[nagdu] Critical blind people

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Jewel,

That's interesting.  Like you, I'm not so tuned in to using sound the way
most other blind people seem to.  I know I've always used my hearing to
process my surroundings, since I've had pretty severe tunnel vision since I
was a kid.  But I had central vision to use in narvigating and seeing what
was in front of me, so now that I don't have so much of that, I use other
senses and tools to make up for the difference...  But I don't use listening
so much for landmarks unless I absolutely need to, and then I have to really
think about it and if I have to do that to much, I get all tired and cranky
and kinda stupid.  Sigh.  To people who give sound landmakrs, I get the
clear impression I appear to be very stupid.  Oh, well! /grin/

Sorry you're dealing with fibromyalgia.  Honestly, if I could choose between
blindness and fibromyalgia, I would take blindness hands down.  Blindness
*and* fibromyalgia is a very unfriendly combination!  If you want to talk
about it off list, feel free to contact me!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jewel S.
Sent: Saturday, July 31, 2010 7:12 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Critical blind people

I don't have a guide dog yet, but I know that once I do, the find
command will be invaluable to me, also. I have chronic pain and
chronic fatigue (possibly fibromyalgia), so if I spend extra time
looking for just the right spot, walking back and forth to find the
elevator or office door, going the long way around...these things only
add to my fatigue. Walking with my long white cane, I often end up
going one way only to find out that i have to go back and around
another way. This is such a horrible waste of my energy that sometimes
I tire myself out before i even get to a location. Telling a guide dog
to find an elevator door, a staircase, or a trash can will mean that I
don't go all around the outside of a room just to get to the other
side and find what I wanted would have taken a third of the steps I
took.

I don't have a hearing loss (I had a temporary hearing loss for many
years from an injury, but the last hearing test showed it is back to
full hearing), but I know how it can be to feel frustrated with people
who tell you to listen for something or go toward that sound...I have
a lot of trouble discerning sounds in large crowds. I just get so
distracted by all the sounds that one sound doesn't stand out very
well unless it is a loud one that can't be missed. I wish people would
describe things more tactilely than audibly...I'm a tactile and visual
learner.

For example, instead of saying "Go down this hall until you hear the
fountain on your left" one might say "Go down this hall until you feel
the cold air on the right, and you might feel some mist" or even "Go
down this hall until you come to an open area with a low round wall.
That's the fountain, and you can touch the water if you reach your
hand across the low wall about a foot. Once you reach the fountain and
feel the mist..."

I think that would be a much easier, more tactile-based way of
describing. Sure, it might take a lilttle longer, but not much! I'm
going to try doing this whenever I give directions to another blind
person and see how it works. If I do it for a sighted person, they'll
look at me weird, because they want visual cues and nothing
else...sighted people are so closed off from t heir other senses,
aren't they? *grin*