Current mood:	tired
Entry tags:	deaf, vision

Today's mobility training
Today was a bit different. We worked on the narrow passage, stairs and doors. Though, some of these required what normally would have been verbal communication between the Sighted Guide and the blind person. I made it pretty clear that I would not be able to follow verbal communication when not facing the the Guide AND blind folded. At one point I wanted to yell, "What part of DEAF don't you get!?!?!" Apparently he didn't have a set of tactile signs for the verbal communication so I made up some just get through the training. I'm really curious if there is a standard set of tactile signs for this sort of Sighted Guiding so that we can use them and I'll learn the correct ones if I work with someone else.

Today he moved at a much more rapid pace, it felt like running to me almost. When I mentioned that he just said that is because I've spent so much time slowing down to avoid falling and running into things that a normal pace seems really fast now. We went up the stairs and down them, that was different at first, but I got the hang of it. One of the things I figured out and is kind of neat now that I realize it is that I need to use more than my hands for finding things like the railings. I realized at a point if I used my hip and upper leg I could search a much greater area faster when trying to find the railing when I knew we were at the stairs. Some stairs the railing is right next to you and easy to locate. Some it is further out in front of where the stairs start, others it is lower to the ground, some it sits off to the side further. Even when you are paying attention to the marker of "last step" it is hard to not try and take one more.

I'm getting better at telling what where we are in that area based on how the ground feels under my feet, especially when we get back to the parking lot of the building, that parking lot is soft and flat like nothing else we walk on (and the building blocks the sun). I need to practice on the doors some more. Not so bad on the pull doors, but the push ones I had trouble with. Again it's a matter of finding the way to orient myself so that I'm in the right place to push on the door properly. It also looks like there is some timing involved here to not move forward too soon or too late.

As for the tactile signs that I used for the day. I used the sign for transfer, 2 fingers drawn across the hand in a sweeping motion, for when I need to transfer sides. When there are stairs, I didn't know what to do so I had him take two fingers and just tap them against my my palm twice, it reminded me of a variation of walking up the stairs. And for door I was at a complete loss for something that could be done in one hand and coped out and hand him simply lay the manual letter D on its side into my hand. Since the number of signs was limited this was ok.

I talked about the trouble of finding my bus still when there are a bunch of busses at the same stop and they gave a bok that has a bunch of numbers in it. The numbers can be flipped in a way so that you can make the number of the bus that you are waiting for. That way you can alert the driver of the bus or another person waiting to help you get the right bus. The numbers all have braille on them as well to help finding the right combination.

In other news VR sent the authorization to the audiologist for the hearing aids. The audiologist was nice enough to order them based on the promise of the authorization, so I'm glad that it was taken care of before they actually came in. Just can't wait for them to get here and go in for the fitting. My one interpreter was joking with me today when I got to class, she was out friday (the first day I was using the cane) and when she saw the cane said to me that this was new, "Got tired of falling and bumping into things finally, huh?" She's so funny.

It's been a long day.