I recently qualified with my third Guide Dog, Dax and to help him with learning routes and for my own confidence and piece-of-mind. I worked with my Guide Dog instructor around my home area and used a specialist GPS and navigation device called the StellarTrek to mark all of the places I go to on a regular basis. This was enormously helpful, as Dax is still very young and while he keeps me safe in terms of obstacle avoidance. I am able to keep him right and give him correct directions when navigating to places like the local shops, football ground and to the local café for a nice cup of tea.
Dax has since mastered all of our home routes, but the StellarTrek will still be very useful in the future if I ever do need to learn a new route in my local area. However, it was when I was trying to learn a route at my place of work at Seescape where the capabilities of the StellarTrek blew me away.
Seescape is based at Newark Road North in Glenrothes, Fife, and finding a safe walk for Dax and I in our lunch our was proving challenging, as it is on an estate and Glenrothes is completely unfamiliar to us both. My Guide Dog instructor persevered though and we eventually found a safe walk with only a few busy roads to cross. The problem was that I was having serious trouble committing the route to memory and on one memorable occasion, I actually became completely lost and had to call my work and ask for someone to come and find me and take me back in their car.
I called my Guide Dog instructor again and we tried the same route, but this time and with her sighted assistance, I used the StellarTrek and voice tagged the correct places to cross the roads and what to do when I got to the other side. So for example, when Dax took me to the first down-kerb, I marked the exact place to cross and said, “cross, then keep going straight. At the next down-kerb, I said “turn right” because I didn’t actually need to cross that road, I just needed to keep going and Dax then took me to the next road crossing which I marked with the instruction to “cross and turn right on the up-kerb.” I was unsure if this plan would work, but the only way to find out was to try it and my colleagues were on call if I needed help.
I recently went out accompanied by Dax as always and with the StellarTrek clipped to my pocket. The experience was absolutely uplifting, amazing and astounding. I followed the route and as soon as I was at a point I had previously marked with an instruction, I was able to follow it and keep Dax on the right path. Now with Dax’s superb guidance to keep me safe at all times along with the instructions from the StellarTrek, I can complete the route at lunch times independently and with confidence. Without the StellarTrek, I can honestly say that this would not be possible.”
Stuart Beveridge
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- This article was written by the seescape Karten Centre
- Featured in the Karten Autumn 2023 Newsletter
- This article is listed in the following subject areas: Centre News, Technology