By Thomas J. Murphy
(Condensed from Journal of Rehabilitation, September 1966; reprinted from “The Braille Forum,” November 1967.)
Without special training, a newly blinded adult will have great difficulty traveling to any place away from the immediate environment of his home. The very fact that such an undertaking is thought of as difficult and dangerous causes the person to forgo the risk involved and stay at home where he is "safe" but immobile. Until recently, with the exception of the blind rehabilitation program at Hines (Illinois) Veterans Hospital, there were no quality orientation and mobility programs available to blind people. Methods of teaching had not been formalized, with the result that most instructors lacked thorough training. But now, with these two (Boston U and Western Michigan U) programs graduating 30 students a year, more opportunity for good instruction will be available to more blind persons. The blind person who undertakes mobility training must be rehabilitated, partly through his own effort and desire for a means to be reasonably independent, and partly through the efforts and ingenuity of individual members of the rehabilitation team. The success of various phases of rehabilitation of a blind person depends on whether or not he is mobile. To the extent one is not, he becomes inactive and consequently dependent.
Normally a mobility course lasts 12 to 16 weeks and is divided into two basic parts: pre-cane skills and cane skills. Pre-cane skills are those which will enable the person to be mobile without the use of an aid (long cane or dog guide). Proper use of a sighted guide is one of the techniques taught during this phase. Here the main purpose is to show how a blind person and his guide can work together as a team. If a blind person knows the proper way to grip his guide, knows how close to stand to the guide as they travel together, knows how they should work together, going through doorways and crowded areas in ascending and descending stairs, in selecting theatre seats, etc., then he can assume an active role by informing his guide, prior to encountering these situations.
If the guide is a complete stranger who knows nothing about assisting the blind, then the blind person may have to inform him on the spot as to what technique to use. The blind trainee is placed in various situations where he will have to make practical use of the skills. In traveling without an aid he must use a set of skills which will allow him to gather information and protect himself at the same time. "Trailing" is such a skill. By allowing the fingers of his guiding hand to follow over the surface being used as a guide, the blind person is able to realize his location at any one time as he moves toward and finally locates his objective. The hand and forearm are brought across the body in the upper and lower position as a technique used primarily to protect oneself while moving about alone in unfamiliar areas. This technique can be combined with trailing and with some cane skills to give the most complete protection possible.
The instrument known as the long cane is designed to have a definite functional value as opposed to being merely a symbol of blindness. The cane may be used as a bumper to afford the user protection against walking into objects and also as a probe. In this case the cane is used to examine the area where the person is about to walk. This is accomplished by synchronizing the foot and cane movements so that the cane clears a path for each foot as it is brought forward. The length of the cane is determined by the height and gait of the user. The touch technique combined with the methods of using the cane in going up and down stairs and the diagonal technique (cane held across the front of the body acting as a bumper) will give a blind person the means to travel independently in almost any type of travel situation. Typically, a trainee is taught these techniques in an isolated setting so that he can master them before attempting to use them in traveling to specific objectives within the community. As the blind person progresses from quiet residential areas to a more complex environment, he learns how to use landmarks and other recognizable auditory and tactile clues which will enable him to remain oriented as he travels to his objective.
The final lessons in the course are designed to test the trainee's ability to use all the skills he has learned during the course. A typical run might include traveling downtown by bus, making purchases in a store, eating lunch in a public restaurant and returning home by bus. The purpose of such training is to foster independence — to teach the person the skills that will restore lost mobility to a reasonable degree. Once the skills are learned they can be applied to almost any travel situation. If a person is properly motivated, he should be able to come into a strange city and, once having received adequate instruction, travel to his destination with little help.