[stylist] To ponder- canes and traveling

Sun Feb 10 13:56:57 UTC 2013

I do a lot of the same things you do.

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bridgit
Pollpeter
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 8:05 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] To ponder- canes and traveling

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
Message-ID: <5118262e.04a53a0a.6513.ffffb077 at mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed

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

_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site
http://www.writers-division.net/
stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/justin.williams2%40gmai
l.com