[Blindtlk] trailing with your hand or with your cane

[Robert J Smith]

Hi all.  My belief is that if you move your hand along a wall at your side 
versus sliding your cane tip along a wall, it makes no difference.  They 
both will be noticed whether we like it or not.  I believe that people 
will notice anything we do that they don't do and that one thing is no 
more likely to get noticed than another.  You might keep in mind that if 
you walk fast and trail, you run somewhat of a risk of banging your arm 
into something that would be sticking out.

One example of being noticed no matter what, happened to me very recently. 
 I was walking to my bus stop.  On the way to the stop there are numerous 
driveways with a very slight drop-off to the street at the bottom of their 
slopes.  I check the drop-offs with one foot and my cane to make certain 
where the intersecting street is so I can turn left off the street I'm 
walking along and go west one street where the bus stop is.  On this 
particular day, I had found the intersecting street, crossed the street I 
was walking along and headed west to the bus stop.  About two or three 
minutes later, a man and woman came along.  She asked me if I was alright 
because she said that she had seen me almost trip.  I was so surprised 
that I didn't know what she meant at first.  I told her that I was fine, 
just waiting for a bus.  As I thought about it after she left, I realized 
that she had probably seen me dip down as I went across the slopes of a 
couple driveways, as well as putting my foot out to test for the slight 
drop-off and then bring it back again.  I was nowhere near tripping 
though, hadn't even been anywhere close to pitching forward, just checking 
things out.  I'd rather risk looking a little conspicuous though than die, 
as the street I turn down to go to the bus stop is very busy with no 
light.  So, in summary, try to be as inconspicuous as possible and when 
you honestly can't that's the way things go and so be it.

Bob Smith