Orientation And Mobility Update

I have found that mobility is always going to be hard for me not because of my vision loss or lack of trust of my cane, but because of my hearing impairment. I am a good cane traveler and I have a good sense of orientation (instructors said so! :) ). It becomes worse to locate traffic and sounds when there are tall buildings for the sounds to echo off of, lawn mowers/leaf blower, rain, snow and other noises going on around me. I have found that this is where my frustration comes from and why I spend a few minutes or longer at intersections. I have to wait for a couple rounds of traffic to go by in order for me to get an idea of where the traffic is going (remember I am under shades). With this issue, it causes me to hesitate and not have confidence that it okay to cross or the fear that I might have heard it wrong. My instructor told me that I am hard on myself and that I do well. Sometimes I want to just sit down and quit, but I push through it and jump.

Other than the hearing issue, mobility has been going well. I am able to find buildings/stores when given an address,  and slowly find my way out of parking lots when I have drifted into them. When I get lost in a parking lot, I usually figure that out after hitting a car with my cane and luckily no car alarms have gone off yet,  I stop where I am and listen for the traffic. I try to locate where my traffic is, then once I have found it I try to figure out which side of me the traffic should be one. It helps when one street is a two-way and another is a one-way. It makes it easier to tell them apart. Once I have figured that out I walk towards the street I want to find the sidewalk again. Once I find the sidewalk, I stop and listen for traffic again to make sure I'm going the right direction. It is all about locating the sounds of traffic and keeping it on the right side of you depending which way you want to go.

You really have to learn to trust your hearing and tune into what you are surrounded by. Also, you have to tune in on what your cane is going over so you know when you need to watch for a hole, a step, or a crack in the side walk. You want to be in tune so when you do hit something you have a quick reaction time, just in case it is a tree and you don't walk into it. You also learn to feel the difference in the pavement, asphalt, and brick; which helps you know if you went into a different area that you might not want to be. You also feel for the bumps at the corner of an intersection, which is not every where so we can't rely on that to help us know that we need to stop. Those yellow bumps are called truncated domes.

My instructor wanted to get a better idea of what it is like to having a hearing problem as well as being vision impaired so he wore shop headphones and shades around the block. It was more deafening compared to me but it gave him an idea that it is hard to locate where sounds are coming from. When loud sounds go off around me, especially fire trucks, EMTs and police, it makes me cringe and get disoriented and I lose my balance some. The sound is such a high pitch and it is amplified in my ears from my hearing aids compared to people with normal hearing. He learned that it is a lot tougher than just having the blindness itself. Two students tried it as well so they could understand better. They said it was hard and gave me props for going out there and doing it. It is not easy, it can be done but it is tough and frustrating. I know that in some weather conditions, such as snow, I will have to figure out another route to get somewhere when my vision gets worse because everything is muffled from the snow. I can also use a card that says that I'm vision and hearing impaired and that I need help crossing the street to hold up. I don't know if I will ever bring myself to use that, just makes me feel vulnerable.

Right now, we are doing an experiment to see if wearing my shades where causing my migraines. We are thinking that I am straining to hear too much. I didn't realize how much I relied on my vision to hear until I put the shades on. I struggle to hear some of my instructors and when I'm on mobility I really concentrate and strain to hearing the sounds around me. I am doing the last two weeks of the term without my shades to see if it is the cause. I am working on low vision techniques such as scanning intersections and what to watch for in certain situations. I am going to do an independent route to a coffee place under shades since that was one of my goals to have done before the end of the term.

That is it for now! The term ends on the 14th, but will be completing another term starting the first week of April.

These are pictures of me under shades but not during mobility. We were teaching my cousins and friend how to use the cane under shades and I was showing them what I look like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woodshop Update

I am very behind on my blog, but I have been keeping a daily journal of what I been learning or doing in each class every day. As the term continued on, some classes got harder but there has never been a moment that I haven't learned something new. The downside to the last two months is that my migraines have worsen and I have been getting them weekly. I have missed a day each week. I am not sure what is causing them, my diet has not changed nor my sleep (I don't sleep well regardless of a new environment). A student and I were talking about maybe it is from having to strain to hear when I am wearing my shades all day since I can't rely on my vision to read lips. It never dawned on me that could be the cause, all I knew was at the end of the day I am mental exhausted and when weekend comes I am dragging. I am going to spend one of my last two weeks of the term not wearing my shades to see if that helps with my migraines. If not, then I am going to go see a neurologist to get some help. I am at a point that I'm so frustrated and tired of hurting. I feel that if it is not my head, it's my eyes or my back. Never feel that I catch a break, turning 28 this year feels like I'm a lot older physically.

Since I am so behind on updating you all on my classes I am going to do a new blog for each class, enjoy!

First up is woodshop!

The second project was making a name sign using a router that had a stylus attached to the router. I choose the saying "Love is Blind" for my sign.

I started the project by sanding the cherry wood by hand then using the router next. When I used the router I placed my left hand on the router handle and held down the on button, then with my right hand I held the stylus like a pencil and traced the edge of the letter clockwise. To spaced the letter there was a metal bar next to the letter template; I would move the wood and the stylus together until the stylus touched that bar. I would do it twice to get the correct spacing between words and then lock the board down. Once I had the letters cut out I used the table router to cut the edge to my sign. All I had to do was hold my board firmly and push through and the blade did all the work. Then, I did more sanding to smooth things out. The next step was to paint the letters. How does a blind person do this? Easy! I put on a pair of gloves and dipped my finger in the paint. I used the other hand to help guide where my finger with paint should go. You outline the letter up and down and repeat three times. It was okay to get paint outside the letters because the next step was using the planer and that takes off the top layer of the wood, which took that paint off and make it smooth and clean looking. Last step was to apply the finish! I wore gloves again and used a folded paper towel that was inside a big plastic paperclip. I would dip it and used my other hand to guide and orient myself. I repeated this three times and then it was completed! The sign turned out great! The "s" and "n" are two of the hardest letters ,to do because you have to do the cutting in sections and freestyle in some areas where you are not using the template.

The project that I am currently working on is the cutting board. I started by taking the two woods that I'm using and cut it to 31 inches long. I measured using the Click Ruler. Then I ran the wood through the planer and joint planer to get it smooth and the ink markings from the lumbar store off. Next, I had to cut my wood into strips, which I measured with a Click Ruler and set the fence of the table saw to that measurement. Once I had the saw in place where I wanted it, I moved the cover to the blade over until I had enough room so I could push the wood through with a piece of wood. Using this saw isn't hard and I was not nervous just awkward because I had to stand so far to the left and reach to push the wood through, but I managed! After my strips were cut, I then cut them all in half. Then I glued them together alternating dark wood then light wood. I scrapped the dried glue off and ran through the planer again to level out the wood.

That is how far I am now, enjoy the pictures! 

Pictures of Sign:

Spacing the Lettering on Router

 

Putting Back Letter Template

Close Up of Template and Stylus

Router

 

Checking Out My Work

 

Using Table Router for Edging

 

 

 

 

 

Putting the Finish On

 

Finished Last Coat!

 

Finished Product, Hanging By Ribbon in Room

 

Close Up on Edge

 

Pictures of Cutting Board:

 

Click Rule and Extension

 

Measuring Out My 31 Inches to Cut

 

Setting Up Hand Placement Before Cut

 

Another Angle of Hand Placement

 

Cutting Away!

 

Running Wood Through Planer

 

Finding Way to Other Side to Retrieve Wood

 

 

More to come soon, I promise!!