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Orientation Aids

Dan_Manville
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I am just reading HH properly and got sidetracked in the thought that I can;t envisage what an orientation aid might be.

Has anyone got any examples? It can;t be a simple GPS on my reading as that’s not “specialist” to disabled people.

Elliot Kent
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The wording always made me think of those long white canes for blind folks.

P3.2.28 of the assessment guide: ‘Mobility Activity 1 refers specifically to “orientation aids”, which are defined as specialist aids designed to assist disabled people in following a route, for example long canes’

John Birks
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Find your way around using the Trekker Breeze, which uses GPS navigation and spoken route finding to talk you through every step on your journey, so all you need to do is enter the postcode you’re heading to and go!

iGlasses - worn like a pair of spectacles, they provide vibration feedback when you approach a potential hazard at head or chest height.

http://shop.rnib.org.uk/mobility/getting-outdoors.html

Dan_Manville
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Elliot Kent - 14 January 2016 11:42 AM

The wording always made me think of those long white canes for blind folks.

P3.2.28 of the assessment guide: ‘Mobility Activity 1 refers specifically to “orientation aids”, which are defined as specialist aids designed to assist disabled people in following a route, for example long canes’

For fear of descending into pedantry. How does a cane help you know where you are? They’re only useful where you know the route already.

John Birks
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Dan Manville - 14 January 2016 12:58 PM
Elliot Kent - 14 January 2016 11:42 AM

The wording always made me think of those long white canes for blind folks.

P3.2.28 of the assessment guide: ‘Mobility Activity 1 refers specifically to “orientation aids”, which are defined as specialist aids designed to assist disabled people in following a route, for example long canes’

For fear of descending into pedantry. How does a cane help you know where you are? They’re only useful where you know the route already.

I have no fear.

I should imagine the stick is limited to identifying immediate obstacles/depressions.

Finding one’s way around would depend on the person involved and the method of receiving other guidance.

In theory one could ask a stranger for directions.

In reality it’s not some B&W film from 1950 with a copper on every corner with his trusty whistle etc.

In theory a confident person may well feel able to ask for directions. Or receive them from a machine.

Have you asked the claimant?

 

Dan_Manville
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John Birks - 14 January 2016 02:04 PM

Have you asked the claimant?

 

No need; this is purely hypothetical. I was musing on HH while listening to a nice bit of Vivaldi.

BC Welfare Rights
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There’s 3 examples here Dan, I can’t think of anyone who has used one though http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/v01-clearview/cresource/q3/p07/v01_07_device_orientorient/

Mike Hughes
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Ah, my favourite area :)

A long cane is indeed an orientation aid. This link may help. http://www.wayfinding.net/caneuses.htm

As far as specialist aids are concerned this is going to be a contentious area. As with life in general, so-called “specialist” functions are being absorbed into smartphone technology and that creates a number of significant difficulties. There is of course a frequently missed aspect of this which is that there is a tendency to assume it’s about visual impairment when it’s actually about disability, so aids for someone with a learning disability or a mental health issue (for example) also come into play even though seldom mentioned. I’ll stick with VI as it’s what I know. Anyway, to give a taste of the problems this creates…

Specialist aids exist historically because a specific need was identified for a specific group e.g. the severely sight impaired for example and so individual products were created. This was in a world where mobile phones did not exist. The market remains relatively small and so the cost is high. To some extent that reinforces the idea of something being specialist when in fact, if you take a step back, the majority (but sometimes not all)  of the functionality is fairly basic but presented in an accessible manner for the severely sight impaired person. Large tactile buttons; good contrast etc.  So, hardly a surprise when that functionality starts to be replicated at generally much lower cost within smartphones.

Now, you would think this would mark the end of such specialist devices but that isn’t necessarily so. Many charities have an interest in such devices as a means of income generation even when the functionality can be replicated in a smartphone app. Many users don’t use a smartphone and simply prefer a specialist device if it does its job well. Many users don’t know the options available to them, although people often arrogantly assume that they ought to, when in fact it may be difficult for many reasons. Many users prefer the stand alone device because a smart phone can make you a target for crime. That’s a significant and oft missed consideration for an already vulnerable group. Relative battery life can also be an issue as can the reception in the areas you are going to use it; the extent to which it’s hands off or can be used offline; the cost of updates and so on.

So, a huge element of personal choice is in play for a wide number of reasons. It’s not hard from the above to envisage a scenario where someone using something like a Breeze (which fascinatingly has lost functionality since its earliest iterations!) is deemed to be using a specialist orientation aid for PIP purposes. A person with exactly the same issues using exactly the same functionality within an app or several apps on a smart phone; possibly not even specialist apps designed for a severely sight impaired person, finds themselves deemed to not be using a specialist orientation aid purely because they have made choices personal to them. The need is no different. The functionality is no different but, because one uses a smart phone, there is the potential for a different and clearly unjust outcome. I have to say that the use of the words “specialist” and “device” could not be less helpful in this context.

Of course this then gets even more nuanced when you consider the implicit assumption that only the severely sight impaired need specialist functionality when in fact the functionality now available opens up a whole new world to those who are sight impaired but not severely sight impaired. Again, another likely huge area for contention.

[ Edited: 15 Jan 2016 at 11:17 am by Mike Hughes ]
Daphne
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[2017] UKUT 480 (AAC) has now decided that a sat nav is not an orientation aid -

20. In order to qualify as an ‘orientation aid’ as defined an item must be an aid which is specialised in the sense that it has been designed for the specific purpose of assisting disabled people to follow a route safely. Where the item is not designed for that purpose the fact that it is used for that purpose by a disabled person does not convert it into an orientation aid. For this reason the FtT’s decision is wrong in law.

unless the following applies (at para 24) -

in order to be an orientation aid, a SatNav must either have been specially designed or modified to assist the disabled in following a route safely.

[ Edited: 3 Jan 2018 at 11:39 am by Daphne ]
Mike Hughes
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All of which still leaves us with the inconsistency that a person who uses a navigator purchased from RNIB, for example, would qualify. A person who uses Google Maps on an iPhone (with the same and often more useful functionality) would not, unless various features if the latter could be demonstrably shown to have been designed with impairment in mind. Plenty to still go at I suspect.

SamW
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Is there an argument re. reliably/to an acceptable standard? People without disabilities may well use Sat-Navs/phone apps but they do so out of convenience and not out of necessity. If the aid is not available they are able to navigate by alternative means, something that was not possible for the lady in the above case.

How many scenarios (as pointed out by Mike above - batteries running flat/no mobile signal/dropping the aid and breaking it/leaving it on a bus etc etc) would you need to come up with to make an argument that constant use of such an aid is something that cannot necessarily be relied on?

If that argument doesn’t work could you argue that having to constantly rely on a sat-nav/phone app is not an ‘acceptable standard’ of navigation. As an example I did my Xmas shopping a week (!) ago - when you are doing something like that you are frequently re-planning your journey as you come up with different present ideas/shops where these might be available - the navigation itself (what order do you go to the shops/routes to take) comes fairly naturally. I can’t imagine how much more difficult doing that would be if every time you needed to re-plan you had to reprogram your sat-nav/app.

stevenmcavoy
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we have an app designed for people with learning disabilities that includes an element for journeys.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.enablescotland.enableme&hl=en

Mr Finch
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This again leads to problems with the structure of mobility activity 1.

Presumably someone who uses a specially built app or device will face some form of enquiry into whether they need to use it. This might lead to a suggestion that a non-specialist app or device would be sufficient instead - as Mike suggests a smartphone or tablet is going to be capable of giving more assistance in many ways than a single-use specialist device. Therefore the person could manage without the ‘orientation aid’.

This would then potentially descend into absurdity as even the white stick, which is obviously the intended original ‘orientation aid’, could be replaced by a non-specialist garden bamboo stick (perhaps painted white, perhaps not) and cease to be an orientation aid.

Mike Hughes
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I think there’s an argument around reasonable time as anyone using such an aid (whether currently accepted as one or not) does not use it in the smooth way a driver with a sat nav does. For example, if I use my phone to navigate an unfamiliar route on the move, I have to stop every time I’m at a junction to make a decision but also stop and check again a few metres down the line as the nature of such things when walking is that you think you’ve made the right decision then the blue dot realigns and you’re on the wrong road and have to retrace your steps. My eye conditions mean I can’t glance at stuff. I have to stop and focus as best I can. If I were to use the correct specs too then it would take even longer as standing; getting out the correct specs and switching over without dropping anything is so inconvenient that I find it easier to rely on squinting and worse focus than usual with my distance specs. Indeed if I got my reading glasses out to read every time I ought to do so I’d be even slower than I already am.

Mike Hughes
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Mr Finch - 03 January 2018 01:47 PM

This again leads to problems with the structure of mobility activity 1.

Presumably someone who uses a specially built app or device will face some form of enquiry into whether they need to use it. This might lead to a suggestion that a non-specialist app or device would be sufficient instead - as Mike suggests a smartphone or tablet is going to be capable of giving more assistance in many ways than a single-use specialist device. Therefore the person could manage without the ‘orientation aid’.

This would then potentially descend into absurdity as even the white stick, which is obviously the intended original ‘orientation aid’, could be replaced by a non-specialist garden bamboo stick (perhaps painted white, perhaps not) and cease to be an orientation aid.

Confused even further by the ongoing discussion about whether people ought to pimp/personalise their canes.

https://audioboom.com/posts/6577185-the-great-cane-debate

Mike Hughes
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Mr Finch - 03 January 2018 01:47 PM

This again leads to problems with the structure of mobility activity 1.

Presumably someone who uses a specially built app or device will face some form of enquiry into whether they need to use it. This might lead to a suggestion that a non-specialist app or device would be sufficient instead - as Mike suggests a smartphone or tablet is going to be capable of giving more assistance in many ways than a single-use specialist device. Therefore the person could manage without the ‘orientation aid’.

This would then potentially descend into absurdity as even the white stick, which is obviously the intended original ‘orientation aid’, could be replaced by a non-specialist garden bamboo stick (perhaps painted white, perhaps not) and cease to be an orientation aid.

I have been dwelling upon this and I think your point is possibly the key to challenging such decisions. Just need a case now.