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Jack Mitchell reacted to your message:
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Hi Madison,
I have some thoughts based on many years experience as a COMS; veering is a very common issue! Keep in mind I'm simply brainstorming. Without watching you as you cross a street, it is challenging to identify what is causing you to veer. I¡¯m going
to use the terms shorelining/trailing but it could also be touch and drag or 3-point touch (on the sidewalk). Trailing is typically where the cane maintains contact with the wall or grass edge of a sidewalk. Most people use a cane sweep to follow the wall/grass
and not trailing, as trailing does not provide protection on the left/other side.
- Shorelining/trailing can cause travelers to slightly turn their shoulders slightlyto the right (since typically the cane is trailing on the right side). If your body is even slightly twisted, the traveler will often veer to the right in open spaces.
- Suggestion 1: Check your body alignment by standing with your back against the wall. Your heels, bottom, back, shoulders and head should all touch the wall. If your right shoulder touches but not your left, then you probably have a slight twist
to the right. Aligning against the wall will help you ¡°feel¡± what is a straight body alignment.
- Suggestion 2: Practice walking in a straight line beside a wall without your cane tip arc tapping against the wall. Listen to and use the wall to help you continue straight (echolocation or simply using your senses to be aware that the wall is
there). Think about keeping your body in a straight alignment. Then work on traveling in a straight line thru empty space - initially, use an auditory clue and walk to that sound. Practice walking in a straight line down a normal width sidewalk - without your
cane tip tapping or bumping into the grass.
- My personal opinion is that trailing/shorelining will cause veering into door ways/hallway intersections inside and into driveways/intersections outside. Unless the traveler is looking for a specific landmark, traveling without trailing/shorelining
is best.
- As mentioned by others, having a symmetrical cane arc is also important. Travelers that trail the wall often have less of an arc on the left (away from the wall). A symmetrical cane arc will help you move in a straight line. We teach young students
to initially place their left hand on their right wrist to keep their cane/hand in the center of the body, which is helpful for learning to create a symmetrical cane arc. Most adults will choose to have their right hand at the side of their body (more comfortable
position!), but then must relearn the cane arc to make a wider sweep on the left side to provide complete coverage and to travel in a straight line.
- Suggestion 1: Ask a friend (or your O&M) to stand in front of you, facing you, with their feet slightly wider than your shoulders. You can gently sweep your cane from side to side using your normal cane arc. Does your cane tip touch both feet?
Have the same force when it comes in contact with both feet? This is also good practice to understand if your cane arc is too wide, not wide enough, or not symmetrical.
- Lining up with curbs: Most of the curbs in my area will NOT give a good line of direction for a straight street crossing. This is particularly true in small towns/suburbs. Many of the curbs are rounded and often the location of the sidewalk itself
is not in the ideal position for a straight street crossing. If you are crossing the same streets, you can learn the best location and how to use the curb/sidewalk/other landmarks at that specific intersection to line up with. However, this will not help at
unfamiliar street crossings. Note: Many curbs appear to feel the same (with a lip), but the difference is that the sidewalk may meet at a 90 degree (T) to the curb, or the sidewalk may meet on the curve of the curb. Lining up where it is curving will definitely
cause veering! Detectable warnings (yellow bumps) are often NOT aligned for straight street crossings!
- Suggestion 1: When walking down the sidewalk, approach the intersection using a straight line of travel. Maintain the line of direction when approaching the curb and waiting for clear street to cross. As I tell my young students, ¡°Plant your feet
like a tree!¡± And do not adjust your feet to line up with the curb.
- First step into the street: Many of my students approach the intersection with a straight line of direction, plant their feet, sweep to make sure the first step into the street is clear (no gutter or debris) and then when it is time to cross, the
first step into the street is off, causing them to veer.
- Suggestion 1: The first step into the street is critical! If the body is slightly turned to listen to traffic, the step is small, there is a little anxiety about stepping into the street, or for other reasons, that first step is not straight (often
the toe is turned in). Most people will always start walking with the same foot. (Typically right handed people will step with the right foot first - but not always!) If the right foot leads and the toe is turned in, then often the person will veer to the
left. Practice taking a good first step - big enough to clean a dip for the gutter or debris and that the foot is in a straight alignment. With my young students, we practiced that first step off the curb multiple times in a row. Some students learned to straighten
their feet, while others found it was easier to understand that the first step was consistently crooked and to adjust the second step.
- Sounds like you are already using traffic sounds for alignment. Good deal!
- It¡¯s helpful to think of a spot directly across the street where you want to go. If you can, practice first on quiet streets. Ask someone to stand at the other side and talk to you or clap so you can travel to that place. With my young kids, after
they plant their feet, I ask them to point to the sidewalk on the other side of the street. This way they think about that straight line before stepping off the curb and I can confirm if they have it correctly in their mind.
I hope this helps!
Diane
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On Oct 25, 2023, at 10:25 PM, Jack Mitchell < jmitchell@...> wrote:
You say that you "sweep a lot"....when you are not shorelining, do you maintain a relatively symmetrical cane arc covering the area in front of you, or does your arc swing further out to one side or the other?? In my students when the cane starts going further
out to one side they generally start veering in the same direction.....
While it is definitely good to be able to reduce veering, I agree with Michael that veering is going to happen sometimes, and that more important than trying to completely eliminate veering is 1) being able to tell that you have veered (and which way) and 2)
knowing what to do to recover from that veer.
J
Generally away from the intersection and it doesn¡¯t seem to matter which side it¡¯s on. Yes I do veer when I¡¯m walking in other places. I shoreline but also sweep a lot. I use traffic
sounds and the curb to line up. It doesn¡¯t seem to matter though a lot of curbs in our area are the same; little lips. Not sure if a video tape is possible..
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Hi Madison,
You are not alone - there are many travelers who veer when crossing streets! There are so many things that can cause veering. Can I ask some questions to see if we can determine what
is causing you to veer and then we can brainstorm things to try?
Do you veer into or away from the intersection? Does it make a difference if the intersection is on your right or on your left??
Do you veer when walking down a hallway, sidewalk or through open spaces?
Do you shoreline or trail the wall or grass line?
What do you use to line up or for you line of direction when crossing an intersection?
Does it matter what kind of curb is at the intersection?
If it is possible, have someone video tape you while approaching, waiting at the curb and crossing an intersection? (If you are able to safely get a video and you do not want to share
the video on the list serve, feel free to send it directly to me. I¡¯ll be happy to review it and hopefully give you some pointers.)
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Walking quickly seems to help too.?
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Hello,
If you use the iOS app OKO and there's a stoplight, you can keep yourself oriented to the stoplight which will keep you from veering significantly. It
requires you to hold the phone steady (either on a neck strap or in your hand).
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On Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 6:16?AM Gerald Levy via??<bwaylimited=[email protected]>
wrote:
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Veering off course seems to be a problem for many cane users.? There is no easy solution.? Some exceptional blind cane users claim they can guide
themselves in a straight line by using echolocation like a bat, basically flicking their tongues back and forthe like a freaking reptile to sense environmental vibrations to guide them.? A blind O&M instructor named Dan Kish has tried to popularize the use
of echolocation by blind pedestrians, but there is a lot of controversy over whether this technique really works or is just a bunch of malarkey. And of course, echolocation would be totally useless for someone who is also deaf or hearing impaired in addition
to being blind, and sadly, most O&M instructors have no clue how to train a blind client who is also hearing impaired and do not understand that wearing hearing aids is not a panacea. Some busy intersections in major cities now have audible traffic signals
that make it a little easier for blind pedestrians to guide themselves in a straight line from one side of the street to the other, but they are not always kept in working order and they tend to be few and far between, and incredibly, their installation has
been ? opposed by the largest, so-called blindness advocacy organization in the US. ???
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Gerald?
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On 10/25/2023 12:43 AM, Madison Martin wrote:
Hi all,
I tend to veer a lot especially when crossing streets, my instructor says this is normal but I still find it annoying. Is this true and if so is there
anything that I can do to prevent it from happening alltogether or at least reduce the chances of it happening? If it maters at all I use a folding cane with a roller ball tip because apparently it works the best on all surfaces. Look forward to any thoughts
that anyone has. Thanks
Madison
You say that you "sweep a
lot"....when you are not shorelining, do you maintain a relatively symmetrical cane arc covering the area in front of you, or does your arc swing further out to one side or the other?? In my students when the cane starts going further out to one side they
generally start veering in the same direction.....?
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