Curious to know how a blind or visually impaired person manages to cross the road? Read on to learn the steps, tips, and tricks that a blind person follows while crossing the road. We all have played blindfold games, and we understand how difficult it is to even move within the room itself to find people or things, but at the same time we discover some techniques to win the game with our other senses. Blind people generally use a white cane, a guide dog, or both to crossroads and travel around the city. Blind people or those who are visually impaired find the tactile marker with the help of a white cane and guide dog, and by analysing the surrounding environment, listening to the sound of cars, and following the crowd around them, they can cross the road. Depending on the circumstances, a blind person sometimes may require pedestrian support to cross the road.
Steps that are usually followed
Locating a Crosswalk
A visually impaired or someone with low vision who has some sites use visual cues to find the crosswalk such as black and white stripes, tactile marks and direction of the people in a busy lane. A blind person has to totally depend on the white cane or guiding dog to find the cross walk. A blind person who only uses white cane they have to depend on tactile marks that are present on the road. If a blind person is with guide dog, a guide dog helps finding the crosswalk by locating the black and white stripes.
Listening to traffic
Once the blind and visually impaired person finds the crosswalk, they pay attention and listen to the traffic carefully. They really need to depend on the subtle sound cues, such as the slowing down of cars or the moving of parallel traffic, and people taking steps to detect the right movement to cross.
Pedestrian support
Sometimes after even applying all the above tactics it feels very difficult to cross the crosswalk. Insert scenarios blind and visually impaired person seek support of pedestrian those are crossing the road.
What do you do if you see blind person crossing the road?
If you see a blind person crossing the road when you’re driving a car, you must slow down and stop, do not screen or horn because that might distract the person while crossing. Instead, wait till the blind person crosses the road. If you are at the crosswalk and you see a blind person crossing the road, the first thing you should do is help. Do not hold hands or a white cane without asking, unless it is an emergency situation. Once the blind person accepts the offer, you must hold the person’s elbow or let the person hold your elbow and look on both sides, and once the way is clear, inform the blind person that now we will walk and cross the road.