Blindly navigating stairs in our shopping mall with my guide dog using Aira and FaceTime! Part 2

This is part two of my three part shopping series of my mall adventure with guide Dog Arabella.

In this video I am trying to locate the stairs that me and Arabella are unfamiliar with. When you are completely blind like me, The simplest of areas from a sighted person‘s perspective are extremely daunting and challenging. Plus, I hate stairs, especially when I have to go down them versus going up. Giving my dog the command to find stairs from this point of you is terrifying for me. I have had some close calls to falling down stairs and so therefore I was hesitant to give her the command to find them. The close calls were not because of a mistake she made, but because I have been disoriented and stressed which contributed to me not paying attention to Arabella‘s cues.
As you will see/hear in this video, I was given assistance to finding the stairs through a app called Aira, as well as through a FaceTime video with my husband George. In addition, after we made it down the stairs to do a little bit more shopping, and then found our way back upstairs, you will see/hear a nice guy and girl who were so lovely at guiding me and Arabella to our next store.

Be sure to stay tune for the next and last video in this shopping series. The next video picks up with me and Arabella navigating to our food court area to find my favorite restaurant, and then all the way back out side to catch Uber.

Even though tasks like these are very challenging and stressful, I enjoy them thoroughly. Through moments and experiences like these, I find more strength, confidence, and faith within myself and within Arabella. I am always pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and expanding my independence and freedom. My blindness may want to limit me, but I keep pushing past those limitations to live a much more full and beautiful life!

PS: I am filming these videos with my iPhone in my right hand in landscape mode. When I was using Aira and talking with my husband on FaceTime, I was using two iPhones. My iPhone XR is on a lanyard around my neck and was the one I was using to talk with the Aira agent and to my husband. My iPhone 7 is the one I was filming with when I was using my iPhone XR for assistance.
Pretty sure I looked like a three ring circus LOL... blind girl with guide dog and two iPhones LOL. In the beginning of this video I even looked a little bit more crazy! Blind girl, guide dog, white cane, and two iPhones LOL. Perhaps no one approached me to ask me if I needed help because it looked like I had it under control ha ha 😂😂

One more thing, if any of you happen to see a blind individual out and about and it looks like they are lost, confused, or struggling, it would definitely be OK to approach the individual and just ask them if they need any assistance. Even if you have never interacted with a blind individual, as long as you start the interaction in a friendly way, offering any assistance to them, the blind individual would be very happy you were looking outside of your own world to see someone else possibly in need of a helping hand, or helping eye ☺️

#Blind #GuideDog #Independence #Aira

Видео Blindly navigating stairs in our shopping mall with my guide dog using Aira and FaceTime! Part 2 канала Joy Ross