Getting Across the Street with Visual and Hearing
Impairments
Dona Sauerburger, COMS®
NOTE:
Before having student practice traveling in public, cover important points
that instructor should explain to
student.
Suggested
procedure to use for
each new intersection (for all
students who have basic street-crossing concepts and skills):
(Note: those who cannot hear/see well enough to
independently analyze situation and determine risks may need hearing/sighted assistance).
1. Analyze situation (determine length of
crosswalk / width of street, geometry and traffic control);
2. Determine how / when to cross (choose
strategy for crossing);
3. Determine risks of crossing
Teach clients to analyze each intersection for:
a. risks (what could possibly go wrong?);
b. how the risk can be reduced;
c. how likely the risk is to occur (after reduced)
4. Reduce risks as much as
possible (including changing or revising crossing strategy);
5. Decide if risks are acceptable:
After determining risk and then reducing it as much as
possible (including changing the strategy for crossing), ask the consumer or
guardian if this risk is acceptable to him or her.
NOTES:
o
Before deciding
if risk is acceptable, reduce risk as much as possible (including changing
street-crossing strategy if appropriate);
o
A thing is
considered “safe” if its risks are determined to be acceptable
o
Each person’s acceptance
of risk is individual, and may be different from yours.
o
Make sure that
consumer is prepared and familiar with alternatives for situations when the
risk is not acceptable.
o
Discuss
pedestrian laws in applicable area
6.
Consider alternatives if
risk is not acceptable
Our responsibility to our
students, in addition to teaching them the skills and strategies needed to
travel, include making sure they understand:
·
all the choices available
to them;
·
risks and
consequences of the choices (including how to recognize situations where they
can’t hear / see traffic well enough to know there’s a sufficient gap).
Ideas /
strategies for deaf-blind people to get assistance to cross
·
Stand near curb
facing street to be crossed and indicate need for assistance (card; body
language; voice, etc.)
-- When
someone approaches, point to the street you want to cross in order to avoid
confusion
-- when using a card (see
Effective use of
cards for soliciting assistance to cross streets):
1.
Card should
indicate:
First: need help to cross street;
Second: TAP deaf-blind person to offer help (not to
indicate it’s time to cross!);
Third: deaf-blind / hard of hearing etc.
2.
A card showing a
drawing of a person guiding can reduce language / literacy problems and draw
attention
(These cards are available from
·
Go to where there
are likely to be people (bus stops, corners, stores, etc.) and solicit assistance
to cross
·
At locations
where drivers are likely to stop or drive slowly, hold sign up to ask them to
guide you across
·
Call ahead to ask
people to watch for you and come guide you across.
Street-Crossing Skills
TEACHING TO USE HEARING:
·
Before each
lesson / travel, adjust volume of analog hearing aid(s) until sources of sound
which are directly in front of client sound like they are directly in front
·
Whenever teaching
use of traffic sounds, first have the client experience the sound correctly, as
in the examples below:
To teach localizing sound of traffic surge /
vehicles:
Go
to an intersection with a 4‑way stop sign, listen to surge of individual
vehicles in each of 4 positions as instructor explains where the vehicles are,
then have client guess from where the vehicles are surging.
To teach alignment with traffic
sounds:
·
Find a place that
has no directional clues (no sun, no slopes or cracks in the sidewalk, no
continuous source of noise, etc.)
·
Face student “straight”
and have him listen to traffic to learn what “straight” sounds like;
·
Face student
slightly “crooked” and have him listen to traffic and notice the difference
from what “straight” sounds like
(if he can’t hear the difference, face more crooked until
the difference is heard, then face less crooked and try to hear the
difference);
·
Once the student
can hear the difference in the traffic sound between straight and crooked
alignment, disorient him and then have him align himself by finding a position that
sounds like it did when he was “straight.”
If student cannot use
traffic sounds or other cues to align
memorize alignment at one
landmark on the sidewalk, noting how the feet or cane feel at the curb when
aligned
AT TRAFFIC SIGNALS
Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) are GREAT for making signal information
accessible!
n
MUTCD (Manual
for Uniform Traffic Control Devices) specifies vibrotactile
output at APS, and proposed regulations will require it.
n
Discuss risks of
turning cars with client: make sure
client understands risks, and how to reduce risks.
n
Be sure client
can identify signal vibration from APS, and doesn’t mistake vibrations from
rumbling trucks for signal.
n
Click here to see photos of
APS being used by a deaf-blind man.
Visual scanning for danger
Three sources of danger:
1. left turners;
2. right turners;
3. right‑turn‑on‑red
(RTOR)
Order and location for scanning:
Clockwise crossing ‑‑
look
first: left for RTOR (before crossing);
then back‑right for left‑turners (at center);
then forward for right‑turners.
Counter‑clockwise crossing ‑‑
look
first left for right‑turners (before crossing);
then forward‑left
for left‑turners (while starting);
then check for
RTOR just before entering last
Can’t see / hear enough to
scan the traffic?
Brainstorm ways of reducing risks for each
source of cars, including timing of crossing:
Right‑turners: hold cane visible; “flag” cars with cane
(move it side to side on the street surface), step forward to start crossing
but be ready to return if cars don’t stop; cross early in phase so vehicles are
slower;
Right-Turn-On-Red: drivers
are looking to left; if crossing from the driver’s right, be aware / ready to
hit car with cane if the vehicle surges forward when you are in its path;
Left‑turners: cross with platoon of traffic between you and
left‑turners (early in phase)
With risks
reduced as much as possible, make decision about whether risk of crossing is
acceptable and if not, consider alternatives to
crossing.
AT NO TRAFFIC CONTROL (need to detect gaps in approaching traffic):
Students must determine whether they can hear or see
traffic well enough to know if there
is a sufficient gap to cross – the Procedure to Develop the
Judgment of the Detection of Traffic can teach them to recognize situations where they can not see/hear traffic well enough.
In those situations, they: determine the risks
of crossing; reduce the risks
as much as possible; and consider alternatives
if risk is not acceptable.
Visual detection of
vehicles:
The student with functional vision should first learn to judge when there is a gap long enough to cross in only one direction at a time, then learn to glance or scan in both directions.
·
WATCHING
APPROACHING TRAFFIC to judge gaps -- teach client to judge when cars are slow
or far enough to cross ‑
o
Use Timing Method for Assessing
the Speed and Distance of Vehicles (TMASD) one direction at a time
until the student is skilled
o
SCANNING – people
with restricted visual fields will need to learn how to scan street (one
direction at a time) without missing potential approaching vehicles
o
determine where
and in what order to scan before and during crossing – last scan is toward traffic coming in nearest
lane, then attend to other direction
·
GLANCING: once the student can scan or judge gaps well
in one direction, she should learn to watch for a gap in traffic from both
directions
o
Pedestrians
shouldn’t hold the glance too long BUT SOME PEOPLE MUST HOLD IT (such as people
with macular degeneration, who need to see movement to detect vehicles) – see “Scanning for Cars”
o
If visual field
is severely restricted, they must scan slowly ‑‑ teach them how
slowly to scan (see “Scanning
for Cars”)
USE OF VIBROTACTILE DEVICE TO DETECT VEHICLES:
The TMAD
was used to determine if the device “Tactaid II,”
which changes sounds into vibrations, could be used to detect approaching
vehicles for deaf-blind people – see Testing the Effectiveness of a Vibrotactile
Device for Crossing Streets by Deaf-Blind People
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