by Deborah Armstrong
Have you ever asked to be shown around a facility or outdoor area, and still felt disoriented after a helpful someone walked with you and described many things? It used to occur for me too often. But then I began to analyze how I was reacting to being oriented, and I changed my responses.
At the college where I work, as I observed our staff orienting new blind students to the campus, including outdoor paths and indoor buildings, I realized there were many take-aways I could share.
Stay Curious
It’s often tempting to passively walk along during a tour, listening tentatively but staying quiet and polite. After all, if you are a tourist, it’s important to let the tour leader do their thing. If you are in a museum, the docent is giving the tour, not you.
But this behavior won’t work when you must learn your way around a new place. So you need to ask questions of your guide. The guide may, for example, say, “We’re turning right here.” That’s your cue to ask questions about the turn. What happens if you inadvertently pass that turn? Will you encounter a water fountain, a doorway, a particular shrub? Once you have that information, you’ll know where you are, even if you pass the place where you were supposed to turn. And of course you’ll also want to ask what you’ll encounter if you turn too soon as well.
Find out about signage in your area. My famous example is the sign reading “Audio Visual Services” near the back of the college library. Many sighted students wander about searching for the library due to the misleading nature of that sign. But if I wave my phone around while using an A.I. app, and it reads that sign to me, I know I’m near the library building. Likewise, if my cane touches the statue of a turtle, located in the center of a large patio area, I know which patio I’m on. Because that area is particularly disorienting, I’ve also taught my dog to take me up to the turtle so I can touch it. So ask your guide to show you any unusual landmarks that can help you stay oriented.
Ask too about entrances and steps. One building may have many ways in and out, and knowing about all of them helps build your mental map. Many places have both stairs and ramps, so if you go down the stairs one day and up the corresponding ramp the next day, you won’t think you are somewhere unfamiliar.
So be sure to ask your guide questions about buildings, signage and other landmarks, even if they are only visual. Next time you are lost, you can ask your phone or another person what they see and that can help orient you as well. And your knowledge can also help orient even sighted people.
Simplify
Maybe a route seems unnecessarily complicated. For example, instead of crossing a huge parking lot to get to a “big box” store, ask a helper if there’s a back entrance with a sidewalk leading to it. Many sighted helpers often want to show you the shortest route, rather than a possibly longer and definitely safer route that is easier to master. A route with fewer landmarks, like a parking lot, where you must weave around cars, can be more disorienting and dangerous than having to walk an extra half mile.
Pay Attention
My mind tends to wander when it shouldn’t. But if I’m getting oriented, I try to focus on sounds, smells and other cues like the presence of a slope, whether a path is concrete or asphalt, the direction of the sun, the width and length of a hallway and the distance I travel between two landmarks. If you’re with a trained O&M instructor, they are likely to point out these features, but not if you are being oriented by a co-worker or friend. So it’s good to think about all the cues that can tell you where you are.
Our campus has three decorative fountains, all in the middle of large plazas, but each has a different sound pattern which gives me important clues about my location. Doors to various buildings have distinctive squeaks, and even their air conditioning units have different sounding rumbles. My footsteps on a covered walkway sound different from footsteps in the open, and changes in light patterns can also clue anyone with residual vision in to their location.
Take Notes
You won’t remember all the details, so having a recording to refer to later can really help. If the person orienting you is OK with being recorded, take advantage of that. Otherwise, you can use A.I. technology or your own memory to log directions and descriptions.
If you struggle with cardinal directions, take some time to log them and pay attention to them. Depending on whether you are facing a particular street, the bus stop could be on the right or the left. But it always is north of that side of the intersection.
Practice
And last of all, get out and walk around. The only way to build a mental map is to explore, to make those wrong turns and learn what is where. People who drive do the very same thing. If they drive a great deal, they build a strong mental map. If instead they only drive one route, that’s the only route they learn. So, a sighted driver can get just as lost in a city as a blind person if they haven’t traveled around enough.
Avoid feeling frustrated. Don’t consider yourself bad at staying oriented without trying some of these tools. If a route is complicated, don’t wait until you have to be on time to travel it. Explore when your time is free and you will avoid the stress of being lost. Explore different ways to arrive at the same location, and don’t be afraid to ask someone to help you learn those different ways.
As I walk across campus, sighted staff often ask me where something is located, simply because they’ve learned I know that sort of stuff. There’s always a construction project under way, so a cyclone fence often blocks a familiar route, flummoxing my sighted co-workers too. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it took me several years to master its 112 acres. I’m still learning new routes. Orienting myself is simply a matter of mastering a few skills. It’s not rocket science!