Accessible Travel

I recently travelled to Prince George. While there I explored the accessibility features in the downtown core. I was very excited to find the tactile street crossing close to the Civic Center.  This made me so happy. I crossed the street several times by myself because I could.  It felt so great to have such independence. 

While in Prince George I attended the CNIB Peer Support group. It was wonderful to share time and stories with people experiencing vision loss. There were people who had various degrees of vision loss.  Some had total loss like me, while others worked at maintaining a small field of vision. Some were experiencing grief while others saw the gifts in their loss.

There was a large consensus that for the most part sighted people are very friendly and kind. Many of us in the room had been on the receiving end of kindness. Just last week a kind Fort St. John resident bought me lunch at Silver Creek. Thank-you Mike!

That kind of conversation was followed by a discussion of the barriers and challenges.  Air travel had a mixed review. I personally have a five-star rating for the flight attendant staff on flights to and from Calgary. The regional flights had staff that required a bit of education.

I have learned on my journey that I have become the teacher. It is my job to teach people what I need. 

I am so grateful for the many trips and memories I have from my previous life before blindness. On the drive to Prince George, I am very adept at knowing where I am. I can tell when we pass the S curves by the railway tracks through the Pine Pass, I know then that we are close to Azoutta and yummy donuts!

While travelling we stop at the same places. I am now able to navigate restrooms independently. Small blessings. I wish that bathrooms had a universal design. The soap is typically close to the sink, however paper towel or hand dryers can become a game of hide and seek.  Finding the garbage can is. not my favourite task.  I may have been guilty of just dropping my paper after an exhaustive search for the can.  One solo attempt found me turned around and lost.  I found every door in the place except the exit door.

Can you imagine the fear that sets in when the locked bathroom door will not open? Wheelchair accessible washrooms with signs that say wave here to lock and wave there to unlock are not designed to be helpful for the visually impaired. 

I do have assistive tech tools such as Be My Eyes or Airies. These offer sighted volunteers or paid certified low vision virtual navigators to help low vision people with various situations. Soundscape is an application that I am currently experimenting with. It allows me to set a beacon on a destination. I can also map a route.  It alerts me when approaching an intersection and confirms the direction of travel once crossing the intersection.  You may ask yourself how smart is it for a blind person to be wearing headphones.  I thought the same thing until I discovered the Airpod Pro’s Second-Generation headphones.  These offer a translucent setting to allow me to hear the sound through the application voice.  Do not set these on noise cancellation setting.  I would be deaf and blind. No thank you!

Do you have any questions about what it is like to navigate my world? Send a message to alaskahighwaynews@outlook.com

Edwina Nearhood is a long time Fort St. John resident sharing her vision loss journey. Please remember, every person’s vision loss experience is as unique as they are.