Hello everyone! I believe we have been putting into practice all that we have been learning the past couple of months on aiding people with visual impairment? Good job! We learnt last month the processes involved in Assisting a visually impaired person with emphasis on the need to describe the environment to them to make it easy to navigate around.

Today we would be concentrating on How to walk with the visually impaired. After going through the three ‘A’s (Approach, Ask and Assist), this is what you need to do to walk with him/her.

First of all, ask the person which side you should stand on to enable them hold on to your arm. S/he would take your arm; thumb out above your elbow. S/he would grab your left elbow with the right hand and vice versa depending on which side makes the visually impaired comfortable. Let the visually impaired take your arm by telling him/her to do so.

Do not go pulling and pushing the person! Do not grab or hold their hands if you want to walk with them!!!

You the person guiding should hold your arm naturally in a straight, relaxed position at your side. Position yourself so the shoulder of your guiding arm is aligned directly in front of the shoulder of their grip arm. Their arm will be relaxed, with their elbow bent at about 90 degrees and held close to their body. Try not to stand too close together or too far apart. Too close feels uncomfortable and may make you trip over each other, and too far apart takes up too much space.

See picture for demonstration

Second activity to note is that, always walk half step ahead of the person you are guiding to avoid bumps.  The person you are guiding should be at your side about half a step behind you. See picture below for demonstration of how the blind boy walks the woman.

Walk at a normal pace, so the visually impaired person can follow along comfortably. In spaces where it becomes necessary to walk side-by-side e.g. in narrow pathways, doorways and in crowds – you will need to walk almost directly in front of the person you are guiding.

When approaching a narrow space, cross your guiding arm behind you, so that your arm is now positioned diagonally behind your back. This will indicate to the other person that you are entering a narrower space.

 The person you are guiding will then fully extend their gripping arm and step directly behind you. (You may need to give the individual under your guidance a verbal cue if they don’t move behind you on their own.) You are now walking in mono file, one arm’s length between you, to prevent the other person from stepping on your heels.

When there is enough space to resume the normal guiding stance, return your arm to its original position. The person you are guiding will understand that they are to return to the standard position, half a pace behind you.

Last but definitely not the least, always remember to describe the environment to the person you are assisting. E.g. open space ahead or gutter.

Well folks this is all for today’s tit bit on aiding people with visual impairment. 

Join us again next month on the GESI Corner.