Orientation and Mobility Transcript

[George speaking] I use the cane a lot around my yard. I have some well-placed items that more or less tell me where I am in the yard by the use of my cane. I use it for walking along the walking path on the Mississippi River Boulevard. And the orientation and mobility training of course teaches you how to use the environment around you as much as you could. If you’re hearing impaired like I was, they make sure that I know how to work within different environmental conditions, such as a very windy day when you have a hearing aid that’s almost non- functional because the wind is so loud that you can’t hear.

[Kimberly speaking] Okay. Well, it’s a little complicated about the white cane. I used to refuse to use one. I had no desire for that. I was independent. I could walk just fine on my own, thank you very much. But, of course I was always bumping into things. And the worst were strollers because they were below my line of sight. I’d be walking along and bang into a stroller and all of these people would give me dirty looks. Well they had no idea I couldn’t see because I didn’t have the white cane. My husband tried to convince me to accept the cane, but I was just not having it.

Sometime later I got a job working at the Metrodome. When those concourses would fill up with people, suddenly it became impossible for me to navigate. I could only see out of my center vision. It just made me so tense to try to navigate. So I finally decided to call SSB and I said I wanted to use a cane, but just temporarily and only for work. So they agreed to give me a cane and they did give me training – a short one. I’d say a half hour or less.

I only used the cane when I was at work. I didn’t want people on the bus or my neighbors or my friends to know I needed it. I didn’t want people staring at me. But over time, as my vision kind of narrowed, I realized that if I didn’t use the cane, my body was really going to suffer. I was so tense. My back would hurt. I would run into things and the unexpected blow would always take a toll on me. I started to withdraw from public places. I didn’t enjoy things even like shopping any more.

So I gave in and started using the cane more and more. I found I could manage walking through the store so much more easily. I was relaxed, used the cane to navigate. Other people saw the cane. They navigated around me. I was free all of a sudden.

So I used it more and more. When I remember the first time I bumped into a neighbor when I was using the cane and I thought; “Oh shoot! Now they know that I need this!” I tried to keep cool. My husband was great, he reminded me that it didn’t matter what they thought, what mattered was my safety. Of course when I started running into Deaf people they just had to comment on it. It’s just the way our culture is. But again, I kept cool and kept going and eventually broke all those barriers I had set up about using the cane and I realized I needed it very much.

At some point, some O & M instructor asked if I’d ever had any training on the cane. When I told them I hadn’t, they said they needed to assess whether or not I needed the training. Well I had been using it for three or four years by that time, but I agreed. The assessment consisted of the instructor following me as I navigated with the cane. I had no trouble at all with the route and they told me clearly I was able to manage just fine and needed no special training.

I cannot live without my cane.