Life by Touch: how blind people find their way in the world
It's hard to imagine what it's like not to see the world, and sometimes not to hear it. However, restrictions do not always solve everything, and despite the loss of vision, people find their way in the dark. The stories of those who live their lives to the fullest, even without eyesight, and how it works are in the material of Izvestia.
The blind are not blind
Maxim Spiridonov, president of the Non-Blind Blind Charity Foundation, lost his eyesight at the age of eight. Nevertheless, he graduated from high school and studied to become a programmer at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University at the Faculty of Technical Cybernetics, when there was still no inclusive education or adaptive technologies. Today, 36-year-old Maxim Spiridonov occasionally participates as a developer or tester in projects related to developments for blind people, and also runs his blog "Everyday Life of a blind man" in order to destroy myths and stereotypes about blind people.
It is often believed that such people cannot engage in full-fledged work, except in music or massage, however, with the development of IT technologies, more and more blind people are studying professions such as programming and successfully work in large companies. According to him, society needs to understand that the blind are primarily human beings. This is especially true at the current time, when soldiers who have suffered a military injury return, so that they do not face misunderstandings.
— I was walking once, and a mother and a child were following me. The child asks the mother: "Why is a man walking with a wand?" She did not explain to him, but said that "uncle is looking for a treasure." I think this is wrong," Spiridonov explained.
A blind person has a good idea of the lives of the same people, and Maxim wanted to connect his life with the help of others — this is how the foundation "The Blind beyond the Blind" appeared. Today, about five people are under his care on a permanent basis, but there are many "interim" requests — support, transportation, purchase of food packages, medicines. Most of all, people who have lost their eyesight need a simple "talk."
— It's one thing when a sighted person tells a person who is losing his sight that this is not the end, that there is such a different life, it is full of its emotions and possibilities. We understand that blind people will understand each other better. You'll sit down with him, talk to him, and say, "Look, I'm that old, I have a family, children, work, hobbies, and I can't see," Maxim Spiridonov said.
House of the Deafblind
Having lost his eyesight or sight and hearing, it seems to a person that he will no longer be able to leave home on his own, will be dependent on people around him, will not be able to create or keep a family, will not be able to be a good parent involved in the process of growing up children, said Elena Fedoseeva, director of the charity foundation "House of the Deafblind", who is blind herself. a human being. However, proper rehabilitation can fundamentally change the situation.
Before starting to work with a deafblind person, a rehabilitologist establishes contact with him, finding out what kind of vision and hearing remains he has, and which method of communication is preferable for him. If a person does not hear, but has a residual vision, then he will use Russian sign language or dactylology to communicate, and if a person does not see, but has a residual hearing, then he will use sounding speech in communication.
At the same time, the rehabilitation specialists and teachers of the foundation are themselves people with visual or hearing disabilities, since the work of a blind person with a teacher with a visual impairment is one of the basic principles of the social rehabilitation program. To date, the House of the Deafblind is implementing a program for the social rehabilitation of people who have lost their eyesight or sight and hearing. It is compiled individually and is aimed at ensuring that a person can re-socialize, that is, return to his usual lifestyle.
In the center, teachers conduct classes where students learn to navigate the space using a tactile cane, and in the training apartments, people learn to go to the shops on their own, cook food, keep order in the house, navigate the streets of the city and use public transport. Rehabilitation specialists pay special attention to teaching blind people how to use a smartphone.
Invisible existence
Ksenia Vybornykh, a blind guide at the Museum of Darkness, Russia's first blind female triathlete and international master of sports, told Izvestia that she uses specialized navigation apps to move around the city, and she has adapted some things to her needs in everyday life, such as talking scales in the kitchen. Ordinary household appliances also do not cause difficulties, but for Ksenia, order and proper organization of space are important. She shares that, for example, in order not to confuse towels, she and her husband use towels of different textures to easily distinguish them by touch.
Larisa Malyshkina, a blind guide at the Museum of Darkness, a two-time world champion in powerlifting among the visually impaired and a master of sports, said that an app for tracking train schedules helps her on her daily trips around the city, and navigators help her navigate the city if she gets lost.
— Instead of touch—sensitive devices, we choose devices with well-felt buttons: a dishwasher, a kettle, a washing machine, or with "twirlers": a microwave and an electric stove. We try to put furniture along the walls, and we select cabinets in the kitchen with narrow doors so as not to bump our heads. I put my clothes in colors, in boxes, whose color can be recognized using artificial intelligence. I know that some blind people even use it to assemble furniture," Larisa Malyshkina shared.
Denis Aghababyan, a blind guide at the Museum of Darkness and a teacher, uses Sync AI to recognize text information and Sync Assistant Go to navigate the street and shopping malls. In everyday life, Denis prefers to use ordinary dishes and household appliances, but at the same time carefully organizes the space so that all things are in their places.
— Rather than strengthening the feelings, they began to work differently. My hearing is more detailed, and I focus on it more, but when moving outside, the complex of all senses works. You walk, you listen, and sometimes you can even find a cafe by the smell if you go to it. At the same time, feelings are not enhanced, but simply trained," Aghababyan noted.
The Compass Man
However, blind people often continue to experience inconveniences in their lives — Ksenia Vybornykh admitted to Izvestia that she would like to have traffic lights and bus stops everywhere in public transport and on the streets, and tactile tiles would be located where it is really necessary.
According to Denis Aghababyan, improvements in the urban environment are visible, but there is still something to work on. In particular, he noted the importance of improving the dividing lines at metro stations — it is worth making them more convex, and adding luminous lines to all platforms — and added that it would be convenient if the stops had the opportunity to find out which bus route is approaching.
— A blind person is not necessarily a person who needs help. If you really want to help, it's better to come up and ask. In big cities, if you really need help, a blind person will turn to others, and it will be the right thing to do. I wish there was less help, so that they wouldn't shout after me.: "Straight, straight!" or "Left, left!" I call such people "compass man," Denis Aghababyan said.
Maxim Spiridonov called the unavailability of some digital services, such as the new MAX messenger, one of the main problems. According to him, many blind people who use Android smartphones face difficulties. Computers and smartphones help to recognize objects, order groceries, pay for purchases and, most importantly, navigate in space. But when they fail, life becomes much more difficult, since most of the daily tasks are tied to them.
— You really start to feel blind — you don't order a taxi, you don't order groceries, you don't know the time, because you'll do everything on the phone, and you won't go to the store where you need to go, find a consultant or a person who will agree to help. It's a whole epic," said Spiridonov.
Elena Fedoseeva, in turn, emphasizes the acute shortage of Typhoid translations and escorts. Despite the fact that the government allocates 240 hours of escort per year, this time is clearly not enough, and sometimes there are no specialists in the regions who could provide it.
— Totally deafblind people still have difficulty communicating, because a person without sight and hearing cannot just go out into the yard, sit on a bench and chat with neighbors at the entrance. They have limited access to information, and they often don't even have access to a daily news report," said Elena Fedoseeva.
In addition, there are catastrophically few enterprises in Russia where people with vision loss can work with their hands, and for people who are used to working, it is extremely important to continue working. As for social inclusion, it is developing in large cities, but in small towns, blind and deafblind people are often perceived as "inferior," experts say.
— It is psychologically traumatic, especially for those people who have only recently experienced loss of vision or sight and hearing. In many ways, this is being solved by creating social videos with people with disabilities and publications on disability, but the problem has not yet been fully resolved," concluded Fedoseeva.
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