April 8 - Hotels

My friend, Sue, has recently returned from a trip to Mexico. She and her husband had stayed in an all-inclusive resort. Although they loved the warm temperatures and the beach atmosphere, Sue was not enamoured with the hotel. In her email to me she wrote, “The hotel was awful to walk around, hard echoing floor surfaces, steps and canned music all the time.”

All of these can certainly be challenging for someone who either doesn’t see or doesn’t see well. I always find that I need to concentrate when steps or stairs are involved. With familiar places, I am most often counting. I know that there are fourteen steps to our basement. I know that when I visit my sister, there are four steps to her unit. At a condo where we often stay there are two sets of nine steps each to reach the first floor landing. If I know that I am going to come down steps that I have recently climbed up, I will count the number each time.

As for canned music – well, noise can be a distraction at any time when concentration is required. Sometimes I find it difficult to carry on a normal conversation if I am moving about in an unfamiliar place. Basically, I find that I need to focus more on where I am and where I want to move to next. I try to tune out distracting extraneous noises of any kind.

I am hoping that the hotels Lyle and I have chosen on this next trip to Italy won’t present too many challenges to my independent mobility. We’ll soon find out because we leave tomorrow!

April 5 - Packing a Suitcase

I am packing our suitcase again. This time Lyle and I will be going to Italy. From what we have been able to learn on the Internet, the temperature in Rome will be somewhat warmer than here in Canada but with the possibility of showers. I have packed the suitcase accordingly. I have two basic outfits of layered clothing and have added a light rain poncho and travel umbrella for each of us.

I usually begin the packing process fairly early on. I lay out all the clothes that I would like to take along and then start taking away anything that is not essential. Packing lightly achieves two aims and both concern luggage management.

First, it is far easier for me to remember and identify what it is that I need from a smaller collection of objects in a case – mostly clothing – than it is for me to rummage through a larger mass of scattered mismatched and random items. Because we tend to travel fairly often, I have a routine of arranging things in a suitcase in a particular order.

Secondly, it is far easier to move about in a crowded airport or train station when there is only one piece of luggage to think about. Certainly when I am travelling alone, I need one hand for my cane and the other for the suitcase. If I need to, I wear a small backpack so that my hands can be free for those purposes. When Lyle and I are travelling together we will still take only the single suitcase. In this way, he can handle the luggage on one side and I will walk on the other side with my cane. In busy and crowded places, we can both do without the extra stress of additional luggage.

The one thing I pop in my checked bag that isn’t on the list for the average traveller is an extra folded white cane. I have never had to use my “spare”, but I take it along as a precaution should the one I carry with me become damaged or broken in some way. Do you remember me telling you about the white cane user I met in Hawaii? Her support cane was broken when security personnel insisted on putting it through the x-ray machine. My white cane is the one item on my travel list that is not easy or convenient to replace at a moments notice in an unfamiliar place.

March 30 - What I See

It is quite difficult for me to explain exactly what it is that I can see. Of course, I can always explain in terms of measurement. For instance what an average person can see at 400 feet, I would need to move as close as twenty feet to see the same thing. Sometimes I find myself explaining more in terms of what it is that I don’t see.  

The other week, Lyle and I set out for the mountains. It was an absolutely beautiful day with blue sky and sunshine. There was still a nip in the air and as we drove out of our driveway I could see the hoar frost on the trees.

We were still many kilometers away from our destination when Lyle casually nodded towards the west and remarked how lovely the snow looked on the mountain peaks. I turned my head but I couldn’t see anything except the beginning of the field beside us.  We continued driving for another half hour or so before I was to catch my own first glimpse of the mountains.

Generally speaking I love driving through the mountains. In fact, I like all big expanses of landscapes. I love looking at the ocean although I can’t discern the individual wave patterns. I like driving through a forest although I can’t pick out the individual trees. I enjoy driving across the prairies although I don’t see the farm houses or cattle in the fields. Because I have partial sight I am still able to enjoy these grand views in nature.

I think that if I had no sight at all, my perspective might do a complete turn around.  This is more the case for me when things are close up. When small objects are in front of me, I can’t bring them into focus and don’t see them at all. Quite often I will use my hands to explore a surface and see the object that way.

I have spoken with other people who have partial sight and they too encounter the same difficulty in explaining what it is that they see. It is definitely a curious in-between world of sight. Many people who have partial sight use a white cane to identify themselves to others and to navigate safely on a walking path. The concept of partial sight is also one that I tried to tell more about on the White Cane Connections walks last summer.   

March 27 - The Little Things

It’s been ages since I last wrote a post for this blog and I apologise. Today I will try to make up for my lapse.

Last week I felt fairly out of commission. I had some pretty major dental work done. While this wasn’t pleasant in the least, it wasn’t the time in the dentist chair that was my undoing. Once the procedure was completed, I was sent on my way with pain killers and a bottle of mouth wash that I was to use twice daily. Said the dentist about the mouthwash,  “You should swish with two capfuls each morning and evening.”

I was prepared to follow these instructions. The pain killers were easy but when I came to the mouthwash, I discovered that the cap was quite small and the liquid inside the bottle was absolutely clear. When I gingerly tried to tip the bottle I couldn’t see for the life of me if anything was coming out.  My first effort at pouring went mostly over my fingers and into the sink. Next I tried pouring the liquid into a teaspoon but with no greater luck. 

In the end, I had to enlist Lyle’s help. Each morning and night he pours the wash into a teaspoon for me. I am grateful for his help naturally, but all week I have been irritated. I like to do things by myself and I’m frustrated by this little thing that has made a dent in my independence.

I am halfway through my mouthwash treatment so hopefully I will be more upbeat by the time I write my next post.

March 14 - Technology Challenges

This week I am struggling again with technology. In the profile which I wrote when I first started this blog, I know that I said that I was always ready to meet new challenges. This past week has confronted the veracity of that statement.
 

In 1986 when I first lost my sight I began looking for something that would help me to continue with my job.  At first I tried out a number of hand held magnifiers. They were of no use whatsoever.  Then I came across a CCTV Reader. What a boon! In my sighted world, I had no idea of the existence of this assistive equipment.

While the CCTV Reader worked to a certain degree, it didn’t fulfil all my needs. While I was still floundering in my search for something that would work for me, Lyle suggested, make that strongly suggested, that I teach myself to type. Initially I hated putting my fingers on that home row with no real idea of what I was typing. There was no sound and I couldn’t see the screen. In retrospect I am so grateful to Lyle for his insistence that I continue with the keyboarding exercises. 

Over the years that followed I moved to a JAWS program. JAWS is an audible screen reading program for my computer, but to be truly effective and efficient in its use, keyboarding skills are a definite asset. 

So, what is my latest challenge! Well, I have recently acquired a new lap top computer. I have updated my Windows program and also my JAWS program. All of these have required new learning skills. The leaps and bounds of improved technology over the past quarter of a century have been truly amazing, but each step forward has also meant another step up the ladder of new learning.

I know that I am not alone when it comes to new learning where computers are concerned. The new learning is not restricted to people who are without sight but I think that it is probably more difficult for us. I have great admiration for my friends who are completely without sight but who have moved along the technology scale and are now working with iPads. It is my next goal.

If you would like to learn more about the JAWS program you can check it out on the Freedom Scientific website.

www.freedomscientific.com      

Don’t you just love their logo! It reads:  everything in sight!

March 3 - 2013 CSUN Conference

As I stepped outside my front door today, I knew where I would rather be. San Diego! When the snow whipped through Southern and Central Alberta last night and early this morning, it appeared that the optimism of my last post was definitely premature. However, there was another reason for thinking specifically of San Diego.

In the past few days, San Diego has been the site for the annual CSUN Conference. From grass roots beginnings at the California State University some 27 years ago, the conference has skyrocketed to become the largest of its kind in the world. To quote its website, the conference is a place where “researchers, practitioners, exhibitors, users, speakers and other participants share knowledge and best practices in the field of assistive technology. The conference is a forum that showcases cutting edge technology and practical solutions that can be utilized to remove the barriers that prevent full participation of persons with disabilities in educational, workplace and social settings.” 

When Lyle and I visited San Diego last year I remember being impressed with the proactive stance that the city had taken towards accessibility issues. Perhaps some of the innovations might result from suggestions made through the CSUN Conference.  What better place then for Humanware to announce the celebration of its 25 anniversary.

Humanware is a company that promotes and delivers innovations in assistive technology. Its logo is See Things Differently. In its most recent newsletter, Gilles Pepin, CEO of Humanware, is quoted as saying, “From the very beginning in 1988, our goal has always been to help people with visual impairment and learning disabilities by giving them the independence to participate effectively in the sighted world. Our technology has always maintained its human touch.”

I met Gilles Pepin in Drummonville, site of the company headquarters, when Lyle and I were on the White Cane Connections walk last summer. I found Gilles to be a man of passion and vision.  The company also exemplifies these qualities.

Humanware has numerous assistive devices in its catalogue. Personally I use the Trekker Breeze and the Victor Stream and I recommend both technologies. You can check these devices and many others out by going to the Humanware website.

www.humanware.com

March 2 - Contrast

It’s the beginning of March and I am optimistically looking forward to the onset of spring!  Even now I am aware of the black asphalt of the sidewalk being revealed against the white of the snow. I am thankful that for the most part I can see contrast and as it is with many of us who have partial sight, this contrast is very helpful.

Any ground cover which has only one colour blurs mobility clues. For instance, it’s okay if I am just meandering across an open field but when I want to follow a specific pathway, the broad white expanse of snow in front of me offers no clues to the direction that pathway is taking. Sometimes I find that the same is true with a field or park of green grass, but usually the more well trodden paths through these areas have been worn to brown earth and although this contrast is not as distinct as it is with black and white, there is still a slight contrast of colour.

Snow and ice do odd things to the mobility of many people and for those of us who use a cane of any kind, the winter elements are not helpful. If I am not moving too quickly, my cane will detect ice, but more often than not my foot is on the ice before I feel the cane sliding. Snow is even more difficult. The ball at the end of my cane will frequently get stuck in soft snow, and uncleared sidewalks are just a pain. One of my personal difficulties is the inability to detect depth. If I happen not to be using my cane it is not unusual for me to find myself stepping into a depression or stumbling against a frozen mound of ice or snow.

So, I can hardly wait for March to bring on the warmer temperatures. Melt that snow and clear that ice. Put me back on level sidewalks edged by some green grass.