[nabs-l] The Importance Of Independent Travel

[Steve Jacobson]

Carly,

As a blind person, I am aware and even concerned with how my actions might affect other blind people, and 
therefore do my best not to use help I don't need.  Having said that, my primary reasons for trying to travel as 
independently as possible have little to do with proving anything to anyone.  I wil readily admit that if someone 
more or less forces me to be assisted to do something for which I do not need assistance, I do feel moved to show 
them that the assistance was not required if the opportunity arises.  For example, if someone insists I take an 
elevator instead of the steps when the stairs are more convenient, I will probably push to take the steps since I 
know they won't be a problem.  I probably wouldn't do that with a heavy suitcase, though, but I might take an 
escalator.  I wouldn't do either, though, if I didn't feel confident that I could do it.  .To the greatest degree 
possible, I want to be in control of my own destiny.  I can't always have the control I want, but I work hard to 
have as much as is possible.

Years ago I went to the airport to fly to Washington DC.  When I got to the counter and received my gate 
information, I asked for directions to the gate.  When the person behind the counter acted confused, I asked if he 
would just tell me which direction to go from the counter.  I was told they would get me an electric cart and that 
I should wait.  I was a little new to airport travel at that time but I asked again for directions noting that I 
did not need an electric cart.  To make this long story shorter, the person would not give me directions and 
refused to help me in any way except to insist that I wait for an employee with a cart.  Carts were apparently in 
short supply that day and I waited and waited, not feeling I should advocate.  Nowadays, I would have just picked 
a direction and asked someone else but I was too timmid then.  After repeated calls for a cart, one finally 
arrived forty-five minutes later.  When I got to the gate, everyone was on the plane and I just barely made it.  I 
decided then I was not going to be in that position again.  In addition, someone else had to wait longer for that 
cart, probably someone who really needed it, and an airport employee was tied up offering me help I neither needed 
or requested.  The more independently one can travel the more options they have, and the better it is for 
everyone.

Traveling independently is an important part of most jobs.  By "independently," I don't mean that one never asks 
for help or even that we all have the same ability to travel.  However, I have meetings with other people I need 
to attend and I'm often the only one in my area of the building attending.  If I want to be hired for a job, I 
have to be able to add as little extra to what I expect from my employer as possible.  Even though I'm a computer 
analyst, this means being able to travel around the complex I work in as independently as possible.  Could someone 
who has more difficulty traveling do the job I am doing?  Yes, they certainly could, but they might need to work 
out strategies that inconvenience their co-workers as little as possible.  They would not likely succeed in the 
long run by grabbing the shoulder of "ol' sighty" out by the escalator.  At least a little thought needs to be 
given to the possible inconvenience of the person from who you are more or less demanding help.

Finally, I have to say something about this superblind thing.  In my experience, this is a term used by people who 
want to remove all responsibility from themselves to be as independent as their abilities allow.  If you have an 
injury that prevents you from handling certain aspects of travel, that certainly has to be taken into account.  We 
are not all going to be the same.  But does that mean you should urge others to not strive for as much 
independence as possible?  That does not seem fair to me at all.  I knew a man once who told me that he didn't 
have to learn to travel independently because he had a wife and five kids and a secretary who worked for him.  I 
know for a fact that his secretary guided him to the men's bathroom.  If he had some sort of learning disability 
that made independent travel impossible, then I would certainly accept that he was managing as he could.  However, 
I also knew that he had rejected any attempts to teach him independent travel which was why it was thought it 
would be helpful for me to talk to him and show up at his office on my own.  He lost his sight while holding the 
job he had and apparently managed well enough to keep his job, but he would have had a difficult time getting the 
job he had with his attitude.  

We are never all going to achieve the same degree of independence.  Further, interdependence is a part of any 
civilized society to some degree.  Still we will never achieve without striving.  We will never know what we can 
do without sometimes discovering things we cannot do.  Many of us routinely cross busy streets, but i'll bet there 
was not a single one of us who was not scared to cross that first street, or maybe the first dozen streets.  But 
if we had never taken that first scarey step, we wouldn't be crossing the streets we cross routinely.  Helping 
each other strive to achieve more helps us achieve more, but it doesn't mean we achieve everything for which we 
strive, but that's okay.  One very rarely ever achieves something by accident, though, one has to strive to 
achieve first.  I do not find the fact that there are blind people who have done things that I do not do as 
unsettling, rather it reminds me that there may be things I could do as a blind person that I simply have not yet 
discovered.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Thu, 28 Aug 2014 04:45:01 -0700, Carly Mihalakis via nabs-l wrote:

>Good morning,

>Personally, I like to think of it as interdependent travel, recruting 
>your fellow man, and sort of directing him where you need to go. 
>Admittedly, this means of travel found me after becoming injured such 
>that I was unable to keep track of direction and what they call rout 
>reversal, became for me no more than a pipe dream.

>In my experience, however, if you just let go of this idea that to 
>prove to Ol'Sighty of  blindness' being  what is it, little more than 
>a mere inconvenience, everyone must be some kind of super blink whom, 
>by simply waving his long, white cane can travel any course, under 
>any circumstances in pitch ocular darkness. Sure, this social 
>construct is certainly possible to live within and many people do it, 
>but not everybody is super Federationist blink!

>After all, interpersonal contact, I believe, is more of a palpable, 
>alternative to demonstrating to Ol'Sighty things of which most of us 
>are capable, that Ol'Sighty might remember. I'm fond of iterating 
>that Ol'Sighty cares not about the means to which the blink reaches 
>the same ends, noticing only that, eventually he gets there. So, if 
>it becomes a matter of walking through an airport, say, to 
>demonstrate to Ol'Sighty ways in which most blinks can, and do 
>advocate for themselves, it may be a plausible course of action to 
>grab Ol'Sighty from one of the hoards that are invariably around and, 
>placing your hand on his shoulder, tell him where you need to be and 
>see if he can help you. Of course, should he be in a hurry you can 
>find someone else, but wait for an indication of said sighted person 
>being unable to help. It is in this way you can actually have a 
>conversation with a sighted person, maybe even exchange names?
>Agreed, the super blink means of seamlessly gliding through a crowd 
>is intimidating, and not exactly if I may say so myself, realistic of 
>every blink. Let that go! Probably, you are not a super blink, at 
>least by their rigid standards.
>for today, Car
>408-209-3239
>   :52 AM 7/16/2014, Roanna Bacchus via nabs-l wrote:
>>Dear Students,
>>
>>I'd like to discuss another topic with all of you.  On Monday I had 
>>a conversation with my mobility instructor during my training 
>>session at UCF.  We were talking about the importance of traveling 
>>independently as blind individuals.  I got very emotional while we 
>>were having this conversation and began to cry.  Because I've never 
>>traveled independently in the community, I lack the experience of 
>>traveling on my own.  Can each of you tell me your stories about 
>>inarependent travel? Hope to hear from you soon.
>>
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