2. Vision Habilitation for Bioptic Driving: classroom vision training and driving simulator-Québec
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| Left picture of the use of a smart TV using Google maps to show Vision techniques. Right picture of a city setting in a driving simulator. Middle picture has a banner of the organisation in Québec that does rehabilitation for disabled people for Driving named IRDPQ. |
IRDPQ is one of the 14 centres that offers free low vision services to Québec province residence and is the other of two places that offers bioptic driving habilitation (the other being INLB in Montréal). This is a very large centre that offers rehabilitation to all forms of disabled people, including those who have come out of hospital and need rehabilitation prior to returning to their home. For bioptic drivers. This is a 'habilitation' process because these people have never driven before as opposed to a 'rehabilitation' process where someone has driven, but is now new learning new skills for the driving task. The facilities, including the driving simulator and the car are shared for all disabled people who are in need of habilitation or rehabilitation services for driving.
This section of the bioptic driving program for vision habilitation in the classroom and the driving simulator is conducted by the orientation and mobility specialist. The driving simulator section is also supported by the driving instructor. The next section of the bioptic driving program which is the commentary driving section, is where the client gets in the passenger seat of the car and is again, supported by the orientation and mobility specialist in the backseat whilst the driving instructor is in the drivers seat. We will look at that at the next blog.
Classroom Vision Training
Bioptic and low vision drivers have grown up being told that they will never drive, and therefore have never had the inclination or direction about how to use their vision in the passenger seat, for when they will eventually move to the drivers seat. So the purpose of classroom vision training is to help these clients learn how to use their vision, mainly through the carrier lens. That is the vision without the bioptic in addition to learn how, and when are the important times to use the bioptic and not to use the bioptic. This is only a very small snippet of the type of training that a low vision bioptic driver would receive.
On a personal note when I started to learn to drive using that by bioptic, I had to teach myself these techniques. So I spent a lot of time researching online documents and videos about how to use my vision for the driving task. Although I have been driving now for about seven years. I still found this session very useful and picked up extra tips.
Simon has been an orientation and mobility specialist for over 15 years and travelled to West Virginia to train with Chuck Huss on how to adapt his orientation and mobility skill set to the low vision and bioptic task. Simon and I had a good chat about his orientation and mobility experience in Québec city. He teaches the full spectrum of blind and vision, impaired people how to orientate their world. This includes cane skills and Guide Dogs, and in all weather in Québec, including in snow. We chatted about the challenge of people without usable vision being able to do foot travel in snow, particularly where the environment changes. For those who do not have access to community transport, or alternative forms of transport are just unable to work, and this is a barrier for engagement with community, employment, study. We also discussed living in remote regions and particularly more northern regions of Canada, where the winter is extended for many months of the year, and how the community comes together to support the blind person.
For bioptic drivers in Canada as we will see on the smart TV and the driving simulator they do drive in snow conditions and all other times in the year. For myself walking around in both Montréal and Québec city I can see that the roads have washed away road markings, which make it much harder here than in Australia to see where you were driving, keep lane position and yet the bioptic drivers here a safe drivers because of the support they get. Having said that though, as I will present in another upcoming blog, they have been bioptic drivers here in Québec city and other places in Canada since the 1980s, and have perfect driving records.
Another interesting point of the driving environment here in Québec is the extremely narrow streets due to the very old road infrastructure including some cobbled lanes. This is a very old city with lots of beautiful architecture still around from that time, combined some modern elements. This means that bioptic drivers have an enormous diversity of driving environments, including tight, narrow streets, where pedestrians can come out any time through to urban and rural settings.
This education session has been broken up into two videos as I was not able to upload a single video from my current location. As noted above, this is only a very small section of the type of training that a low vision Barb to driver would receive. There are several classroom setting training sessions where various skills at including observational are taught to the student and this is a done in a way that the student can interact and learn progressively how to analyse the driving scene.
One essential element we didn't go into detail is the preplanning before you even get in the car. The students are taught how to look at maps, including satellite views of Google maps before they get in the car for the destinations that they travel. This helps to mitigate against surprises in the road infrastructure so the student just needs to concentrate on what's happening at the time they are driving. Of course, most of the time anyway low vision and bioptic drivers are driving repetitive routes such as to the office for work or to the institution for school or to the supermarket for groceries.
The majority of the classroom teaching is done in the first phase of the bioptic driving program. The student then moves on to the next phase, which is the driving simulator where they get to apply the vision rehabilitation skills. They have been taught using the smart TV. In addition, the driving simulator gives them an opportunity to understand many elements of the driving activity.
Driving simulator training
Also used in the first phase of the bioptic driving program is the driving simulator. As noted above, the students were always told they will never drive so this gives them an opportunity to get in a simulated drivers seat and experience driving. Despite being a simulated environment, it is a good opportunity to learn visual sequencing of the driving activity, which can then be applied at the commentary, driving stage, and at the learner driving stage.
An example of vision sequencing is using the standard techniques that drivers are taught to look through the windscreen, the side mirrors, and the rearview mirror. It is then add it on top of this to look through the bioptic at the appropriate time that they have been taught in the previous lessons. The student also gets an idea on how to judge distances from cars beside them in front and behind, and to also learn to anticipate that they could be unpredictable circumstances. For example, in one simulator below, a deer comes running out from the side and the objective is to break before the deer crosses the road. It might look easy, but I simulator has been set up in a way to stop the car based on the speed you were doing. Again, while this is not real life, it is very helpful for these clients.
Here are some videos of me having a go at the driving simulator. It was a really interesting experience. At first I felt seasick just looking at the screen, so I took a long time to get used to it. I still wasn't used to the motion, but found it very useful. I think I would need a lot longer to be able to practice and then develop the skill set.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and gained some knowledge in this topic. Questions are always welcome.
Keep an eye out for my next set of blogs which will be in Québec City:
- videos and discussion of bioptic drivers driving the car in all settings with the driving instructor and orientation and mobility specialist in the back seat.
- the history of bioptic driving in Québec and how the program fits into the standard settings for driving licensure.
Also, take a look at the previous blog of my visit to Montréal to talk to them about aspects of the bioptic driving program.
You’re welcome to follow my/ this blog for updates. And join our Facebook group Bioptic Drivers Australia: https://m.facebook.com/groups/BiopticDriversAus/?ref=share&mibextid=S66gvF
To learn about the reasons for this blog, go to my Churchill Trust Australia webpage to read about the fellowship I was awarded being "The NRMA - ACT Road Safety Trust Churchill Fellowship to identify success factors and barriers for low vision and telescopic glasses driving" The page is here: https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/fellow/belinda-oconnor-act-2022/
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