[NFB-DB] Traveling in Noisy Environments

[Lisa Ferris]

Hi, Misty,

One of the main ways I have worked with limited hearing is to use a guide dog. A guide dog not only helps with the usual stuff, but can cue you in on environmental ambiance and be a bit of a safeguard against not hearing a car, for instance. Also, many people don’t realize that a lot of accessible pedestrian signals are tactile. These are not everywhere, but are becoming more common. If you feel the arrow button to push for a walk signal and leave your hand on it, , these will vibrate when it’s your turn to walk. I have incorporated more tactile cues in my travels. For example, I often have to cross a light rail track. I use a combination of checking real time train arrivals, touching the fence near the track, and my guide dog to cross the tracks safely. The fence vibrates in a particular way when the train is near. If you use hearing aids, be sure to tell your audiologist that you want to prioritize sound location, some are better at this that others. Also, do not use any type of automated switching of hearing aid programming. Trying to cross a street and suddenly having your hearing aids switch programs on you can completely throw you off. Pay attention to your tactile environmental clues. My husband is hearing/blind and can use a lot of echolocation that I can’t. But he also misses so many tactile clues that I pick up on. Like changes in wind pressure, the grade or texture of a sidewalk, the mist from a fountain, the vibration of a fence, etc. the way I kind of learned these was to take walks with my dog around my neighborhood with no hearing aids (which for me is pretty deaf) each morning. In crowds, be assertive and use your voice to ask questions, don’t “pretend” to hear. These are a few suggestions that have worked for me, I hope they help you as well. 

Lisa Ferris

Sent from my iPad

> On Mar 16, 2022, at 6:17 AM, Misty Kienzynski via NFB-DB <nfb-db at nfbnet.org> wrote:
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