Cane .. problems / improvements

I'll have to check out the larger tips, I guess my one concern is storability. I don't like to leave without a secondary cane just in case I snap or bend one beyond usability and I typically work out of a medium sized messenger bag which needs to hold other important stuff like my laptop and anything else I'll need for the day and having a baseball sized tip in there might not help with storage space. I might check out getting one for the one that I'm typically using though. The other thing is that I'll be returning home with a guide dog in like a month and a half ish and I'll only be carrying one cane on me once I've made that transition at which point getting caught on cracks with my cane won't really be an issue since I will be relinquishing tactile feedback all together.

 

I have also thought about using a hat, it's just not something I remember to grab all that often but when I do it works pretty well. I'm usually either wearing shades or my glasses so getting my eyes poked isn't a huge issue but getting my forehead scraped by a sign isn't super fun either.

 

I like the GPS capability. I was given a Trekker Breeze by the school that is training me with a guide dog in a few weeks and I had a little bit of experience on it working with an O&M who lent one of her's for a couple of weeks while were working together. I've got almost a year of experience with it under my belt. I can say I do really like it but I've figured out its weaknesses. The battery life is pretty great and the instruction readouts are very informative with info that Google Maps walking directions won't read out because it isn't necessary for people with full sight. So if I'm coming up to a four way intersection it will read out the two bisecting streets and inform me that it is a four way intersection, if it's a three a three way intersection it will read out the streets and the orientation of the T. It also reads out points of interest and a clock position bearing and distance. You can also save custom points stuff which is nice. The problems it has are just reasons why it can't become a crutch. It doesn't do so well with cloud cover and tall buildings and it's not uncommon for it to lose signal. Earlier this year in March I took a trip to Seattle, WA and the tall buildings + constant overcast/ rainy conditions were a perfect storm for the Trekker to fail and I had to resort to using my phone and directions from strangers. It's also apparently not waterproof (at least that's what my O&M said) which I feel like is a pretty big flaw since I walk in all conditions and I like for my gear to be up to all conditions. It also doesn't always read distances accurately. From what I understand, civilian GPS is limited to a certain level of accuracy but I feel like it could be a little bit more accurate. IIRC Apple makes use of the Russian GLONASS satellite system on iPhones which gives a bit of a better readout, I feel like a dedicated GPS unit should have that capability but I haven't found any indication that Humanware has incorporated that. As a result the Trekker will sometimes call out a street's distance inaccurately by up to 10ish meters but it always calls out the intersection before you reach it in my experience which is all that really matters to me to be honest. For using it to get to new addresses I really don't even bother because unfortunately They incorporated an input method that is pretty much terrible. It assigns all of the keys to three or four characters and then you have to type each out. While you can have it navigate to a specific address I typically will just pull out my phone and put in one ear bud (opposite of traffic side) and just use Google Maps. I use my Trekker more for spatial awareness so that if someone tells me to turn right at a street I know when I've hit it. Despite those flaws I really like the Trekker though, it's compact, lightweight, and it can be a valuable tool. As long as it's not used as a crutch in spite of intuition and O&M training it can be an awesome asset. Whether it's worth the $800 USD Humanware is charging is up to you, or you might get lucky like me and have an organization offer you one for free :)

/r/Blind Thread Parent