Rugs, Stairs, and Maps

            Today, I really felt like I was able to synthesize more of what I saw.  Maybe I am learning?!  The first thing was that there are lots of things in the environment that you just don’t pay attention to visually.  For example, when Amber got confused about where the stairs were located, it was the multiple rug locations that threw her off.  Until Mickey pointed out that the rug conundrum was her problem, I hadn’t even noticed that there were rugs on the floor.  Obviously, the three or four rugs in the hall are very confusing if you are experiencing the hall tactually.  Visually, I overlooked them because they weren’t important to me moving visually down the hall.  Also, as we went up the stairs in the middle of the building, there was that stretch where the second half of the flight didn’t line up with the first half.  I didn’t even notice the difference until I noticed it throwing Amber off.

            Amber got turned around today, and from my own turned-around experience I can really buy into the idea that you react to the environment in your head instead of reacting to what you are experiencing when blindfolded.  Vision is pretty encompassing; so with little effort, you can see ahead and behind of where you are currently.  When blindfolded, you really only know what you are touching and hearing at that moment.  Even though you can sense sounds from a distance, they are often transient, unlike visual images, which generally last a while.  So, it makes sense that you would be most effective if you base your next move off your current position.  I’m not so sure about this, but perhaps having a detailed floor plan is not so important as knowing where you want to go and then taking steps to get there based on your current location.  I know I have a very visually oriented plan of what my building looks like in my head.  It works great as long as I stay on the path and things that I expect appear as I anticipate them.  But, if I get turned around, my plan doesn’t really help out all that much.  And, of course, there’s the problem with teaching congenitally blind people to visualize the space in that manner.  So, maybe the key really is more like stop thinking so much about what to do and start going to see what you’ll find.

            I get to teach Lauren on Thursday.  I’m a little nervous, but mostly, I’m excited to try it again, implementing what I’ve learned so far.