Children's Mobility and Escalators

Friday April 7th – We spent most of the day learning about the Children’s Mobility department, and issues related to working with children. GDV hosts many camps, programs, and workshops to help visually impaired children, their families, and support their teachers and schools. Working with a child often becomes a long term relationship with mobility instructors assisting kids and their families periodically throughout their childhood.

GDVs children’s camps generally run during the school holidays and have different themes depending on what skills are being focused on. For example, they had a “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” camp where the focus was on learning how to use public transportation. They even got to take the kids to the airport where they were allowed to go through security and board a plane! The most recent camp was tied to the Commonwealth games so had physical activities and races.

In the afternoon we went to the mall and practiced riding escalators under blindfold with our canes. This photo shows Laura riding a 'travelator' which is a ramp with a moving walkway. We then had to create routes for each other from store to store, using the escalators. Mall work can be confusing with all the curving turns, cafes with chairs in the way and tons of people!
We ended the day at the mall and Sue and I stayed to pick up a few things and have dinner at a restaurant there. The week seemed to fly by, I can’t believe we have finished 3 weeks already!