[nabs-l] Mall travel and shops

[Nicole B. Torcolini at Home]

Asking people how many doors and door counting don't always work for more 
than 5, maybe 6 or 7, doors. First, especially if it is crowded, it can be 
hard to shoreline all of the time. Second, for more than 2 or 3 doors, most 
sighted people don't memorize what stores are located where by how many 
stores are between them. If you do decide to use door counting, you may want 
to have a friend agree to help you.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alexander Castillo" <alexandera.castillo at gmail.com>
To: "nabs-l" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2012 12:47 PM
Subject: [nabs-l] Mall travel and shops


Hi Ashley, the one sure way to develop  your mall shopping skills is
do what our sighted counterparts do, and that is familiarize yourself
with one or two places you like. This means you will be able to come
and go as you please, and you can get to know the layout of these
places which will then serve you in figuring out the structure of
other malls in unfamiliar situations. For example, if you can get to a
medium sized mall, go off and do some shopping, and then once you get
to the larger places, you will feel more comfortable.

These are some techniques which I like when going through the mall on my 
own.

You can start out by “shore-lining” the walls until you come across a
door. Shore-lining is simply following along the edge of a barrier,
keeping a good amount of contact with that barrier, in this case the
wall, until you find what you are looking for.

Once you have done this for a bit, and you are comfortable with this
approach, you can stop shore-lining and now simply stay close to the
wall, and now listen to where each door is located. As mentioned
earlier, this gives you an opportunity to listen for recognizable
music, check for landmarks and so on.

Give yourself a couple of tasks, for example, go and find the food
court, then an empty chair, and then maybe a store you want to do some
shopping in.

Once you are about to exit a store, you can ask one of the clerks in
which direction your next store is located. You can always ask how
many stores from where you are is the door, or is it across the mall?
Talk to people, be friendly. It is good to become familiar with asking
questions in a way which does not portray you as helpless, or lost.
You’re just another shopper asking for directions.

Find the most recognizable landmarks, like a carousel perhaps, or the
food court, or the arcade.  You can often hear escalators, and you can
also ask people in which general direction a store is located.

I think it’s really important to take your time, so plan ahead to
spend a half day or an entire day walking around, shopping, or just
having fun out there. If you can, take a friend along who can also
benefit from the experience.

Have fun, and don’t spend too much,
Alex

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