I saw some really interesting things today that I had never seen before. As soon as we walked up to the doors of Bellamy people began staring. At this point I am used to people looking at us as they walk by, or standing awkwardly in a hallway or freezing in a doorway. When the guy was opening the front door of the building for Katie, I thought he was coming out as she was trying to go in, and he was doing the uncomfortable freeze that everyone else does; but as soon as Katie walked in, he turned and went into a classroom. I was really surprised and happy that someone whould go out if their way to help a stranger.
It wasn't until someone else tried to 'help' Katie by holding the door open in the lobby that I started to realize that while help is nice, it can be disorienting and frustrating for a blind person.
I came across this issue a little bit at FSDB when working on self determination with my special needs students. Trying to find a balance between saying no to offered help, while still being polite and letting the person know you appreciate their good intentions can be tricky. This is an issue because people do not understand what we are doing, or what it would be like to navigate on unfamiliar space without vision. I think it is important to remember a time when we also would not have known what to do, and may have offered the same 'help'. I have had people tell me that they have stopped to help a blind person cross a street or ask if they needed any directions, and were met with rude angry responses. I think it is important to explain this fine line to our students; as a kind of social aspect of orientation and mobility.
Anyway....back to today...
I felt really bad for Katie when she was trying to find the bathroom. Not only did she trail over a girls hair, she was at the bathroom about 3 times before she was sure it was the bathroom. I wish she could have seen how different it was today! Unlike before the door was proped open with a mop in the doorway and a bucket full of gross mop water to the side. No wonder she got confused. I think she did really good about not giving up and focusing. The stairs were a little intense just as an observer. At one point I put my hand out and took David's cane so he could have both hands free just in case....
It was very interesting to see how Katie began making a lot of errors in her orientation at the end of the lesson. It was clear she was overwhelmed, but seemed like she was willing to go on with the lesson. I think it is important to be able to cue in on this, and not let it get to a point where a student is crying before we realize it's time to stop the lesson.
It was weird to how every time we would come back upstairs, there were about 10-15 people sitting around on the benches in the lobby, and all of them were watching. One older woman saw us and just froze. We were no where near her or in her way, but she just stopped in the middle of the lobby and stared. It is interesting to me how we as people try to hide our body language or expressions when something shocks us as to not offend anyone. Because Katie was wearing a blindfold and had her back to this lady, the woman felt free to gawk with this weird confused look on her face for over a minute. If people are like that now, when Katie obviously had 3 people watching and working with her, I can only imagine the reactions we will get in the mall when the group keeps their distance from the blindfolded person. This also makes me wonder what kind of looks blind people in general get on a daily basis in public.
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