Beach Mobility: A Fun and Productive Lesson for a Hot Day

By David McMahon, ACVREP Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist

Orientation and Mobility Specialists often must be creative in their teaching methods. Some lessons are just more pleasant than others...

While working in Santa Barbara for the Braille Institute, back in the early 1990s, there were a few days where the temperature reached over 100 degrees. At that time, there were no indoor malls available. I decided to take my adult students to the beach for their lessons. It was an on-the-spot decision that most O&M'ers (Orientation and Mobility Specialist) are famous for. It turned out to be a very productive decision.

As I wanted them to keep cool, have fun and still learn something, I decided I would have them try to shoreline the ocean as it moved in and out. I had them put on some old clothes and ratty old shoes or sandals, telling them they may get soaked during the lesson and to bring a towel with them. Then, I took them to the beach.

One of my students wanted to know why I insisted on them wearing shoes or sandals instead of going bare foot. I had two reasons. First, the safety issue of walking on broken glass or a torn soda can as some beaches do have a trash problem. The second reason was that I didn't want them feeling the wet sand and trying gauge with their toes when the wave would be coming in or if they were still on the wet sand or had move to the semi-hard packed sand.

When we arrived, we discussed the three kinds of sand a beach has. The loose sand, further away from the beach, generally required the use of two-point touch technique. The semi-hard packed sand nearer to the ocean allowed some use of the constant-contact. The last was the wet, hard-packed sand that the waves moved over and would easily allow the use of constant contact. This was back before roller tips had been invented.

We then discussed the environment of the beach and safety issues, such as going around blobs of seaweed and jellyfish instead of walking over them. We discussed how to keep oriented. The ocean breeze is pretty constant. It blows one way during the day and the other during the night.

We then discussed shore lining a constantly moving ocean. It required them to listen for the waves and/or the foam as it moved in and out, to judge the size of the next wave. It required them to pay attention to their cane, to feel when the water was overrunning the tip. It required them to move fast and to change directions quickly, sometimes as much as 90 degrees.

They were to stay as close to the water as possible. Their cane tip only was to touch the water as much as possible. They were allowed to swing wide on the ocean side of their bodies. They were to stay dry and only allow their cane to get wet, not them. Failure to do so meant getting their feet wet or even up to their armpits, depending on how large the wave was that was coming in.

My first two students were totally blind and after an initial dunking or two got the hang of it very quickly. My remaining students had useful sight and used it to watch the ocean rather than pay attention to their canes. To get them to pay attention to their canes, I blindfolded them. They also got rather wet before catching onto using their remaining senses to gather information about their environment. This is one of the few times I have totally blindfolded a student.

Each student walked as much as they cared to. For some, it was only a few hundred yards. For others, it was a couple of miles. Most said they enjoyed the lesson and the dunk into the ocean.

During the lesson, I walked at a distance about 20-40 feet further away from the ocean than my student. I kept an eye out for both them and any tremendously large wave that might be coming in. I do remember seeing one very large wave coming and running up and having the student grab me and then we went running straight up the beach. We got about 50 feet away from where the student originally was at before the wave hit us. It came all the way up to our chests. He would have been totally submerged if he had stayed where he was, with about another 10 feet of water over his head.

I thought that was pretty much all there was to the lesson; something fun, a way to keep cool, and yet still kind of learning experience. I discovered I was wrong when I went back to these students the following week for their next lessons. Their awareness of their environment as well as awareness of what their canes were telling them had increased tremendously. They had become much more confident in their travel abilities.

So that was my beach mobility lesson. I discovered by accident a way to increase my students' confidence in cane travel and have fun doing it. Before trying this lesson, keep in mind that West Coast waves are much bigger and more active than East Coast waves. I have no idea how this would work in Hawaii. Wonder if AER  would fund my trip out there to find out? :)

1. "Shorelining" is a cane technique used to follow an edge, such as a building line and, in this case, the line between the water and sand. [Go back to article.]

2. Two-point-touch - the cane tip makes an arc, touching the ground at either side of the arc. It is usually the primary technique used for outdoor travel. With the recent popularity of the roller-tip, the constant-contact technique is rapidly becoming the technique of choice. [Go back to article.] 

3. "Constant-contact" - the cane tip moves side-to-side, without breaking contact with the ground. [Go back to article.]

4. Roller-tips - These tips have a "ball" on the end of them. They are easier to move across the surface. Individuals will orthopedic problems find them particularly easy to use. [Go back to article.] 

5. It is necessary to go around the "blobs" of seaweed as people can become easily entangled in them. [Go back to article.]

6. AER - Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired. This one of the O&M'ers "mother" organizations. [Go back to article.]