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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2015 - 10 - 13 - ID#3olqg9
3
Having a healthy roommate relationship with my visually impaired roommate.(Advice appreciated) (self.Blind)
submitted 7y ago by TurtleSayuri
Hello,

When the semester started six weeks ago, I met my current roommates - 4 other girls. We're all full time college students(four of us have jobs.) Most of us didn't know each other prior to living together in this suite through on-campus housing. We're together for this semester and next semester. One of my roommates is visually impaired and shy.

At first, it started out as I being helpfully and accommodating her. At the start of semesters, her guardians usually show her around school to her classes. However, that wasn't possible this semester, so I volunteered to help. I didn't mind it too much. I'd help her buy things at the residence hall store like sodas and snacks. I'd walk her to class and help her get food too. She'd have her cane out sometimes, but rarely. She'd mostly hold it unassembled in her hand.

Now it seems like some kind of routine. I feel like a horrible person. But, I have my own life. I want a healthy relationship with her as I don't want to dread every time I guide her and I don't like complaining to my boyfriend/friends whenever she makes an off-hand comment at me. I want to be patient and kind and everything. But, at the same time, I can't have everything.

Sorry if I am coming off as a fire breathing dragon. But, is there any advice as to having a healthy relationship with my visually impaired roommate whom I thinks depend on me a little too much?
Lion_the_Bunny 5 points
Offer to take her to disability services. They'll assign someone to her if she needs the assistance on a day-to-day basis. They'll also hopefully impress upon her the idea that she needs to attempt more independence. You're not a dragon!
jage9 2 points
This. If she can't even find her way around the university and get to class, who would want to hire her? I know I wouldn't.
TurtleSayuri [OP] 1 points
So at my university, we don't have that much for disability services. I know we have things for in-classroom and academic things. However, for assistance for day-to-day things, we don't have much. There is a cart service, where they will pick you up at your dorm and bring you to each of your classes(to and from) in a golf cart of sorts.

However, there is a fine print, where those who sign up for it, must use it all the time. They can't op out one day and say hey I'm gonna walk. She doesn't want to do that because of the fine print and she likes the exercise despite pain.

Um we have these yellow raised markers on the walking pathways, supposedly they're meant for visually impaired. I brought it up once in a conversation, asking her about them. She said that she doesn't use them as they confuse her, I guess she doesn't know the campus well enough. This is her fourth semester at this university...
fastfinge 3 points
I've been in that situation myself, where I was unable to get any training to find my way around the parts of campus I'd never been to before, and suddenly had classes there. However, something's not right about this. In the first place, she should have her cane out at all times. It sounds to me like she's just not paying any attention to where she's going at all, and not even having her cane out is the first sign of that. In the second place, it's mid October now. When I had similar issues, I got someone to guide me for the first two weeks or so, and describe where we were going. Then I had them walk with me, but not guide me (I wasn't holding there arm or anything) for a week or so after that, until I was confident I knew how to get from point A to B reliably on my own. I probably didn't even need help for that long, but it was a complicated campus, and I'm an infamously terrible traveler.

There actually was a case where I didn't learn the way to one particular class, because one of my classmates was in my dorm, and we were friends anyway, and it was a morning class, so we just naturally met outside the dorm and traveled there together. Then he dropped the class half way through. I was left scrambling in November to learn something I should have made an effort to learn in the first week of September. It sucked! Needless to say, that wasn't a mistake I made again. Also, it made the person who had been guiding me feel needlessly bad, over something that was definitely my poor planning and lack of forethought.

As to how to keep your relationship with her healthy, I don't know. Perhaps make a point of describing where you're going, pointing out the turns you're making and everything your passing and so on, while you're guiding her. Because she really does need to know that stuff, if she's ever going to go anywhere on her own. Ask her how she's doing at learning her way around the rest of the campus. Offer to walk along with her if she wants to try and get somewhere on her own, so you can help out if/when she gets lost. Generally just try and shift the focus of your relationship from doing things for her to helping her do things for herself. If she's interested in independence at all, that should go quite smoothly, and she should start needing less of your time. If she's not interested in Independence, then you'll probably get excuses and guilt-trips. In that case, I'm not sure that she's in a place where you can have a healthy relationship with her, because she may want people to do things for her more than she wants friends. Also, sadly, I don't think she'll last long in university.

Most importantly though, start bringing up this stuff in conversation with her now. Don't let it keep bothering you for weeks and weeks, until one day you just explode out of the blue in frustration with having to do things for her all the time. That isn't fair to her, and it isn't fair to you. When I ask someone for help, if I'm inconveniencing them even a little, I'd rather they bring it up right away. I might be able to make other arrangements, or ask them less often, or ask someone else, or find a way to take less time, etc. If people pretend everything is totally OK, and they're just fine with what I'm asking, even though they're really not, I'm probably going to ask again. And then when they're suddenly irritated the second or third time I ask, it can be quite a surprise.
Nighthawk321 3 points
I'm proabably not the best person to give advice on a matter like this. Though I will say that she is being overly dependent on you and shouldn't even go to college if she is going to depend on others. For example, no matter what, she needs to have her cane out at all times.
TurtleSayuri [OP] 1 points
Yeah.. Today, I was walking to class and carrying her soda/snacks and she had her cane folded up in her free hand while her other hand was on my elbow. I think she brings it for when a classmate brings her to her other classroom.
Nighthawk321 2 points
Uh, yeah. There's no reason she couldn't carry "her own" goods that she purchased. The thing is, your on a fine line between sounding like a jerk by telling her she needs to be more independent, and letting her unknowingly negatively effecting your life and priorities.
Nandflash 2 points
I question whether she's received orientation and mobility training. To me, it sounds like she may be lacking the skills that are necessary for getting around mostly in-dependent; and an O&M class would teach her these skills.

Most people who attend college would have already received O&M instruction, but I wonder if she missed out for some reason. I'm not sure where you're located, but I'm sure there are some organizations that would be able to get her the help she needs; she just has to reach out to them.

Also, you're not a "fire breathing dragon". The fact that you've helped her so much already says a lot about you. I hope she's able to get the help she needs, which sounds like orientation and mobility instruction from a competent organization and instructor.
litendator 1 points
You need to learn how to set boundaries. Dear god.
Slatters-AU 1 points
How recent is her vision loss? You describe a young person who is probably embarrassed and struggling to adapt and cope with their disability.

How long is her White Cane by the way? There are two types of Canes, one is a short one sometimes called and 'ID Cane' and it is something you hold in front of you and it simple shows Cars/other people you are Blind. You sometimes use it to check depth at curbs or tap things to figure out what they are, but it is not tapped from side to side like a Long Cane.

A Lone Cane is the one most people think of, you tap it left to right in a cone in front of you to not walk into things, check depths, find curbs, cafe stands and bash people in the shins because you can.

And at the end of the day, it is easy to 'milk' your disability. If your feeling a bit sorry for yourself, you can get into a bit of a rut and just let people help you all the time. It kind of compounds the issue and again, it is an issue younger people struggle with. The more they get helped the angrier at the life they become, the more reliant and helpless they can feel.

The other reason your room mate might be letting you help so much is she just likes your company/wants a friend/feels lonely. Is this her first time living away from home?

It sounds like she could really use some O&M Training from whatever services are available to her.
TurtleSayuri [OP] 1 points
She's 25 or 24 and lost her sight when she was younger. Like before elementary school I think.

I think her White Cane is the long traditional one. This probably isn't that helpfully but it's foldable with a string in it.

I know that she thinks of me as a friend and likes my company. She said that she thought we were a good team when I was helping her. She's been away from home before through visual impaired programs and at this school in particular before.

I just don't know how to talk with her as she's really stressed from school. She's behind in her classes.
Slatters-AU 1 points
I have a long cane and an ID cane. Both of them split into three and collapse down with an elasticated string to thread and keep it compact. A typical lone cane will have a very definite tip/ball on the end, and when she does use it, she would tap it from side to side.

If you hold a long cane to your body, with the handle at your chest, it will be resting on the ground. A short ID cane would come to above your knees and be quite lightweight, more designed to be help in front of you at an angle with one hand.

Does your Campus have a Disability Services department you or her can talk to? What kind of assistance does she get in her classes? Does she use any assistive technology like magnification/CCTV/screen reader on her computer/tablet?

When you go out and help her, and she comments you are a good team, what kind of assistance are you giving her exactly? Is she struggling in her classes because of her disability or not being able to access her materials for class properly? Or is it nothing to do with her vision and simple that she isn't putting in the study, leaving things to the last minute?

TurtleSayuri [OP] 1 points
Her's has a small ball on this end and does come to her chest when rested on the ground.

Our school does have a disability services department, they know of her as they make her textbooks into PDF so that she can read them with her BrailleNote. She just brings her BrailleNote to class. She has that and her iPhone to help with some things. I think she's struggling in classes due to a multitude of reasons. She claims that her ADHD medication isn't nearly as effective as before but has been forgetful/shy about calling up her doctor. She doesn't do well with phone operating menus and is shy about it because she is going to see the doctor in November. However, I've urged her to do it as I think it is important. There have been some problems with accessing material for her classes whether it was a textbook chapter or an online discussion board.

If I remember correctly, she made the comment when I brought her along with me to get food on campus near our dorm room/building(right next door of our building.)
Slatters-AU 1 points
So she uses a BrailleNote - her textbooks are converted to PDF's that then become Braille for her?

Does she have any vision? From your first description where she doesn't use her Cane very much it sounded like she had some she was using, but if she is using a lot of Braille then I am now second guessing how much she might have?

Does magnification help her? If she is using an Apple device there is an amazing zoom feature on it. It is in the options and essentially once it is turned on you tape the screen with three fingers and then drag up and down and it will set a 'zoom level'. Then three finger tap and it will zoom out. Simple three finger tap over the area you want to 'zoom' to and then swipe up/down/left/right to 'move around'. Three finger tap again and it zooms back out.

As a low sighted person who relies on magnification mostly it means any Application can be navigated as this is not application spefifc but built into iOS.

If the phone talks to her, I don't have as much experience with this.

Can the Disability people arrange someone to show her where her classes are before each semester starts?

The more you describe her, it sounds like she is VERY shy. It does sound like she could do with a bit more assistance technology though? Does your Country/State/Region have an Institue for the Blind/Low Vision Organization Charity? A lot of these will provide services like Orientation and Mobility Training, show her Technology for managing her studies etc.

Before I had a Guide Dog, I had a Long Cane instructor. I was 'on the books' with my organization that helps me. If I would have a new route to learn because something in my everyday was changing I would call them up and ask for an appointment to come out and help me figure out the best way to my campus/employer etc. Together we would figure out the best combination of trains/buses/walking routes and they would show me hazards that I might not see etc.

We would then figure out things inside as well, like if I had to use a lift everyday they would show me the buttons I would need etc and we would do a few 'dry runs' so I could feel confident I could get to the place by myself.

It sounds like she is having friends/guardians/parents do this for her instead and she is too shy, not independent enough to reach out for help? A lot of places will let you refer her to them as a friend. Often they understand people are too shy or embarrassed to ask for help, and can be great about reaching to the client and making them see that they could benefit from the services they provide.

Would she go get food at the place by herself or had she only been there with you? Did you read her the menu? Go get the food for her? How did it work? More and more it sounds like she relies on you far more than I would think is healthy, but if you could describe it w could offer suggestions for how you can 'show her' how to do those things for herself and maybe reach out to a charity/institute to refer her as a client?
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