Visually Impaired Obstacle Course

As a visually impaired person, John finds that just going for a walk outside is an obstacle course. Fortunately he has his long cane, which enables him to find most of the obstacles but not all of them.

In areas that John knows, some of the permanent obstacles, such as street furniture, can be useful as an orienteering guide that gives him an idea of where he is. For example, a litter bin in front of a street lamp, next to some railings may tell him that he is at a particular point on a road that he knows. In an area that John doesn’t know, street furniture can cause as many issues as temporary obstacles.

Temporary obstacles, such as temporary road signs, shop signs placed on the pavement, cars parked on the pavement, wheelie bins left out etc, can cause problems and some confusion. This is mostly because they are unexpected and when the long cane hits them, John then has to figure out which direction to go in to avoid hitting them with his body. If a car has been parked fully on the pavement, John may even have to walk into the road to avoid hitting it. As a visually impaired person, who also has a hearing impairment, John may not hear if it is safe to step into the road to avoid the parked car.

There are also “hidden” obstacles that the long cane cannot find. This means that John doesn’t know that they are there until he walks into them, usually with his head or face. In the video below, there is an example of a hidden obstacle at the end - this is an estate agent’s sign that has been placed quite low on the wall. Over hanging trees and bushes also cause problems, and John has had his face scratched or been poked in the eye by a few of these.

Hopefully, the video below will help to raise awareness of some of the struggles visually impaired people have just walking outside.

Cadbury World

We visited Cadbury World over the school Summer holidays.

Accessibility wise it is a fabulous place to visit. There is full wheelchair access; there is audio description available for visually impaired visitors and the videos that are shown are signed, for hearing impaired visitors.

However, visiting during school holidays isn’t the best idea if anyone has sensory processing disorder.  Cadbury World gets very loud and very busy during these times. George has sensory processing disorder and struggles to cope with loud noises. Unfortunately he doesn’t like anything over his ears, so noise cancelling headphones are not an option. He has a wheelchair because of the pain and tiredness caused by his EDS, and we have found that when George is in his wheelchair he can cope with a lot more than he is able to without it. For George his wheelchair is a safe zone as most people ignore him when he is in it. I’m sure that a lot of people in wheelchairs can identify with being ignored, but this is a positive thing for George.

We enjoyed our day, ate too much chocolate and spent far too much money in the shop! It is a trip that we would make again but maybe we would leave the shopping list at home this time!

New DAFO Casting From Orthotics

George has been a user of the orthotics service since he was 12 months old.  At that time, he was described as “floppy” - this was before he was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). He started off being prescribed with Piedro boots. These were fantastic at the time as George was unable to bear any weight on his feet and ankles, until he had the support that the boots gave him. He was eventually able to take his first steps when he was 2 years old, with the support of his Piedros.

After his Piedro boots, George was prescribed with Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO), otherwise known as splints, for both legs. These were made by putting a plaster cast on both legs, including ankles and feet, and ensuring his feet were in the correct position as the plaster dried. Once the plaster dried, it was cut away from his legs and the plaster used as a mould to create an AFO for each leg. The advantage of AFOs was that it meant that George could wear different shoes, other than just having a pair of Piedro boots. The disadvantage was that the various straps on the AFOs used to damage the shoes he was wearing, so he would get through shoes really quickly. The other disadvantage was that they used to restrict what George could wear on his legs, as some of his trousers and jeans weren’t wide enough to accommodate the AFOs around his legs. George also found them more uncomfortable than Piedro boots, as they went to just below his knee.

As a result of George’s thoughts about his AFOs, he was prescribed with Dynamic Ankle Foot Orthosis (DAFO) at his last casting. These are very similar to AFOs but are shorter, which eliminates some of the disadvantages of AFOs. They also feel less restrictive to George too.

This morning George went to be cast for new DAFOs, as he has outgrown his old ones. His feet and ankles are just as floppy now as they were when he was 12 months old and it takes a lot of effort on the part of the orthotist who casts him, to make sure that his feet and ankles are in the correct position, while the plaster dries. He always smiles while he’s being cast and takes great pleasure in choosing a transfer to go on his DAFOs when they are made. Today he has chosen building blocks as his transfer for his DAFOs, as they remind him of one of his favourite games - ROBLOX.

The new DAFOs will be ready for him in October and hopefully will last awhile before he needs to be cast again 🙂

New Hearing Aids To Help With Tinnitus.

Today, John collected some new hearing aids. They don’t look any different than any other behind the ear hearing aids, but they are different. These have the capability to be programmed as normal hearing aids with a normal setting, a group setting and T-position, for a loop system. The difference with these is that these can also be programmed with a masking sound, to help people who suffer with tinnitus. Tests have shown that with some people, having a masking sound such as white, pink or red noise can help to “drown out” the noise that people who suffer from tinnitus can hear.

Tinnitus has been making John’s life unbearable on a lot of occasions, so he’s one of the first to try these new hearing aids from the NHS. His audiologist was quite excited because this was the first time she’s programmed these new hearing aids. John chose to have pink noise added to his, as it reminded him of the sound of the ocean.

We’re going back to see her again in a few months to see how (or if) these new hearing aids help John.

We shall keep you posted about how John goes on with them.

Pony Riding with Aiming High

Aiming High for Disabled Children offers short break activities for disabled children and young people. It gives them the opportunity to spend time with their peers and opportunities to try out new things, both with and without their families. Each local authority area has its own Aiming High Scheme.

One of George’s favourite activities with Aiming High is pony riding. In our local authority area this is an activity that is offered for one afternoon per month and is always George’s first choice of activities when we look in the Aiming High brochure.

In addition to pony riding he’s also been trampolining, although he no longer does that as it causes him joint pain. He’s also been on different day trips and out for social evenings and meals, with his peers.

We think Aiming High is a fantastic scheme because it gives George the opportunity to do activities, with adult support, that other young people of his age could do on their own.

The video below shows George enjoying one of the pony riding activities.

Science and Media Museum

We had a trip to Bradford, to go to the Science and Media Museum. George had been here on a school trip and had really enjoyed it, so we decided to pay a visit as a family.

We looked at lots of different sets and really enjoyed the ones from our childhood days. There are also props from different shows too. These Play School toys in the picture brought back some childhood memories for Sue 🙂

There’s plenty to see and do, and it’s very accessible for wheelchairs as there is a lift to all floors. However, for John, being visually impaired, there wasn’t anything for him to do. The hands-on activities did require vision - for example the old video games. If everything hadn’t been described by Sue, then John wouldn’t have got much out of the day at all.

All in all though, we did enjoy the day and it brought back some childhood memories.

The video of our day is here.