April 24 - Springtime Blossoms

Provided you don’t suffer from allergies, spring is a wonderful time of year. These past ten days, Lyle and I were fortunate enough to enjoy the season in BC’s beautiful Okanagan Valley. It was a perfect time to be there with the blossoms on the fruit trees and the tulips in the gardens.

I have a difficult time seeing flowers unless they are directly in front of me. At the beginning of April a friend gave me a huge bunch of tulips that I kept in a vase on my kitchen table. They were brilliant. The tulips were also out in Osoyoos where we were staying. On one of our many walks, Lyle pointed this out to me. I had failed to see the huge array of many coloured tulips on the ground beside the walking path. When I knelt down to get a closer look, I also felt the satiny texture of the petals. So soft! Lyle wondered why the flowers weren’t called “four lips” instead of “two lips”. There were definitely four petals.

When we walked along Lakeshore Drive, we came across a number of fruit trees with pink and white blossoms. I was intrigued to see these close up. When we had arrived in the Okanagan it was dusk, and the bunches of white blossoms on the trees looked more like clumps of snow to me.  I had to remind myself that it really was spring.

There are three pictures with this post. The first shows some of the tulips alongside Pioneer Walkway in Osoyoos.

 

Tulips along Pioneer Walkway

 The second picture is in the same location. It shows me sitting beside a bright yellow shrub. Like many other people with low vision, yellow is a colour that stands out for me so I felt I wanted to share this picture with you.

 

Sue and yellow shrub

 The third picture is of one of the fruit trees we saw along Lakeshore Drive. We found that the bees were also attracted by the many blossoms on its branches. 

Blossoms along Lakeshor Drive

April 18 - Library Access

I am always a bit frustrated when I use a library computer. I feel lost without my audible program and rely heavily on Lyle to correct any typing errors I make. 
We are in the library in Osoyoos right now and although there is no audible program on the computer, there are other aids for people who are blind or partially sighted. I like to borrow the Daisy books here. There isn't a large selection but it is sufficient. There is also a Daisy player that can be loaned out.

Today I learned about another assist for people with low vision. The library desk has a few pairs of glasses with high magnification - great for reading the small print on the spines of books. The desk also has a flat screen magnifier which can be placed on a single page.
 
Lyle has noticed a few white canes being used around town so I imagine that these library aids are well used. This all goes to show, you never know what is available until you ask.

April 11 - Flying Solo

Yesterday I flew from Alberta to BC. Now, those of you who check this blog regularly will know that Lyle and I are fairly frequent air travellers, but yesterday was different.  I was flying solo. I haven’t flown by myself for quite a while and I was surprised at the small rush of nervous anticipation that I felt prior to the trip.

I am not anxious about the flying itself.  After all, an air passenger has little to do except sit in a seat and wait for the arrival of the plane at its destination.  No, flying does not bother me but yesterday’s trip involved two flights with a stopover and transfer in Calgary. It was Lyle who bolstered my confidence by telling me that it would be good for me.  Of course, he was right.  It is too easy for me to slip into the habit of dependence on his good nature and every so often I need to reassert my hold on an independent spirit and rise above the ordinary to new challenges.  I always feel energized and revitalized when I attempt this.  An even more positive note occurs when the result is one of achievement

So, after yesterday’s experience, what tips can I offer the blind or visually impaired passenger?  I have two tips. First, be prepared.  Secondly, don’t panic.

Being prepared means knowing where you are going and by this, I don’t mean just knowing your final destination.  Know your flight number and if you can’t remember that, at least remember your departure time.   If you can’t remember these consider taking along a small tape recorder with the appropriate details. I like to also know my seat number.

Always ask for assistance when you book your ticket.  When you are travelling, know what it is that you need from your guide.  While I am waiting in the airport terminal, I like to be seated near the women’s washroom.  Sometimes when I am guided between gates, I request a stop at a convenient washroom.  At other times, I might request a stop to buy a coffee or a sandwich.  If I am waiting at the gate, I like to be in full view of the airline staff at the desk so that they can see me.

Yesterday at the last minute I decided to pack a small lunch for myself. I was glad that I did. While I sat waiting for my connecting flight I could smell food cooking all around me. My previous guide had deposited me on a chair and left me until the next guide took over and that was going to be a wait of well over an hour.  I was glad I had my lunch with me.  Of course, I could have snagged a passerby with my white cane and asked for assistance, but I doubt that is a legitimate purpose for my cane.

Even when you think that you have everything under control there can always be the unexpected. This is where rule two comes in. Do not panic. We have all heard horror stories about flying.  A few years ago I read a news article about a young blind woman and her guide dog who were waiting to be assisted from the aircraft at the end of the flight. The flight crew disembarked and the woman was still waiting some time later when the cleaning crew came on board.  Not a good scenario!

My other favourite horror story concerns my friend Norma. She and her guide dog were led onto the wrong aircraft. This was in spite of showing her boarding pass at least three times before she was seated.  Apparently there were two blind female passengers travelling with guide dogs that day, but on different flights, and the ground crew had them mixed up.

There were no disasters on my flight from Alberta to BC. All in all it was a good experience.  As a final note, I would like to extend a further thank you to the kind gentleman who offered to fetch me a drink while I sat alone in Calgary.  He was about to leave for his own flight, but instead, brought me a large glass of cold water which I much appreciated.  Offering water to a stranger – it almost seemed Biblical!

April 4 - Looking Back

I have a bad habit of not deleting old files from my computer but today I decided to tackle this task. Many of my saved files were from a course I took with Athabasca University. Some were merely old papers I had written but others were personal observations of the time in question. The program was one of distance learning with essays and projects being submitted electronically. There were also electronic course interactions with other students and the professor of the course. Part of my enthusiasm at the beginning of the course was that I would be able to participate on a level playing field with other sighted students. Nobody would need to know that I couldn’t see.However, as the course progressed, this reluctance also became a source of frustration. With my standard audible computer program I encountered technical communication barriers.  Other students who were no doubt far more technically superior than I was seemed to delight in power point presentations which were often unaccompanied by printed text. When these also had a musical background, my audible program simply froze. I found I needed to speak up.Today, as I was rereading some of my files, I came across the following note I had written to one of my instructors towards the end of the course time. It was a good reminder of my feelings at the time. I wonder if others who communicate mostly online have similar feelings.This is what I wrote:When I first registered for MAIS, I was disappointed that technical difficulties necessitated that I identify myself as someone who was unable to see. Originally, I had hoped to retain a degree of anonymity regarding my eyesight. I have often observed in face-to-face interactions that responses towards me are different when people realize that I cannot see. Eventually, in my progress through the MAIS program, I discarded this stance and became aware that the program might be a good platform to advocate both on my own behalf and on the behalf of others with visual disabilities. I would say that this change in attitude was my most valuable lesson learned during the course of the MAIS program. Considering my own change in attitude also enabled me to see more clearly that people with disabilities cannot all be painted with the same brush. As with people who are sighted, we are all at different points in our lives’ journeys.