Hi y'all.

I want to share my recent experience traveling for the first time since losing my vision. I'm not completely blind, but I've got a very poor visual field and I'm legally or borderline legally blind. Visual field deficits are sometimes hard to measure, and I've healed a bit since having my original problem. Still, I find that navigation in new spaces is pretty difficult because most of what's in front of me is either missing or blurry save for a small, thumb nail sized window of central vision that I still have in my right eye.

So anyway, I ended up traveling to Boston on my own for the first time. I was really nervous about going alone and about getting lost or missing my flights. Thanks to tips some of y’all gave me before I went, I decided before the flight to call American Airlines and request assistance. I also requested help from TSA online.

The travel itself went very well. This was the first time I used an ID cane, and I'm glad I did. My wife dropped me off a bit late at our local airport which I haven't been inside before going blind. I walked around a bit and figured out where the American check in line was located. There was a line and I was worried I might not have enough time to make my flight. However, because I had my cane out an airline employee spotted me and directed me to the priority line for assistance. This was great, because I wouldn't have been able to spot the empty line on my own.

One of the nice things about getting assistance is that they escorted me through security. The people helped keep track of my belongings and make sure I was able to get through okay. I think maybe I could do this on my own, but I have a really hard time finding things if I don’t know where they are or if they’re moving around. With all of the normal stress of travel the last thing I needed was to lose track of my belongings.

All of the staff were very nice and allowed me to follow them without having to sit in a wheelchair. The one exception was when I got to Dallas Fort Worth on my return trip home. Initially the man had me follow him to my gate. Again, I’m glad I had help because DFW is a very confusing airport. We had to take the monorail to get to my connecting flight. When we got to the gate they had me take a wheelchair down to the plane door. I guess maybe this was partially a lack of time thing as the connection time was pretty short.

Boston logan isn’t too bad for an airport. I was able to take uber rides, and I actually stayed in Cambridge within walking distance of Harvard for my trip. I will say that I am not a fan of brick sidewalks, but again having a long ID cane was extremely useful for helping me poke at things if they seemed suspicious. I managed to only walk into a tree once, and stumbled down a two stair step lobby area. To be fair, I missed the stairs because I was talking to someone and not paying attention to the ground in front of me.

I was a bit apprehensive about going out in public with a cane, but I can’t imagine it now without one. So many people were willing to help me and I don’t know that they would have had I not had something to tip them off that I can’t see well. In fact, at one point I almost walked across an intersection without having the right of way. I was near the Harvard campus and noticed there were people crossing. Making a bad assumption, I started to walk into the crosswalk. I heard a woman on a bike approaching so I stopped, and she yelled out to me to warn that she had the green light. I don’t know that she would have warned me if I had not had my cane out.

I find that I’m more confident about going into stores and shops with my cane. Instead of acting like a weirdo trying to figure out where to go, now I can just walk up to where I think the line is located and stand and wait to hear if someone calls out. So far this has worked like a charm. I don’t need to try and awkwardly point and wave at where I think people are located to get attention. One of my biggest frustrations prior to getting the cane was not being able to see people’s facial expressions and hand gestures. It’s amazing how much people use nonverbal communication that I just can’t pickup anymore.

So I hope that maybe by sharing this success story I can convince some people to start using a cane if they’re on the fence. think that a lot of formerly fully sighted folks are nervous or anxious about using a cane. I think it’s a normal feeling.

Thanks y’all for all of the helpful tips and advice.