[Blind-rollers] Update from Melbourne

Mon Jun 3 06:17:15 UTC 2013

Hi Penny,
You can forward my message to other teachers, but I want to make sure
that they know I'm not an instructor, and I recommend that you also
contact a travel instructor that uses structured discovery.

A note about shorelining is that when I was in training my travel
instructor defintly considered safety, and there were streets that
were too busy and narrow and unsafe for me to travel because there
were no sidewalks. Since I'm out of training, I try to use my own
judgement. There are still many streets that are too busy and too
narrow that I avoid, but there are others that I choose to travel. I
don't want to be unsafe, but I also want to be able to get to places
effectively. For example, due to construction, my usual route that has
sidewalks and curb cuts to go to my bank is not accessible, so I have
to do a lot of traveling on a street to get there. The street is not
extremely busy, but there is fairly steady traffic on it. Just as
sighted people, and other blind people do, I also consider the general
safety of neighborhoods. Even in this small town, there are some
places I won't travel, especially at night. I have to be the one to
listen for cars because I know they won't watch out for me. Some
wheelchair users I know have decorated their chairs with brightly
colored reflective tape to make themselves more visible, and I have
had someone suggest I use a bicycle flag. I choose not to use either
of these.

One thing that I have observed about my instructors is that they
helped me to learn how to use my own judgement regarding these issues.

About your question, I'm a little confused about the first part and
what actually happens, but I'll try to address the whole question. One
thing that I had to learn while I was on a flat, very open surface
with no obstacles when I first started using my chair was what
happened to the back of my chair when I turned. Power chairs have
either front wheel, mid wheel, or rear wheel drive. Honestly, I don't
know how to explain these, but what I had to do with my own wheelchair
was figure out if I turn left, which way the back of my chair went, or
if I turned right, what would happen. I practiced doing 360 degree
turns. Once I practiced on a flat, open surface, I tried in other
areas. In the beginning of my training, these things were a little
difficult for me, but soon they became routine, and now, I don't think
about them. Sometimes, what I'll do in a really tight corner is to
take my cane and feel all around my chair, even behind me. I will
sometimes also back up to get out of the situation or help straighten
my chair. However, I only back up after I've used my cane to feel what
is behind me. Usually I have to turn my body slightly to do this. As
far as keeping the chair straight, this will come with practice. Even
now, sometimes I miss the sides of curb cuts, especially very narrow
ones, but if I get off road, I just move on and get to the street.
Most power chairs are able to do a bit of off road travel. I hope this
at least answers some of your question.

I just thought of something. Have you gotten into your client's power
chair and driven it with a cane and sleep shades? This might help you
get a better idea of the whole experience.

Treva

On 6/3/13, Penny Stevenson <Penny.Stevenson at visionaustralia.org> wrote:
> Dear Treva,
> Could I please forward your message onto our other O&M's in Australia?
> Structured discovery is not something we do a lot of and particularly as a
> wheelchair user it really makes me evaluate my practice.
>
> I'm a very low vision instructor so structured discovery aligns well with my
> beliefs however the reality is that through my training as an O&M and
> through my work with the population we serve I don't get the chance to put
> it into practice very often and as a result I also think that it's not well
> cemented in my teaching mindset.
>
> Honestly the thought of having my client shorelining the curb to find a pram
> ramp is enough to give me nightmares if I have to be honest. He's in a
> roughish area and I don't trust cars in that area to care.
>
> Going back to the nuts and bolts. The thing with the side drop offs is that
> sometimes he will have cleared with his cane, located the drop off but if
> his chair isn't straight on the path then his side wheels can fall off the
> edge.
>
> The same thing goes for turning. He often seems to reverse when turning,
> rather than turn directly which means he can be potentially backing up off
> the footpath... any suggestions?
>
> Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and being so patient with me
> - your posts push me to give my client a greater level of independence.
> Thanks so much.
> From Penny
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-rollers [mailto:blind-rollers-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> Treva Olivero
> Sent: Monday, 3 June 2013 3:17 PM
> To: Blind wheelchair users list
> Subject: Re: [Blind-rollers] Update from Melbourne
>
> 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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