[stylist] To ponder- canes and traveling

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Anita,

In our own homes most of us cane users won't use it, but anytime I leave
the house, I use it. I don't always use it at my parents or in-laws
house because both houses are familiar enough that it's like my own
home, but if I leave their house, I once again have my cane; especially
the in-laws as they live on 90 acres of land, grin. If a huge family
event is happening and a lot of people are around, I will use my cane in
the houses though.

I think I might understand what you mean about the light perceptions and
shadows. I have both, though the shadows are just swirling blobs of
dark, and I have what I call TV fuzz all the time, and I can actually
get dizzy when walking, and I have often wondered if it's from trying to
focus on any light and/or shadows in my line of sight, so to speak. I
actually walk better if closing my eyes, which means I wear sunglasses a
lot when moving about, both for this and to block out light as any light
bothers my eyes. I don't always feel a center of gravity either when
moving around a lot. I tend to do a lot of veering and have been known
to turn around without being aware I have done so. Like you, I will find
wide open spaces like parking lots or parks more difficult to keep a
straight line in than areas that are more closed in or populated with
people. I've had extensive training with the cane, and my husband in
fact has taught cane travel, and I've been told my technique is great, I
just have these weird issues withnot feeling grounded. One thought has
been that I have above average hearing (this was tested long before I
was blind) and maybe my body is responding to echolocation, but I'm not
always processing the information I get mentally. When a wall of sound
and sensation is hurdling at you, it can be a lot to take in. 

I'm much better now at traveling, and I have to go a lot of places on my
own, so I have had to make the adjustment, but I do admit that travel
has been one of the more difficult skills to adopt after losing my
vision. Like I said, the skill in and of itself I'm not too bad at, but
something tends to happen that can make the experience more trying at
times. I have met much worse travelers and I have met better travelers,
like my husband who can get dropped off in the middle of no-where and
find his way home in a relatively short time. Yeah, try living with
that, LOL!

I do understand the world spatially though. I am confused by blind
people I have met who don't seem to have a spatial understanding of the
world at all. I have encountered several blind people who will walk into
a room, and you can tell them this or that is at the front of the room,
which is straight ahead, and they still don't understand what this
means. Or people who don't seem able to take in their surroundings in
order to navigate. Like sounds or smells or sensations. Like when I was
at university, there was an out-door fountain that splashed during the
warm months, and was therefore a great landmark when the weather was
nice. Or I would take this short-cut between two buildings to get around
campus, and I knew I was approaching the correct sidewalk because the
sound grew more muted between those buildings. Or if cutting through the
middle of campus, I knew when I had found the wheelchair ramp as opposed
to the stairs because of the incline. Various things like this. I've met
several people who don't seem to collect and process information in this
manner. True, some haven't been trained with a cane, but some have, and
they still find this difficult. I've never quite understood the
confusion over straight ahead or forward and backwards or follow the
sound of this, the smell of that, etc.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter, editor, Slate & Style
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can
satisfy, we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for
another world."
C. S. Lewis

Message: 15
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:58:43 -0500
From: Anita Ogletree <yrstrli at gmail.com>
To: Writer's Division Mailing List <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] To ponder- taken to another level
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Bridgit,
Yes, when I am going places like my doctor's office and I am 
familiar with the layout, I use so cane.  But there are times 
when I may be moving through my own house and I generally know 
where everything is in each room; however, there is the chance 
that if a little one has moved a chair that I might bump into it.
Or those times when someone gets up from the table and doesn't 
push their chair all the way under it.  There was this coffee 
table in my mom's house that was made of a sturdz wood that was 
heavy.  I knew exactly where the table was in the living room and 
I deliberately try to walk around it.  But somehow my shin would 
make contact with the corner of that table.
And I truly think that because I have light perception and can 
see objects that sometimes I become a little disoriented.  I have 
tried explaining this to other people and no one seems to really 
understand.  The lighting in the room and perhaps the shadows 
from the furniture or something seems to come together and I can 
end up veering too far left or right instead of walking straight.  
That happens especially when I am traveling outside or in wide 
open spaces like a large room.  I don't know.  It's kinda whacky.

Anita