a bit of difficulty getting out his front door and managed to drive
> off the path that leads down to his front gate. That was perhaps not the
> best start but once we got out onto the street it was much easier.
> The thing that surprised me most was how straight a line he was able to
> keep.
>
> The other thing that surprised me was how similar this lesson was to other
> long cane lessons. We veered down a driveway to the road and had to work out
> how to get back up to the footpath again for example.
>
> In my last lesson I of course was pushing the manual chair whereas this
> lesson because he was in the power chair and self propelling we were able to
> start working a lot more on problem solving strategies and increasing his
> conceptual understanding.
>
> He got stuck a few times so it was great having the OT there to teach him
> the skills to help him get unstuck.
>
> He had trouble detecting the edge of a curb, just like any other new long
> cane user does - so more practice there. We also need to practice aligning
> the chair to the curb better... so we get a straight line of travel across
> the road. Apart from how I would do this with a regular cane user - any
> suggestions from you as users?
>
> I'm just about to jump on the phone to the local council to discuss getting
> some road works done so he can access his local shops and maybe even access
> the bus stop...
>
> I'm also hoping to get him joining the list so he can start sharing his own
> story.
> From Penny
>
> Penny Stevenson
> Orientation and Mobility Specialist
> Vision Australia
>
> Monday, Tuesday, Friday
> 346 Macaulay Rd. (Cnr Stubbs St. - Enter via Stubbs St.)
> Kensington, VIC, 3031
> Direct line: 03  8378 1183
>
> Wednesday, Thursday
> 45 Princes Highway
> Dandenong, VIC, 3175
> Direct line: 8791 0209
>
> General: 1300 847 466
> Fax: 1300 847 329 (1300 VIS FAX)
> www.visionaustralia.org.au<http://www.visionaustralia.org.au>
> ABN: 67 108 391 831
> ACN: 108 391 831
>
>
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