Doubtingly, I let my blind stick roll over the asphalt of the footpaths in Nijmegen' s Hunnerpark. The stick is my only grip during this walk around the block: I have lost my sight and will have to rely completely on the rest of my senses. Startled, I stop when my stick taps against an obstacle. Is it a lamppost? A bench? I can't place it and for a moment I don't know how to proceed. I breathe a sigh of relief when, a few seconds later, our guide Bart indicates that we can switch eyes and I regain a little sight.
It has just stopped raining when we walk through the centre of Nijmegen. Today, Honeyguide invited us to visit muZIEum, the place where you can experience for a while what it is like to be blind or visually impaired. This special experience museum employs some 38 visually impaired people and, as experience experts, they are the beating heart of the organisation. The atmosphere at muZIEum is extremely positive. Here, being partially sighted or blind is not a limitation, but rather an added value.
Meet Bart - Life with 5% vision
Bart is our guide for today. He has been working as a tour guide at muZIEum for several years now and does so with great pleasure. He himself has the eye disorder Macula Degeneration, where a spot or flash comes through your image. This leaves him with only 5% vision left. Asked what he still sees then, he replies, "You know that, when the sun is low while driving and a very large part of your vision disappears because of the bright light? That's what I always see." The sunglasses he wears make the flash in his vision a little less intense.
With a little help from his wife and children, he can do at least as much as a person without an eye condition. "My wife helps me pick my clothes. If we have had an argument, you can see it immediately. Then I walk around in my K3 shirt again," he jokes. Besides working as a guide at muZIEum, he works part-time as an English teacher at a school. "During my application, they were a bit hesitant because of my eye condition, but a big advantage is that I am always prepared to perfection and give my lessons with a lot of attention. People often only assume the disadvantages of vision impairment, but I like to see the advantages of it too!"
Bart also travels regularly, he says. "You experience a destination very differently without sight. People who can see well usually focus mainly on what a place looks like, the special buildings or the layout of the city. I recognise a place by its smell, sounds and atmosphere. That's also how you experience a city trip 100% but just in a different way."
Bart's way of life is absolutely inspiring and his stories still make us smile several times today.
A city walk full of obstacles - Etiquettes of the blind stick
We start today's adventure with healthy excitement: expedition Ribbelroute. We walk a block through Nijmegen while experiencing various eye conditions through our VR glasses. A blind stick should keep us from the necessary obstacles on the route.
Normally, Expedition Ribbelroute takes place in Nijmegen city centre, but because of corona the tour has been moved to the Hunnerpark. We use the walk there to familiarise ourselves with the blind cane as there are quite a few etiquettes surrounding this instrument. For instance, it is important to always roll the blind cane back and forth across the ground within the distance of your shoulders. When doing so, always keep the cane low so that you don't hit an unsuspecting passer-by with it. Do you want to cross the road? Then hold the stick out in front of you at knee height and lower it again once you are on the other side. Drivers worldwide are aware of this sign.
The fact that our expedition does not take place in the city centre proves, on the one hand, relaxed. We walk past broken-up pavements, illogical steps, ribbed lines that surprisingly often lead to dead ends or are blocked by scooters. Stairs in the city centre often lack an indicator line, turning them - if you can't see depth - into a large, grey plane. Slippery autumn leaves make my blind stick slip confusingly a few times and a mouse-quiet Tesla races past just as we are about to cross the street. The city centre turns out to be a big trail full of hidden obstacles.
Expedition Ribbed Road - Mindful walking in the Hunnerpark
Arriving in Hunner Park, we get to do it ourselves. The VR glasses go on and we start with our first eye condition: blindness. The darkness overwhelms me a little and only then do I realise how often I walk around in my mind without a clue about the exact surroundings. No problem with good vision but now that I am temporarily blind, every bend and every paving stone feels like I am meeting it for the first time and I feel slightly lost.
Jeez, how small the world feels without sight: it's one of the first things I notice. Only what is close around me still exists and the situation leaves me no choice but to literally trust the people around me blindly. Bart instructs us to look for the bench we just passed. Bravely, I start looking, rolling the blind stick in front of me.
Each step is a deliberate choice, the soles of my feet exploring the road inch by inch. My other senses are working overtime. "Is that a cyclist I hear?" "Do I smell the bark of a tree?" I never reach the bench we are supposed to walk to. My stick taps against a wall, then against a lamppost, and finally a step a few metres away makes me lose courage.
With barely five minutes in this expedition, I am already quite sure that when the VR glasses are allowed to come off again soon, I will appreciate my sight as never before.
One walk, five eye conditions - A hazy fishbowl
Luckily, we have Bart. As disoriented as we are, as relaxed and optimistic he walks ahead of us while chatting. We go from blindness to Macula Degeneration, the eye condition he himself has. Despite the irritating spot in the middle of my vision, I am grateful to be able to see something again. Foot by foot, I walk another few metres along the footpath. The tapping of my cane, Bart's directions and the small patch of Hunner Park I can discern next to the black spot is all that exists now.
After Macular Degeneration, we switch to Retinitus Pigmentosa, or incipient cochlear vasculitis. My vision is narrow, all depth is gone and I see the world as if through a hazy fishbowl. We stop at the bottom of the Belvédère building and Bart asks us to list some details of the building. We get no further than some windows and a flag that seems to be flying somewhere near the roof.
It is time again to change vision impairment and now it is the turn of kokervisus, the next stage of Retinitus Pigmentosa. Kokervisus is exactly as it sounds: you see the world through a small hole. While everything in front of the little hole is sharp, life beyond it no longer seems to exist. I have to look around incredibly carefully to get a full picture of the surroundings. Now we are lucky that the small hole is right in front of us, because it can also be on top of your eye, which makes looking a lot more difficult.
Finally, we get cataracts, a condition in which the eye lens is clouded. Fortunately, my vision is wider again so I have less of that alone-in-the-world feeling, but I can forget about seeing details. Very mindfully I continue my careful steps through the park, for the past hour I have been busy with nothing else but finding my way. I notice that my senses are already giving me more information than at the start of the expedition, but it is tiring.
The expedition is over and the VR glasses can be taken off. My eyes have to get used to the bright light but after a few blinks I give them a good look. Bart shows us the small circle we have walked in the past hour. All of us are silent. Where we would normally walk this lap whistling, now we had to learn every metre individually and it felt intense. "You don't need a mindfulness course if you are blind or visually impaired. You get that for free every day," Bart laughs.
Today we took a look at a world we didn't know about until now and I notice that it has touched us all. One thing is certain: we will never again think of our sight as something natural. And despite the fairly heavy subject matter, optimism splashes out at muZIEum. Moved, deeply impressed and with a particularly warm feeling, we say goodbye to our guide Bart and this special place. This visit will stay with us for a long time.
Want to experience this tour and the indoor museum section of muZIEum for yourself? You can do so daily in the heart of Nijmegen. Want to hear more about our visit? Then listen to our podcast in which Bart is a guest!
Love,
Laura
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