#orientation and mobility
Wow, back in June I decided to take a few months break from blogging to recharge and focus on my mental health. About a month ago I began writing this specific post, slowly and in stages because of how demanding, detailed, and long it is.
I’m not sure when I planned to come back. I have about 200 posts with tags and image description in my drafts folder, waiting to be queued, but I wanted to finish this guide before I fully came back.
Come back with a bang, right?
But this blog, and specifically, my Writing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character guide, has gotten so much traffic and support that I felt incredibly motivated to come back now.
So I finished the guide, and now here it is. It’s been a year+ in the making. Since the very beginning of this writing advice series about writing blind characters, I’ve promised to write a guide specifically about canes, guide dogs, O&M, and other accessibility measures the blind community relies on.
In fact, if you look at my master post for this guide (now pinned at the first post on my blog) you’ll find that it was reserved as Part Four, even as other guides and additions were added over the last year.
In this post I’ll be explaining
- What Orientation and Mobility (O&M) is
- How one learns O&M
- About canes, from different types of canes and their parts, as well as how to use a cane.
- I will be explaining the sensory experiences of using a cane and how to describe it in narrative.
- I will include small mannerisms long-time cane uses might develop.
- At the very end will be a section on guide dogs, but this will be limited to research because I have no personal experience with guide dogs, being a cane user.
Disclaimer: I am an actual visually impaired person who has been using a cane for nearly three years and has been experiencing vision loss symptoms for a few years longer than that. This guide is based on both my experiences and my research. My experiences are not universal however because every blind person has a unique experience with their blindness
