Terri Born 1933 Mobility Visually Impaired Never had O&M instruction

Safe Toddles Talks Orientation and Mobility

Terri prophetically remarked that without the radio’s noise as a beacon she would “end up going off track 2” is chilling for many reasons. First and foremost, that Terri died exactly as she prophesized, she walked (without a mobility tool) off track 2 into the path of an Amtrak train.

One problem that may seem benign to sighted people, is her misplaced pride in fooling sighted people that she was not blind because she could walk a straight line to her coffee stand when the radio was on and thus did not need her long cane. If she had her long cane, everyone would have known that she was blind. Children who grow up blind or mobility visually impaired are taught this misplaced source of pride in deceiving sighted people making them question whether they have a disability.

Let’s stop this lesson –and replace it instead with a pride in the mobility tool that is obvious but effective. Terri’s story also defines the true difference between orientation and mobility. Orientation is having that beacon that tells you which way to head, mobility is using a mobility tool to make sure you have the path information needed to keep you safe from colliding with obstacles –to locate drop offs so you can stop in time. Terrie was run over by an Amtrak train, not because she was disoriented- but because she had no ability to detect Track 2 in time to stop.

And that’s the difference between orientation and mobility. It is very easy to be oriented without vision. But, walking without seeing where you are going is dangerous unless you use a mobility tool. It is impossible to see where you’re going when you’re blind and that is unsafe and that is dangerous and that leads to injury and death. And this is also a part of the legacy of Terri and her wonderful life lived without ever, ever having a mobility tool, and never being taught to use the one she occasionally carried with her. She was prouder of deceiving sighted people that she was sighted; than she was of her long cane.

In honor of Terri, I ask you to help me change the narrative. Let's make the long white cane a proud badge of honor. Mobility tools enable blind travelers to keep themselves safe as they move about. And that is what we need to do for toddlers born blind. We need to give them pride in wearing their belt canes. They can learn to stop when they feel the drop and save themselves from mortal injury.

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