One thing I tend to do is ask what things are especially when it comes to food. Sometimes I worry that my questions become annoying, but it really helps. After all sometimes I misunderstand what things are. One time at college I mistook pasta for French fries. Luckily the staff have gotten very used to me and asking what they have for food (so I don’t even have to ask anymore) so I knew what it was, but it was confusing at first. It helps to ask what things are when you’re confused and I think most people aren’t annoyed by it, but it’s certainly a worry. This also goes into my interest in “exploring” things. More or less feeling the general shape and how the thing feels, also looking at what it looks like. It’s a lot of fun to understand things and know what it is even if I’m not directly involved in it. Like when my mom was making her salad for lunch, and I wanted to know what few things were. It didn’t really affect me, but I was curious and she was happy to tell me. So always be curious about what things are because you might be surprised what something is compared to what you think it is.
Category Archives: Independance
Useful tips to help with independence
Voices
Since I’ve never been good at telling what people look like it’s very hard to tell who people are sometimes. It does make things difficult since if I’m in a big room it’s hard to tell where friends are. There are a bunch of times where people seem to “vanish” just because of my vision. So the way I’m used to recognizing people is by house their voice sounds. This also makes me have a strange sort of game that I have with anime where I try to see if I can identify a voice actor and the characters. Sometimes it’s easier than other times.
Why didn’t I know about this before?
Okay, so I just found out that I can get help from an independent living specialist from the CNIB even though I’m still on campus. I wish I knew this four years ago. Guess it’s never tooo late to get started. I’m sure the US has help like this as well so if anyone wants help with independent living and living on a college campus you should really look into getting help from someone even before you get a place of your own.
The problem with ID pictures
You know, one thing that always confused me as a child was how people could tell what people looked like on ID cards. I understood that the picture was supposed to show the person, but since I couldn’t really see details on people’s faces I struggled to understand how they could tell if the person changed the colour of their hair or cut their hair or something of the sort. Now I understand it, but back then I just couldn’t figure out how it could possibly make sense. Good thing I never had to recognize someone by their picture.
Nope, that is defiantly a postbox
I’m not sure why I thought of this since I’ve been inside for the last two weeks because of getting surgery on my foot to get rid of a cist. Either way sometimes when I take my dog for walks I tend to daydream about various things like my stories. The problem is that sometimes it’s a bit hard to see what’s around me. Of course my dog is great at seeing things like that, but still. So somehow when I walk sometimes I see mailboxes, but I don’t actually see them as mailboxes. If I’m too far away from mailboxes I see them as people. Not sure how that happens, but yes, I’ve mistaken mailboxes for people before, at least I didn’t try to say hello because that would have looked really strange.
The great need for landmarking
Now I know everyone gets lost even people with sight, but there is just something spectacular about getting so lost that you can’t even find where you were going or where you came.
Let me preface this with a bit of an explanation: My parents enjoy showing dogs, and when my brother and I were younger we had to tag along with them (which was alright given the fact we were allowed to play games for hours). One particular one that sticks into my memory is getting utterly lost at an outside show one time:
At a certain age we all get it in our heads that we can do things on our own, and so… that’s exactly what I got into my head when I needed to use the bathroom at the show. Instead of having my fully sighted brother show me how to get to the bathrooms (which were porta-potties so it wasn’t a case of just going to a building). I decided I could do it. Well needless to say… that didn’t work out well.
I managed to get so completely lost I didn’t even find the bathrooms. I tried then to go back to get my brother’s help, but… I couldn’t find that either. At this point (since I was only around eight) I was very upset. Some very nice people showed me where the bathroom was then took me to the announcement table so that they could call for my mother (who was also wondering were on earth I’d gone at this point).
One thing I learned from that experience was the need to landmark. What is a landmark? Well a landmark is simply a tool that you can use to easily figure out where you are. So a landmark in essence is a bread crumb (think Hansel and Gretel), but unlike bread crumbs the best landmarks are the ones that aren’t going to be taken away.
What makes up your landmark depends on where you are, but even though I said landmarks are like bred crumbs you should try to avoid using something that might move. If you say the car is parked next to the white car in the parking lot, well that white car might not be there next time you come, but if you remember that the car was two parking spaces from the end you’ll be able to find it.
It should also be something easily recognizable and unique. During my second year of university I had to spend the second semester in a hotel because of a flood in my residence building. At first I had to ask the bus driver where to get off, but after a while I recognized a building that was always across the street from the bus stop so every time I saw that building I knew to get off.
The best advice I can give is find your own landmarks. I find that if someone tells me about a landmark it’s harder for me to remember it. If you notice something interesting on your way then that is what you should use as a landmark. What you notice is far different than what someone else might notice.
Have as many bread crumbs as you want and as few as you need. You can never have too many land marks for one route. As long as you have enough to tell you where you are, where you’re going and where you came you’re good.