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.
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.
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.