I'm trying to help my totally blind partner with her street crossing techniques. She can do it well but has a tendency to veer just enough to leave the crosswalk. I swear I found an app that signified when you were currently safely on a crosswalk. I thought it was Oko, but that one only seems to help with crossing signals. Is this a poorly timed fever dream or does this feature exist somewhere? If not, it really should. Crosswalks are complicated for a lot of us.
Comments
Voicevista might help
Or there is this new app called Intersector that points you to upcoming intersections and the direction you are facing.
Blind Compass might help
This is a free app that allows you to lock your direction of motion. When you veer off the app will let you know. Hope this helps.
shouldn't be needed
Nothing beats good mobility skills. Maybe the app you want comes on all iPhones, though. "Compass".
Blind Compass works better than Compass for this purpose
I agree that good mobility skills are extremely important. However, I find that when I am in the middle of a street crossing and there is a lull in the traffic. It is easy to slightly veer off in One Direction. Blind Compass allows you to lock your direction after you line up for crossing, and will alert you even if you slightly veer off.
Blind Compass May No Longer Be Available
My apologies. I downloaded Blind Compass about 3 or 4 years ago and it still works fine on my iPhone 15 Pro running the latest IOS. However, I just searched for it in the app store and couldn't find it. Therefore, it may no longer be available. This would be a shame because I found it to be a simple compass that would enable me to keep walking in a particular direction in open spaces.
One vote for O&M skills
Apps can help but if your partner feels like they can't walk roughly straight across a street they need to improve their mobility skills for sure, it will help in various other aspects of walking by herself.
O&M for sure!
And then, your good old school cane or dog. Don't leave home without them.
Thank you for sugestions, and hold your judgement
First, thank you all for your suggestions. Some interesting ones here. SO far I think OKO will actually work best after all since it keeps a steady beeping as long as it's in sight of the crossing. The compass idea might be interesting as well.
For those of you who just say "have better O&M skills, I hear your words, and the subtext between them. As it stands now, we live in a city where it's not always obvious where crosswalks are in relation to the traffic lights. Sometimes there's a decline for wheelchairs, but it's often so wide that it's hard for her to orientate. She has no trouble with Mobility, but does with orientation as she does not have a good sense of space. I can relate. If I close my eyes, I'd probably be in the same situation. Since there's also no tactile way of knowing if you're following a crosswalk, and no audible method other than hey, these cars are going the same way I am, maybe I shouldn't get closer to them, it freaks her out every time she crosses a street. We don't have much O&M support here, and so I'm trying to do the best I can. So unless you have some constructive suggestions on how you as a fully blind person with spatial challenges orients to a crosswalk, I would politely suggest that while "get better at O&M" is something we should all strive for, in this case it's not just about that. Tactile crosswalks are doable, but not here in Canada apparently.
I feel their pain
I have a jacked up knee from an old injury, and I used to get scolded all of the time by O&M instructors about not being able to walk in a perfectly straight line. Even after telling them about the knee injury, and that I'm lucky to be able to walk at all.
Some people... 🙄
I agree with good skills but hear me out first
I agree that good skills are a must. Now I say that because I've seen it years ago someone said I would love to use be my eyes to cross a street. You can't use an app for everything. Some of it has to come down to you and learning how to accomplish the task. I think sometimes we become to reliant on apps.
I haven’t had very much good luck with Owen and M instructors
Am a totally blind person with really big spatial challenges. I had awful OM instructors honestly and I think it’s really unfair to just tell somebody to have better mobility skills. I’ve tried to. I’ve been completely written off as somebody who would never travel independently and that actually hasn’t ever been the case for me so it just depends on how good your teacher is too to be honest. I mean, I understand the whole thing of not relying to have on apps, but if somebody’s asking for an app, that’s what they’re asking for. Didn’t come on here to be judged by people. It’s not cool. don’t do it. We all are different things that we need more assistance with people come on here to get help not to be criticized.
Remy
The poste was asking for help with an app instead people were judging. I am been blind since I was 19 and still can not go straight. sometimes crossing streets is hard and you can not go straight. I am sure even those who have perfect skills have issues sometimes.
Exactly couldn’t agree more
Exactly. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been totally blind since birth and nobody should be judging anybody on here.
The problem is
Someone asked for an apple, and got a banana instead. When the topic is applications, stick to applications. Either one exist, or it doesn't.
Tactile Crosswalks
Don't worry it's not just where you are. The new trend to try to blend curbs and streets and sidewalks is truly unhelpful at times. I've heard Hong Kong knows how to do this, but we can't all live there.
Possibly of interest, Humanware's StellarTrek claims to have an app on it to monitor the crosswalk lines. I've not tried it. If it can run on the limited StellarTrek hardware, an app with vision recognition should be possible even if it doesn't exist yet. And I'd suggest as a follow-on, stay tuned for when Glide is released. SO far it sounds promising exactly for this type of thing. It might feel like throwing money at a problem, but if it works and keeps a person safe its worth every penny.
A little veering is normal.
What's important is if she corrects herself. Sighted people get all hot and bothered if a blind person takes one step and veers. My O&M instructor rarely corrected me because I usually corrected myself. If you want an app Oko has worked the best for me, but as the others said, good O&M is key.
THe big problem is
Such an app that accurately guides you across roads doesn't actually exist. I don't mean to be judgemental, it's just that you can't rely on apps to be your guide to that extent, like, If somebody freaks out to cross a street, an app isn't the solution.
Re: a little veering is normal
I agree with you. Also not something I was taught by any O&M instructor but I adapted at times for my own needs if there was a particularly worrisome intersection I intentionally veer the other way slightly. I'd rather correct coming up the side of the curb again than being in the middle of the intersection. OH I know let the O&M skills hearties howl. Do what you have to do to not get killed.