Forum Discussions from
Self-Study Guide: Preparing Visually Impaired Students
to Assess and Cross Streets with No Stop Sign or Traffic Signal
Several years ago, I set up a forum to discuss issues with teaching students about crossings with no traffic control.
For a very short time, there were some great discussions, so when I took the forum down, I saved the messages and am posting them here. Enjoy!
Using a monocular with gap judgment
by KHollinger » Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:09 pm
So I have a kiddo that is beginning to rely on her monocular as travel demands increase. During my instruction of TMAD and TMASD and gap judgment, she wanted to use her monocular. She said she wanted to see how far away she could see the cars. She also wanted to 'see' what I meant by cars entering/exiting the street (from driveways/entrances). She was also curious about 'seeing things differently' when I put her on flat roads, hilled roads, and curved roads.
Just curious to know what your thoughts on on the use of or limitations of using a monocular in regard to gap judgment. Since she rarely has it, let alone use it, on a lesson I wanted to reinforce her curiosity, advocacy and generalization of the skill sets. But, as she chooses to use it more regularly, how should I proceed with helping her identify when to distinguish the benefit or potential drawbacks of using it - especially with non-controlled intersections and crossings.
Thanks
KevinKHollinger
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Re: Using a monocular with gap judgment
by dona » Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:19 am
Great question, Kevin! I hope you will share what you learn from your experience with this student.
I would suggest having her learn to use her vision for street-crossing tasks with the telescopic aid the same as she'd learn to use any vision for street-crossing tasks. For example if the task is to find out if she can see far enough in that situation to know it's clear whenever she sees nothing coming, first have her look (with the aid) in one direction and use the TMAD to find out if she can see far enough, then do it in the other direction.
If she can see far enough with the telescopic aid in both directions, then see if she can learn to do it by "glancing" with the telescopic aid so she can look quickly in both directions, as explained in the page Scanning for Cars. Using the aid would mean a restricted visual field plus of course having to manipulate the aid efficiently -- I would think you could follow the procedure for assessing / teaching scanning, what do you think?
So as she stands facing the street, you tell her to turn and look to see if anything is coming, then turn back and report to you. If she misses any vehicles, she and you figure out what she needs to do to be more efficient (scan more slowly, manipulate the aid more effectively, etc.), and practice until she consistently sees any vehicles that are there.
What do you think?
Teaching these skills to students with brain injury
[This thread started with the question from Dona: "Have you had any successes teaching these skills?]
Have you had any successes? Please share your stories so others can gain courage to try these out.
Also, it would help others if you explained how did you prepare for that successful experience? Did you try it with yourself or a colleague before you tried it with your students? Or did you study and think about it, planning what you'd do and then plunged in? How did you choose the site for the instruction?dona
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Re: Have you had any successes teaching these skills?
by cyndy_iskow » Fri Nov 06, 2009 4:22 pm
Yes! Success with patients with low or reduced vision and brain injury. Although I have broken many of the strategies down into small steps that can be "flow charted" or linked-that is, at each step the student can use "self-talk" to decide the next step or answer a yes-no question to help him decide what to do next or to make the implicit thought process explicit. I tried the techniques myself first and then tried the modified techniques on my kids --and a couple of their distractible friends. Of course, this was after I plied the kids with promises of icecream cones!
I chose functional uncontrolled street crossings on the hospital grounds because it is residential-like with many blocks and the outpatients have to walk back and forth to the main hospital from their residence building. I incorporated these skills as part of their lessons in travel/O&M and in making decisions/problem solving. They used the information not only to cross streets, but to plan routes. (Some crossings were too unpredictable at any time of day; others were fine at certain times, but uncrossable at others.)
I look forward to trying more of these techniques on a greater population. I am experimenting with adapting some of these techniques with inpatients with visual impairments who use walkers/wheelchairs and have to content with hospital robots who carry medicine to the various floors. The robots run on a predictable schedule and routes but navigate the curving hallways quickly like talking, humming cars. The main corridors function a lot like street crossings.cyndy_iskow
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Re: Have you had any successes teaching these skills?
by nine » Mon Feb 08, 2010 3:51 pm
cyndy, would you mind sharing the small steps that you broke these skills into? it sounds very practical.
thank you
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From Dona:
It would seem that for visually impaired people with cognitive disabilities to be able to safely cross streets with no traffic control, it would be best to have "simple rules" for them to follow, like "cross when quiet." But every time I've tried it or seen other instructors use simple rules, it seems to backfire (see story).
Have you had any success with teaching students with cognitive disabilities to follow simple rules? Or have you found that they need to understand the reasons behind the rules? If so, how did you teach it to them?dona
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Re: Are "simple rules" effective?
by cyndy_iskow » Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:00 pm
"Simple Rules" are okay as long as they are universally applicable (which is NOT often). When you have an exception to the rule and haven't taught your student/client to deal with that, then you're in trouble.
Sometimes people mistakenly think that folks with cognitive impairments can only learn in absolutes--that doesn't have to be so. I always tried to teach my students with cognitive disabilities tolerance for variation and how to make basic desicions/problem solve when faced with novel situations.
There is a frequently told story of a class of students with mental/cognitive disabilites and how they completely assembled- and had running- a VW car. How did they complete such a complex task full of decisions and precision?
By breaking the task into very small steps and at each step problem solving. Each person reviewed what he or she did, compared it to the model of what was best and made a decision about what to do next.
Teaching street crossings could be achieved using some of the same techniques. The steps are already basic, but breaking them down further, making them explicit, suppliying cues to aid memory or "questions to ask yourself" or even just pictures and words of alternatives to crossing when is not reccommended.
If I were teaching a route to a student with cognitive disabilities (now A LOT will depend on the specific of the route and the nature of the cognitive impairment!) but I would probably establist a regular route and travel it with the student modeling and giving lots of guided practice in the techniques.
That way I could see with the student the "routine" of the traffic etc.
Some students may never be able to travel independently, but may still benefit from the training so they can actively participate in their travel and not just be passively "pulled along." This will have cognitive and social rewards as they build awareness and thinking skills and an increased sense of self-possession. They will also be seen more positively by others and research shows that the more an individual with disabilities is actively engaged in his environment, the more likely others will interact positively with him.
I know, a bit beyond just O&M, but what we want for our kids and adults with vision loss and cognitive disabilities all the same.
How young to introduce concepts?
There are a lot of concepts needed for analyzing and crossing streets with no traffic control, and I wonder how young they can be introduced to children. Have you had experience with this? What concepts seem to be appropriate for what age?
dona
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Re: How young to introduce concepts?
by marybeth » Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:27 am
I base my teaching on what is expected of any child the same age. You can start when the toddler is in a stroller, just by saying, "Do you hear those cars? Vrooommm". As the child is becoming older, letting them tell you when they hear and see the cars, just like the stop, look an listen with little ones. Many children learn to cross with no traffic control because their best friend lives across the street-which can be true of our students. The concepts are taught at a very young age, but the child will need more advanced instruction on analyzing risks as they get older into upper elementary school and middle school, as kids, by nature are impulsive. Of course, each child is different, as well as each adult. With an adult, one can teach the risks and trust the adult to make his own decision, because he is an adult-a child is still learning how to make good choices which needs to be a strong consideration when teaching this type of crossing.
How do you teach to cross a right-turn lane with an island? by Melanie White » Sun Nov 22, 2009 11:16 pm
How do you teach to cross a right turn lane (channelized lane with no signal) onto a pork chop island? I have had several discussions at workshops. One group says to cross when the parallel traffic is moving because the right turn lane has to yield to the parallel traffic. One concern I pointed out is that the pedestrian may have to cross "between" cars. Another group says to cross when the perpendicular traffic is moving. A third group says to cross with the gap in traffic movement between signal phases.
Melanie White
Re: How do you teach to cross a right-turn lane with an island?
by dona » Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:46 am
Thank you so much, Melanie, for posting this -- I look forward to people's ideas! There is some information and suggestions on my page Separate Right-Turning Lanes, and I'm hoping others will chime in and add some more information and ideas.
dona
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Re: How do you teach to cross a right-turn lane with an island?
by janetmbarlow » Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:53 am
First, it's important to clarify what traffic you're referring to as perpendicular and parallel, and that probably depends, somewhat, on the direction of travel, where the crosswalk is marked and other "geometric features" (as traffic engineers refer to them). Usually traffic engineers talk about crosswalks being marked at the downstream or middle or upstream end of the island. Does that need further explanation or does it make sense? The downstream end of the right turn lane is the point where it flows into the other street, etc. Another set of geometric features to understand and discuss is whether there's a separate deceleration lane (a lane that separates from the main flow of traffic and becomes the RT lane) or not and whether there's an acceleration lane (a lane in the "receiving street that the right turning traffic can turn into without "conflict" with traffic). All of these design features affect the traffic movement in the RT lane and may affect when you can/should cross. Dona has some good pictures of these different features on her web site at the location she suggests. Another question is whether the main part of the intersection is signalized. You can have channelized right turn lanes (right turn lanes with islands) at intersections that are stop sign controlled or signal controlled.
First thing I teach is those "geometric" concepts so my students understand the layout of the island and the traffic movements around it and so I can talk about them easily. I usually have used several different islands and tactile maps of them to explain the traffic movement and island configuration. We go to the intersection and walk around it and look at it on the tactile map and discuss traffic movement, etc.
All I have time for at the moment. I'll look forward to more comments/discussion.
Janet Barlow
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Re: How do you teach to cross a right-turn lane with an island?
by rikilynn » Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:28 pm
Wow. Janet's post made me realize just how specific we need to be when talking about channelized turn lanes! So here goes: I am referring to channelized turn lanes with pork chops and signalized intersections here. When teaching a crossing from the side of the street to the pork chop, I generally ignore the crosswalk and cross upstream with the parallel surge, as this surge blocks the vehicles in the channelized lane from entering the parallel street (and running over me!). Of course this only works where there is no acceleration lane. I always treat these situations as two separate crossings requiring two separate surges. One from the side of the street to the pork chop, one from the pork chop across the rest of the street.rikilynn
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Re: How do you teach to cross a right-turn lane with an island?
by dona » Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:26 am
Hi Rikilyn! That is a great idea to cross upstream where the vehicles enter the separate lane when you are sure that the traffic is blocking the entrance. Do you determine whether it is blocked by listening, or by looking? If using your hearing, is it always easy to tell that it's blocked, or do you sometimes need to wait until you can be sure you hear traffic idling there?
When that traffic (on the upstream street) starts to surge forward, I would think it unblocks that right-turning lane and vehicles might enter it while the noise from the traffic surge would mask it -- would it be better to cross BEFORE they start to surge forward?dona
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Re: How do you teach to cross a right-turn lane with an island?
by janetmbarlow » Wed Nov 25, 2009 10:10 am
I suspect we need to clarify upstream and downstream. Downstream is where if flows into the street after the turn. I have often taught people to cross at the downstream end of the channelized lane because there can be a surge of traffic parallel to them, on their right side, if crossing the lane from the curb. Those cars block cars from exiting the RT lane, unless there's an acceleration lane. When doing that, it's important to realize that the driver of the car in the RT lane is looking left, so if you're approaching from the curb, that driver may not look your way before moving forward. I think it's a little easier to manage this, in terms of dealing with the vehicle position, etc. for people with low vision.
I used to not worry about the crosswalk location, but am now thinking it's important to be at the crosswalk (usually findable by finding the curb ramp, but not always), because of the legal requirement of drivers to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. Sure, they don't do it much, but it makes it more likely that the driver might be looking for a pedestrian. And it's doing what is expected of pedestrians, which I think is generally better for individuals who are blind.
I've also started teaching students to make pretty clear cane and body language indications that they're intending to cross, like putting one foot forward into the crosswalk (in some states, the law basically doesn't require cars to yield until the pedestrian is "in" the crosswalk), extending their cane, and looking toward the cars. Not too far, but enough so it's clear they're planning to go somewhere, not just standing on the corner. It's my opinion that body language has to go with the cane extension, gotta lean and look like you're going somewhere, not just move the cane around, or up and down. I've also gotten more likely to work with someone on crossing in front of a yielding vehicle, rather than trying to detect a gap in traffic. Most channelized turn lanes are a busy streets and at these kinds of high noise areas, it seems more reliable to get a yield and detect it, than trying to detect a gap in traffic. I say that only IF there's only one lane to cross. There are some two lane CTLs and crossing with one yielding car can be dangerous when you have two lanes to cross.
I work with students on getting a car to yield and then making sure that the car is yielding and staying yielded. At that point, body language works well, leaning forward looking like listening, half stepping, and making it clear that they're trying to hear that car, trying to figure it out and "about to go", keeping the driver's attention. The concern here is making sure the car is yielding for the blind person and not the traffic that they're merging into, which is where a mid-point or upstream crosswalk often works better.
Janet
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Re: How do you teach to cross a right-turn lane with an island?
by dona » Wed Nov 25, 2009 1:47 pm
As usual, great stuff to think about, Janet! Rikilynn, were you talking about crossing at the point where the traffic in the turning lane is merging into the downstream street?
I have a concern about crossing TO the island there at the downstream merging point (where the downstream street would be parallel on your right, if you are facing out into the intersection). Not only are the drivers not expecting pedestrians there, as Janet mentioned, but the drivers are usually looking to their left to see if any traffic is coming, and often will not even see any pedestrians there. Crossing FROM the island at that point isn't as much of a problem, since the drivers will be looking in that direction and can see the pedestrians there better.