Going out when it is dark

Walking around outside in dull or dark conditions can be very challenging however; there are some precautions that I can take to help me. When leaving a brightly lit place at night, it is advisable for me to give my eyes time to adjust to the new conditions. When I am out with my guide dog at night, I wear my fluorescent jacket that was provided by ‘Guide Dogs’, as it is essential that road users and pedestrians can see me. I have got some fluorescent arm bands and belts similar to those that are worn by cyclists but I rarely use them preferring to use my jacket instead.

Further education

 I enrolled as a day release student at the local Technical College where I found it very tough going.  During the lectures, I found that I could not hear or understand what the lecturers were saying and often did not know what I had to do. I realised that like it or not deafness was a disability and one that is not visible and I felt cut off and isolated. Thankfully, a few of the students began to talk to me but I was certainly the odd one out as  I found that I could not depend wholly on lip-reading and my hearing aid and that it was so easy to lose the thread of what the other students were talking about. There was one lecturer who did go out of his way to help me by giving me notes at the end of the lectures explaining what he would be talking about in the next lesson and a list of books that I should get from the library; his help was very much appreciated.  I had to spend many hours studying and making notes in order to keep up with the other students but did complete the course successfully.

I was very happy living in the Deaf World but on entering the Hearing World, it was not long before I realised that I was not as well prepared as I would have liked to have been but I really believe that it was up to me to make a success of the final transition into the hearing World though the ideal situation was to have deaf and hearing friends. I can say in all honesty that the years at the two deaf schools that I attended was a time that I felt that I really belonged to a “group” as it was and for a long time afterwards very difficult for me to really fit in with the Hearing World.  There were many times when I felt left out of group conversations and it is easy to feel lonely when in that position; I prefer one to one conversations.  I found communication and mixing in the hearing world the most difficult obstacles that I had to face. I realised that using a hearing aid alone was not enough to allow me to understand everything a hearing person was saying but by using a hearing aid and lip-reading at the same time on a one to one basis, I was able to understand most of what was being said providing that that they did not put their hand over their mouth making it impossible to lip-read.

Having night vision problems made walking in poorly lit areas extremely difficult. To try and solve this, I would look for a guiding line such as a wall, a kerb, some street lights or even follow someone and hope that we did not collide. They were not good ideas really because it was certain that I would bump into something or someone or even trip over a kerb but it was the only thing that I could do at the time when out on my own at night. The bus station was some distance away from the Technical College and if I did not catch the 9.00pm bus I would miss the connection at Bolsover leaving me to wait another hour for the next bus. To solve this, I would walk out of the lecture that bit earlier to ensure that I caught the 9.00pm bus to Bolsover and by doing this I was able to miss the crowd of students rushing out of the buildings instead of having to wait until it was clear and safe for me to walk to the bus station.