Will you help me with an informal survey of visually impaired cane users with remaining vision?
What is your vision (visual acuity ie. 20/200)? Why do you use a cane for travel? And did you learn to use the cane under blindfold or sleep shade?
I am an orientation and mobility specialist working on yet another paper for school and would love to have your input to make me a better instructor.
Thank you for the book suggestion, I looked it up online and, based on the review from a 1969 Time magazine article, the information is still very pertinent today. I will get myself a copy.
My visual acuity is no longe measured in 20/X. My doctor measured my vision as how far away I could see the large E on a placard. My left eye is light/dark perception only, and my right eye sees three feet (meaning I can see the big E from three feet away before it blurs into foggy nothingness).
I use a cane because I cannot see the ground, and I cannot see many obstacles until it is too late to stop. For example, when I was still learning to use the cane, I forgot to use it for a minute, and I took one step and tumbled down a set of seven steps. I wasn’t with an O&M instructor; I was with friends, and one of them caught me at the bottom, thank goodness. But I use the curb to find cubs, stairs, poles, etc…and watching for tactile landmarks with my cane helps me keep from getting lost (for example, shorelining the grass on the side of the sidewalk or knowing that it’s time to turn when my cane finds the rougher sidewalk).
I was not trained under a sleepshade or blindfold. I was told that the amount of vision I have wouldn’t interfere with my training, since I can’t see what my cane is finding anyway, and they were right. Once I learned not to stoop forward and try to see what I was doing, I had no problem ignoring the little that I could see, or using my limited vision to look for visual landmarks (for example, the bright orange slide at the playground tells me that it is almost time to turn, since I turn to go to class at the sidewalk right after the playground) or to give my friends a sense of eye contact.
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