Category: Daily Living
Hey ppl :)
I got a good question for you all.
When it comes to keeping a straight line when walking without a sure-line?
I am totally blind, so iow. no rest vission.
Are you asking, how can a totally blind person walk in a straight line?
If so, you can't. I don't even think sighted people can without some sort of guide or focus point.
I say this because I once could see, so.
*smile* *like* ok .. that's kind of what i halfway thought too *smile*
but fairly streight would be nice .. :)
I don't have enough experience with a guide dog to help with that, though I imagine the dog will walk fairly straight most of the time except when navigating toward things or around other things.
As far as a cane, I'll give a few tips...ha ha, tips.
1. Keep your arm centered, don't just kinda hold your cane off to one side. This will mean that the center of your arc is truly at your center, or close to it, and not way off to one side.
2. If you're doing this, make at least a small effort to have your cane on the opposite side of your forward foot. Step with the left, cane on the right. Step with the right, cane on the left. Forgive if either or both of these ideas is commonplace for you, but for some people it's not.
3. Make an effort to face forward. Try not to tilt your head too much, even if you listen better that way. If you are forward-oriented you will go straight more easily.
4. In that forward-oriented position, assuming you've got any sound clues at all, use them for orientation. Is the wind blowing straight across from left to right when you're going the right way? Well, it'll probably feel a little different if you verr significantly enough. Same with echoes...they will change, if only by almost imperceptible degrees, the more you turn. If you don't already, use environmental cues as much as possible for navigation.
All of these things won't keep you from straying a foot or two to one side or the other over a long distance, but they will keep you generally straight and will, at the least, keep you safe. Most of them will become second nature if they aren't already. If you sray from a truly straight line just a bit...well, unless you're walking a balance beam, it probably doesn't matter.
a bit off topic though,
i am a totally blind,
and i no need to use any cane inside navigating in my campus.
Suppose if i want to go to my class, i shall walk straight a few minutes and take left.
But iam facing problem where to take left.
Hope iam able to put my point understandable.
Agree with SheppherdWolf. I use environmental cues to keep me straight. Also, you will stay straighter if you walk faster and take longer strides.
I do believe it will surely come under practice. I was having more sight in my younger age, and I was even running around the school/college campus. But I can notice the speed of mine has significantly come down. It may be probably because of the age fear or redusal of eye sight or not sure what's the reason. But as far as I've noticed, I'm still keeping the straight line, if needed.
So I'm sure if we regularly go for a walk daily, we can do that.
Raaj.
I say no. I could see lots, and if you don't have a sorce to follow, you can't.
Put a blind person in a field, they can't walk a straight line, nor can a sighted person that has nothing to aim at.
Streets and such aren't exactly straight either, so.
For you that say you can, do a little test in your own house. You know it well, right?
Put a piece of tape or something on the floor, or tie a string to a something. Not a door, because you can get to the opening, but you'll know know if you got to the point, so the tape works best.
Have someone guide you back, you'll need to get a few feet away, so do it in a large room or even outside.
Now, walk directly to the tape.
I forgot to add, fold your hands in front of you, so you can't touch anything. Smile.
Honestly, Wayne, I'm going to disagree with you here, at least a bit. I don't always navigate perfectly straight, but usually I'm quite close, to the extent that I can come across a room in a straight line, reach my right hand out and have it settle precisely on top of a glass that I placed down on a table before getting up to leave. I don't fumble too much most of the time.
That said, I will definitely qualify this a bit. The faster you go, the harder it becomes to walk a perfectly straight line without some sort of guidance or cue. Your natural walking speed, even might be fast enough that you're sacrificing pin-point straight-line travel in favour of efficiency.
It's ok and normal to veer some. Sw made the points I would have, along with using the sound of traffic. If you are facing out towards the road, you will notice the traffic either sounding as though it fades in front of you or behind you. When facing forward it should sound parallel, that is it doesn't sound as though it crosses you at any point. Stand on a sidewalk and listen to the traffic and turn slightly every so often, and you'll have a better understanding of what you mean. I plan to teach O&M as a career, so let me know if you have any other questions and I'd be glad to help.
Traffic is a point of reference. But again, streets are not always straight.
When you go across that room you get pretty close to the objective, but I'll bet you don't go exactly straight. Smile.
*smile* thanks all for replies and interesting viewpoints.
I will take this with me as I keep working on my traveling skills.
I am just moving to a new place, and when i had the chance of doing that, that place has some wider spaces that I need to pass, such as wide openings towards parkinglots and stuff. so thanks all for very helpful hints .:)
-Ranveig -
I agree with Shepherdwolf on the point that a faster stride does not necessarily mean you're going to go straighter. I find it actually makes me veer more easily if I walk more quickly than usual. And I don't know the technical details, but I will say firsthand that Shepherdwolf, who has no vision, is much more graceful than I, and I have some usable vision. So maybe Wayne isn't entirely right in a functional sense.
And, no, streets are not always perfectly straight. A straight line of travel is usually a good way to find a sidewalk when crossing, but a street near my current home requires you to veer a bit to the left, otherwise you'll miss the sidewalk altogether. I hate it.
I am writing from a balance, or human arror point. People just don't naturally walk straight, unless they are trying, and have something to use as a guide.
I don't know why, just that it doesn't happen.
Sure, in traveling as a blind person, you can help it to a point, but you'll never fix it totally.
Crossing a street is one of these things. You can get to the curb on the otherside, but you don't do it straight. You will get there, but not at the exact point that is straight.
You'll use sounds around you as your guide, and that keeps you going.
You can also use what I call face vision, but you still veer to some degree.
Completely agree with Wayne. I don't worry about keeping a complete straight line when travelling. I'm more concerned about veering far out in to the street or too far inward.
We're splitting hairs at this point, I think. Voiceofjoy basically wanted to know how blind people walk in a straight line, if they can, and this has turned out to be a functional question. Arguing about whether or not one's normal navigation is absolutely straight is...sort of defeating the point. If it's straight enough to get her across those open spaces without getting lost, and doesn't veer to any appreciable degree, then it can be determined as straight. I don't think anything walks in absolute straight lines at all times.
A couple of tips, as far as wide-open spaces go, too:
First and foremost, know the environment. If you're walking on blacktop or a sidewalk, does it have grooves that run in a certain direction, and if so, can you use your cane to drag across them such that they act as a guide? If you're walking on grass, is there a foot-track where people often walk which is more beaten down and will thus get you to where you need to go? Is there a large building a good distance off to one side from which you get reliable echoes? There are any number of things to bear in mind when travelling. You'll have to take clues from your environment as best you can to keep you on the right path.
Last but not necessarily least is balance. If your balance, sense of direction, general equilibrium aren't very good, then you may need to go slower in wide-open spaces if you can, to give yourself more time to react to a lack of constant and immediately obvious guidance from the environment. Why balance, you ask? Don't ask me why, but some people who have issues with balance seem to have greater difficulty when there's nothing but wide-open space on all sides. They don't just up and fall over or anything, but the simple largeness around them sometimes tends to make them more nervous, if nothing else, and this can translate into getting lost, which is never fun.
All this is just conjecture, really. I hope you figure it out, whatever it is.
S W, no, I'm not splitting hairs. You are 100% correct she can get to where she's going, but if you ask someone to watch you walk down a street when you think you are walking straight, they'll tell you you go from side to side.
That is what causes the confussion I think, because people say, walk straight, when what they should say is get to the other point, or place you are trying to go.
I think when people are so involved with going straight they lose the point they are trying to hit, so don't think about the point, but going straight.
I'm probably not making sense.
I find when I concentrate on a point I get there better, but for the life of me, if I try to walk it straight? I tend to do worse at it.
Confusion I meant. Lol
Straight, in this context, just means not going all over the damn place, I think. Relatively straight, not, you know, "walk this exact line and if you so much as walk an inch to either side you fail at life". And, don't worry Wayne, you make sense. I find concentration helps enormously for me too, especially in wide open spaces like streets. I don't think " go straight" I think "find sidewalk" and it helps.
interesting and I am a fast pace walker and I tend to move in and out when walking down a street and yes if you have problems with your balance or if you walk pigeon liked which is where your feet walk inward then those may cause you to also not be able to walk straight but the most important thing when traveling is to be safe and to know the route that you take well or if you don't then have some one walk with you and that can help, smiles
hello all :)
I am really enjoing the discussion and as far as i'm concerned, i've received lots and lots of tips! I have used them too, already, and it is definately helping me.
Part of the challenge i've met with my asistant is situation when she's asking me to move straight forward to find a signle pole in the midle of nowhere to make sure that i am at the right direction and such.Not really easy, by far .. easy with a dog, but with just me and a cane, no. :) I have now, though, however goten alot of good tips from you guys and will take them with me. *smile* thanks alot everyone!
I can understand why she would have you try to find the point as a landmark or point of reference, but I don't understand how that can determine whether or not you are continuing in a straight path.
When you are looking for something, you are focused on that and not focused on trying to stay in a straight line. So what if you are, and you go in a perfectly straight line, but you come to find out you past it? There won't always be someone to set you perfectly straight in front of a pole and I've never been tested to do such a thing personally. Trying to stay in a straight line and finding a place or point of reference might work interchangeably over a distance, but they require different ways of problem solving and techniques.
Okay Meglet. Smile. Glad you understand.
I don't know howmuch the veer is, I just know it is natural.
Telling a blind person to walk straight to me defeats the purpose. Tell them to concentrate on the point, or the place they are headed with sound, land marks, and such things, seems like a better method.
It is funny how the mind plays tricks on us. Depending on what concepts you are given, can make a worlds of differents in how you do something.
If you are told, walk straight, you'll tense up, and that makes you stiff trying. That is just my thoughts.
but at times there are no landmarks corssing a spesific place ... like curbs are gone, no cars to follow, and very few inviromental clues .. let alone how snowbanks covers the ground so the ground is not a good idea to use either. *smile* I also prefer to use landmarks and surelines as muchas possible when walking with a cane. With a dog its pretty diferent. ;) I still use landmarks, but not as much as I would do without him. Hes good as searching poles in the middle of nowhere .. lol if i need them to be searched tha is ;)
Greetings from Ran.
I've never found using standalone objects such as poles in a relatively open environment as landmarks particularly helpful. If the space is very open, you'll probably miss them 9 times in 10. I'll always try and find an alternative, even if it's slightly passed where I want to go. I'll certainly always learn what happens if I overshoot en route. In practice, after a while I find I don't overshoot or use a landmark I have that is after my destination.
As far as walking in a straight line is concerned, sometimes I'll deliberately veer in order to compensate for any veer the other way. For instance, if I'm going over a cross street, I'll always veer slightly down that cross street to mitigate against the unlikely event that I'd veer out into traffic on the road I was walking down.
Yes, I sometimes do that as well. That way you fix things if the crossing isn't exactly straight, and you can't go wrong, so just safer.
I am liking the way of hearing these different ways of how differen't people's mobility and orientation are done, smiles.
Hahaha yeah I believe they are good at doing that, the dog I mean, smiles.
A dog fixes all this stuff up, sure.
But, you know what, they don't walk in straight lines either.
Smile.
Wayne's right. I grew up being beat and demeaned for not walking straight.
If people could walk straight, then people lost in a blizzard would not walk in circles.
Also, talk to a Coast Guard pilot overflying a lake where a kayaker is lost out in the middle of the water where she or he cannot see land. the pilot's instruments keep his aircraft straight, and he can see that poor paddler zigzagging around all over the place wearing themselves out going in circles.
Good idea to have a compass with you when on the water.
Speaking of compass, I use wind direction, sun location or anything I can possibly use. And no, you will not be straight. You will get to where you want to go but you will veer.
On a so-called straight freeway like I5, motorists constantly have to guide the vehicle. Taking your hands off the wheel on what looks like a straight road will mean running right off of it.
Straight is a myth on an ellipse like Planet Earth. Then again, those who demean and beat for not being straight may wish to revisit eighth-grade science, and I'm glad those people are not involved in search and rescue, either on land during blizards or on the water / in the air over the water.
Crazy.
It takes such an elementary understanding of our world and basic physics to realize this, I can only possibly conclude that people who
have the straight dogma must be Members of the Flat Earth Society.
And just think, while you are walking the world is turning, and so....
ok i'm not sure how that relates to people traveling on the ground and there are quite a few dogs that can walk straight but still best to rely on your orientation and mobility and hey if you find the issues your having are effecting you in your every day life then why not consult a o&m instructore with your local organisation but don't worry to much about it unless you are having accidents or difficulty with traveling because of it then for safety you could take some one with you who can assist you but as most of us we like our independence and don't like to rely on others but better to be safe than sorry.
now this isn't to do with travel but I thought to share it and that is that there is this one test certain professionals will ask you to do and each time I've had to do it, I've laughed and basically they get you to walk in a straight line but with one foot in front of the other, kind of like walking as if your on a beam though just on a flat surface which is not always easy to do.
also another thing that can cause you to not walk straight is if you are pigeon footed, basically your toes will point inwards when you walk though you can get insoles to help with that, smiles.
Or drunk! Smile
true, smiles.
Though if you are hearing impaired, as well as blind,
It is not safe to rely on sound cues, as you cannot utilize them effectively. So, guys, what if you were faced with this delimma? How would you overcome it?
One thing, learn your tendencies and adjust for them. For example, when I walk, I tend to veer to the left. Therefore, I try to adjust for that. (Not too much. <lol>)
Bob
a good suggestion but if you have difficulties with balance and uncertanity because of vision loss it can be a bit diffricult as i notice when i walk that i go from one side to the next but i'm also a pretty fast walker.
I tend to veer in whatever direction the traffic isn't...well unless I'm really not paying attention.
that's understandable I do get lost when not concentrating on where I am going, smiles.
Which happens to me all the time. The really weird thing was that I'd walk to the Housing Authority to pay my rent and I almost never got mixed up on the way to the office, but almost always did on the way back. It actually got pretty frustrating since it wasn't a difficult route to retrace. And snow only made things worse.
Don't feel too bad about that. I walk the same route from my dorm to the university and back again every single day, and still I find that getting there is harder than getting back. It may be the same route back and forth, but sometimes little differences can trip you up. And snow just complicates everything.
Naw. this is just the devil having a bit of fun. He sees you going, so changes the rout on you a bit when you come back.
Don't worry, the angels won't let you get lost though.
Here is what I bet you haven't thought about. When you go, you probably use something to guide you. When you return that thing is now backwords, and not in the same places. What I'd do is take some time to study the rout on both sides to see what was there, and on my way back I'll think in terms of travelling if fresh.
Odd concept, but from a visual stan point I can understand probably exactly what happens.
That curve that goes to the right is not different. If you could feel it on a map of something that might help you understand what I mean.
The sounds are even different.
Also from a hearing impaired point, I'd have to find things I could touch on both sides as well if the audio doesn't help as well.
well with me most of my routes are memorised but for some reason I seem to count to far or to less and one thing was there was a dog that would bark when going past but now it doesn't do that but I'm sure i'll get it right this week, smiles.
If your going strait across an area meaning forwoard and not turning left to right, it helps me if someone goes to that spot i am trying to get to while i am at the spot I would start at then talk to me so I know which direction to go toard. For some reason. I can get there or learn to get around a place a lot better if I stay in one place and others walk around the room and say, here is this and that so on so on. As long as its close enough to hear. It helps me get a mental map in my head because once I start moving about, I might get the distance and angles off a bit and it can become confusing.
I do tend to vere to much to one side and I use to walk pidgen toe but since I got my dog I notice I walk with my feet kind of angled away from her to keep from tripping in to her.
I have the same issues that I can go one way with no issues but the opposite direction I get confused a times. Sited people do this too because it looks different coming back.
very interesting, smiles.