[stylist] To ponder- canes and traveling

Mon Feb 11 17:47:10 UTC 2013

Lots of us are very sensitive to the light.
I have five different shades of shades that I have to carry with me at all 
times. I cange them according to the light conditions. Not only do we see 
differently in different conditions, the amount of light that comes through 
our eyes can be extremely painful and can set of a number of days with 
migraine headaches.

I can certainly understand how stressful it would be trying to navigate a 
campus!  I had a blind student in a couple of my courses in the past, and 
she really had a terrible time navagating the campus, and was unable to 
continue after her first year on campus. She went from our private college, 
to a community college. The last I heard she had flunked out there, too. 
Later, I learned she had gone to a rehab center, and was unsuccessful there 
as well. They said, "She was just not ready." I have often wondered how she 
is all these years later and if she was ever able to adjust to the different 
conditions of being on a campus. I hope she has.

Lynda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Anita Ogletree" <yrstrli at gmail.com>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 9:26 AM
Subject: Re: [stylist] To ponder- canes and traveling

> Bridgit,
>
> I have heard that a lot of blind people opt to wear dark shades to protect 
> their eyes.  My problem with that is this: I have been using that part of 
> my vision all of my life.  I love that I can see the sun light (especially 
> when I can catch it when it peeps in slowbby through a slight part in the 
> curtains or blinds).
> When I look around a room (like I am doing now as I write), I can pick up 
> the colorful furniture in the living room.  The walls are painted white in 
> the living room but my furniture (if I can remember correctly) is a darker 
> color that I have just decided not to try to guess because I will probably 
> be wrong.  But if I were to wear dark shades, the shadows get a little 
> darker and I feel crazed.  i also get a little dizzy.  When I was in 
> school out in California, I was given orientation and mobility training on 
> campus.  I did ol up until I started experiencing dizziness.
> I was told that my equilibrium was thrown off due to an inner ear 
> infection which occurred if I had a cobbd or a sinus infection.  It in 
> happened very frequently back then and it is one of the reasons I withdrew 
> from school.  I do not have that problem as much anymore and possibly not 
> at all.  I believe I mentioned that my doctors told me that I had 
> developed this nerve condition usually brought on by stffess.  Between 
> trying to navigate around campus, trying to study without adequate or 
> efficient support was very stressful.
> I can walk with a sighted guide and sometimes I have been told that I am 
> pushing them.  But what they didn't understand is that I had no control 
> over what was happening nor was I aware that I was doing so.  It is almost 
> impossible for me to walk around a track for exercise or anything else 
> with my cane and I don't tend to sway to one side or another.
> No one has ever told me this might be related to the lightstobject 
> perception I have.
>
> Anita
>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>From: Bridgit Pollpeter <bpollpeter at hotmail.com
>>To: <stylist at nfbnet.org
>>Date sent: Mon, 11 Feb 2013 07:04:47 -0600
>>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
>
>
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