Tom’s blog

I get asked this question alot, so I thought I would post about it.

How does a blind person get around?

Many blind people use different techniques.   Most blind women depend on their husbands to get them around, do their shopping for them, etc, but when your a single man,  you don’t have a wife, or family, or sometimes even friends to get you around.  I know most sighted people don’t think about this, but when your single, live alone, no children, and you only see your relatives around the holidays,  you don’t have a choice but to fend for yourself.  Its either that, or starve to death, and you definitely don’t want to do that.  lol

So how does someone who is blind do all of this?

Most people “assume” that a blind person should have someone around to take care of them, but that isn’t always the case.  Besides, my independence is very important to me,  just because I can’t see, doesn’t mean I should have to depend on others.  I can still hear after all.

First misconception I’d like to clear up,  a seeing eye dog can NOT tell you where the grocery store is,  or where that can of tomato soup is on the shelf.  Dogs are smart, but not THAT smart!  You can’t carry on a conversation with a dog, so the dog doesn’t know where you need to go,  so I want to clear up that misconception right away!

Secondly,  even those who have dogs, have to go thru several hours of training, and that dog still doesn’t help you get to or around the store.  A sighted guide dog isn’t for everyone, and there are many blind people who never use sighted guide dogs,  so one doesn’t HAVE to get a dog just because their blind.  Mostly, blind people use dogs so they don’t have to use a white caine, but me personally, I’d rather use a white cane then a dog,  a white cane doesn’t leave poop on the carpeting!  lol

So if blind people don’t use dogs for that purpose,  then how does a blind person get around?  Let me explain….

First, rather a person has some sight, or no sight at all, that person is put thru what they call Mobility Training.    Mobility Training consists of blindfolding the individual if that person has some sight.  The reason for this, is because a partially sighted person doesn’t have enough vision to see traffic lights, or traffic coming at you, so the first thing a mobility trainer teaches the blind student by blindfolding them,  is to ignore what sight they have, and use your other senses instead.   kinda like karake training in the movies…  lol  jk

So how does one get around without sight then?  Its simply a matter of listening, touching, and memorization.  Our other senses aren’t any better then anyone elses,  but try blindfolding yourself once and see what happens..  You first notice you become aware of sounds around you that you didn’t know where there before,  well that’s essentially what happens,  when you loose one of your senses, you just become more aware of the others, thats all it is.

As for getting around, think of it like going on a long trip, like to Florida for instance.  When your out there driving on the highway,  with no gas station around for miles, lol,  you have to at least know the way to get there, otherwise you could end up in Canada somewhere, right? lol  rather it be using a map,  or just memorizing the way in your own head, like you take 69 to 33 to whatever, you have to know that in your head before you even leave on the trip.   Thats the same thing a blind person does,  he knows before he even leaves the house,  that if he goes to the light, turns left, then goes straight so many feet,  thats the shopping center,  he doesn’t have to “see it” in order to know its there.   If you took the same route over and over and over again, wouldn’t you know how to get there fairly well, even blindfolded? lol  well, its no different then a blind person.   The rest is just, listening to the traffic,  listening for people, and using the white cane to follow the grass or curbs or sidewalks.

Did you ever see the movie “fantastic 4″? where the blind girl always knew when Joey entered the room?   Just because we can’t see, doesn’t mean we can’t hear, or smell, or feel.  I can always tell if someones in the room, or coming near me, just by the sound of their footsteps, of their breathing, or even their heartbeat if its loud enough.   In a store, I can always tell where the people are by the sound of the carts. It helps to be able to see shadows, but even with my eyes completely closed, I can still tell where the people are.  I don’t know “who” they are, but I know “where” they are, which is all thats important really.

So what I always tell people,  I know where northwood plaza is because I go there every single day.  I know the city bus routes I take every day,  so I don’t have to ask the bus driver when its time to get off,  Its all about memorization.  If I take a new route thats not familiar to me, yes I’ll ask, but familiar routes I don’t even have to ask the bus driver when I’m at my destination.   Now that is independence!

Now what gets tricky, is what we call unfamiliar territory.  THAT is when I appreciate the assistance of someones arm, especially if its a parking lot.  I avoid parking lots when I’m by myself, so when I am with someone, I do appreciate a helping arm.    At church for instance,  I probably could get around on my own,  but I never turn down a sighted elbow, especially at church,  that helps me alot especially in unfamiliar territory where I don’t know, or can’t remember, my way around.   I would never go to a place I’ve never been before, without the help of someone showing me how to get there first.  Most of the time I ask strangers for directions, but it is always nice when someone offers you a helping hand,  but isn’t always necessary in familiar territory is my point.

Part of my mobility training, was my instructor showing me the way around the mall, showing me how to get to northwood plaza from my house, showing me where Scott’s is, and where things are in the store, all of that was part of my mobility training, so thats all familar territory to me.  Places I’m not familar with, I either avoid,  or ask for assistance, its not that hard really.

Alot of blind people do have the grocery clerks get their groceries for them, but I have found that I know my way around Walmart, and Scott’s, so well,  that I don’t need anyone to tell me where tomato juice is, I just know in my head.   I know its the 5th isle over on the right side, so many feet down that isle, its really not that hard, especially when your like me, and get basically the same stuff every time. LOL  and if there is something I don’t know where it is, I go up and ask a clerk, no big deal.  Every walmart is setup the exact same way, some stores are backwards, but still same layout,  and I know the layout of my scott’s store, and the mall, which is all I need to know really.

So that’s basically it in a nuttshell.   Anyone who is blind has the ability to be independent, but some just choose not to be,  out of fear mostly.  Just because someone is blind, or deaf, or paraplegic, doesn’t mean that person can’t fend for themselves.  Its just some people choose not to out of fear.   Me, I have no fear,  God took away my fear of getting around outside my home,  because I knew a long time ago, that God put me on this earth to survive on my own, to make a difference in this world,  not to sit on my butt and let other people take care of me, thats not why God put me here,  God has plans for me,  I may not know what those plans are, but I know they weren’t to sit in my apartment doing nothing all day, so I face the fear and just do it….  I get so many complaints from people, saying I should wait for such and such person to take me, or take care of me,  but I know in my heart that’s not what God is calling me to do.  God calls me to face my fear, get out there in the world, and volunteer my services serving God in how he wants me to serve him,  and I’m darn proud of myself for that!  and I know God is proud of me too!

written by tcoburn

Digital Talking Book Player Photo

Since the first prototype in 2006, I finally received my Digital Talking Book Player, after being on the waiting list for the last year.  Older people got first dibbs on the players, but I was lucky enough to receive mine this past week, which came as a complete surprise to me.

First, the cool thing about this device, is the Talking Book and Braille Library are finally moving into the digital age, away from the old cassette tapes of the 70’s and 80’s.  Not only that, but by switching to digital, they jumped right into 3GP quicktime format and jump drive technology.

To learn more about the player, and see additional screen shots, you can go here

The player itself has nice large, easy to see and feel, buttons that have good contrast. They also have braille symbols, like ‘R” is for rewind,  “P” is for play, “S” is for stop, etc.  There are also speed and tone buttons that not only move the tone and speed up and down, but actually tell you when your at the “normal” setting, which is very handy.  When you don’t have a book plugged in, the player comes with an internal user manual, that you can listen to on demand, that tells you what each button does, and other such manual instructions that we need to know to operate the player, including all those informative user safety and FCC instructions.  lol.

There are two different ways you can play books on the player.  You can either request books on loan in the new cartridge format,  or there is a USB port on the side of the unit, that supports 1 and 2 GB Flash drives.  Most books are well under 1 GB in size,  so the fact it only supports 2 GB max is plenty big enough.  The flash drive, or cartridge, can only hold 1 book at a time anyway, because the player doesn’t support multiple books on the same medium anyway,  which I guess could be a disadvantage, but its easy enough just to delete and transfer a new book to it using any Computer, so that isn’t a big deal to me.

There are two things I don’t like about the player though…

1. There is no “lock” switch, so when your carrying it around in a bag or purse, buttons can get pressed accidentally, which has happened to me a few times in my back pack.
2. When you press the FF or RW buttons, it jumps forward or backward 5 seconds, and since there are no ‘beeps’ to tell you when you’ve reached a certain point in the book, you just have to guess how long the table of contents is, just as an example, so you know when to release the rewind or fast forward buttons.

However, despite those two flaws, the player has awesome sound quality. Besides the addition of those two things, I wouldn’t change anything about the player, but since this is a prototype, I can see those things being added in the near future.   but who knows, the old casette tape players never changed in the 30 years I owned mine, so who knows if improvements will be released or not.

I think the players most coolest feature, is the ability to purchase a blank cartridge from  Independant Living Aids.  The advantage to purchasing a blank cartridge, and cable,  is that you can use the blank cartridge as a USB drive in your computer.  The cartridge does have a USB port on the side, but you need the cable to plug it into your computers USB port, otherwise the cartridge won’t fit into an open USB port.  The cable is simply a USB female to male converter cable,  which I imagine you could purchase at any store too in any size you want, but Independant Living Aids, is the only one who sells the cartridges.   At $10 a piece though, you really could afford to buy 4-5 of them if you really wanted to, but I chose to purchase just 1 set for now.

The cool thing about this, is you can simply go to the Library of Congress talking book and braille library’s website, login with an ID and password that is supplied to you when you register,  and from there, you can do an online search for any book you want from the available titles at the Library of Congress.   Its like doing a search at your local library, once you’ve found the book your looking for, you simply click on a link to download the book to your computer.   The books are in .zip file format, so you need something like Winzip to be able to extract them onto the cartridge, or USB drive.   The player doesn’t support putting books into folders, or directories, so you have to just copy all the files into the root directory of the cartridge or USB drive, then the book plays in the player.   How cool is that!

Even though I could just use an old USB drive,  the USB drive slot is on the right side of the unit, so if your carrying it around with you, you risk the USB thumb drive falling out or getting lost or stolen. Who knows, it could fall out while your walking.  The blank cartridge idea is better, because the cartridge slot is in the front of the unit, not the side, so you don’t risk loosing your thumb drive, like I’m sure I would do. hehe.  The cartridge slot, there is no possible way for it to fall out or get stolen, so thats why I bought the blank cartridge separately.

What I like about that whole idea, is you don’t have to worry about sending the cartridges back in 30 days.   The talking book and braille library, has been upset with me over the years for being late on sending talking books back to the library,  but thats because they send me like 9 or 10 books at once, and expect you to be able to listen to all those in 30 days, it just can’t be done,  so I like this new idea of being able to download the books you want from the website, so I don’t have to worry about returning them.  Since I have to walk 2 miles down to the post office in the snow, rain, and cold weather,  this new system is a dream come true for me.  No more having to return those stupid cartridges that won’t fit in your mailbox!  woohoo!!!  hehe

Personally, I think this new system would be beneficial to alot of people, not just the blind and dyslectic, but its limited for people who are blind or dyslexic in some way.   If I wasn’t blind, I would pay money for a service like this, its really nice.  Oh, and the player runs on a rechargeable battery pack built into the unit, that has a 29 hour battery life. How cool is that!  and if it ever needs serviced for any reason, like if the battery dies or whatever, you can send it back for FREE and get a new player free of charge.   Its a nice service they do for the blind and disabled, it really is.   I wish there selection of books was a little more complete,  but I think that will come in time.   There basically limited to fiction and non-fiction books,  and a select few magazines,  so there selection has never been the greatest, never was on cassette tape either,  but its definitely an improvement over the old cassette tape loan system. I, and several of my blind friends, are very impressed with it.

written by tcoburn