Visionaries: Episode 14, Not Losing Sight of What Matters by Susan Gray

Aurora recently did a blind immersion exercise at the Syracuse airport, demonstrating vision loss and blindness to members of the public that are sighted.  Participants donned blindfolds or vision simulation goggles and were handed white canes and a sighted guide, and asked to navigate the main concourse of the airport and experience the tasks of travel without vision. 

Participants were guided to an American Airlines counter to receive a boarding pass, which they were unable to read.  Aurora staff used artificial intelligence to “read” the boarding pass through applications on smart phones called “AIRA” and “Be my AI”.  Participants were then asked to navigate to the corresponding bathroom, and attempt to get in and out after locating the toilet, sink, soap and paper towel dispensers.  Aurora staff demonstrated “Be my eyes” another arm of the “Be my AI” application that calls a volunteer to see through the phone’s camera to help identify the right rest room and navigate it once inside.  This award winning application is free to download from your smart phone’s app store, and costs nothing to use. AIRA is a subscription based application that also enables live navigation for its users, and can be used for free in the Syracuse airport.   

Participants then navigated an escalator up to the second floor of the airport concourse, using their white cane and sighted guide to assist them with stepping onto the escalator safely. Participants were then brought to an elevator and shown how to navigate that back downstairs. 

The overall consensus of the group adopting the blindfold or goggles was that it was stressful, frightening, and awe –inspiring that someone with actual vision loss would attempt to travel independently.

This reaction is understandable, as no one suddenly goes blind and then steps into an airport to travel alone.  Mobility is a learned skill, and takes a long time to do with confidence.  My peers that travel have been blind for years, and have put the time in learning how to navigate unfamiliar places, utilize technology and know the ins and outs of travelling alone.

Participating in an exercise like this can raise awareness of the importance of accessible public areas and adaptable technology, but behind all of this is the advocacy that goes into ensuring people with sensory loss have the ability to experience things like travel as easily as someone sighted. 

If the sighted population believes that someone blind isn’t going to travel alone, there would be no accommodations made to assist them with travelling. 

This is why the bulk of advocacy falls to the people who advocacy serves.

Self-advocacy training is a large part of the mentoring that is done by our senior peers.  Self-advocacy is always most effective when it is coming from a person that has already done what they are asking of a newly blind or young blind peer. 

Self-advocacy works to remove self-imposed barriers, allowing a peer to believe engaging in something like independent travel is possible.  At the same time, self-advocacy also expects that if a peer is denied access to something he wants or needs to do, he will either advocate an accommodation for himself or know who to contact to assist with this advocacy effort. Action to correct the denied access ensures our communities remain open and accommodating to the needs of the whole community. 

The support of the sighted community, along with their understanding of our capabilities, is essential to a cohesive effort that brings both parties to the table. Someone sighted won’t necessarily know what someone with vision loss needs as an accommodation, and someone with vision loss may not know the abilities and limitations of the business or space they need access to.

As we continue to raise awareness of both the abilities and needs of our blind peers, we remain grateful to our advocates and mentors, past, present and future.