MDisabiliity core members each have their own special research areas of interest and ways they operationalize that research. Tyler G. James, Ph.D., MCHES®, assistant professor in the Department of Family Member and MDisability core member, has developed a human guides training program. He has done so with support from fellow MDisability members and the University of Michigan’s Center for Disability Health & Wellness funding from the Michigan Medicine Executive Committee.
James said the timing was right in 2022 to develop the program to train individuals to help guide those who have low vision or are blind to navigate various Michigan Medicine facilities, including University of Michigan Hospital, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and off-site health facilities. At that time, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a report that outlined ways to improve communication access for individuals who are blind or who have low vision. View the report here.
Since its inception in 2022, the Human Guides Training has trained approximately 100 people who want to improve access for people with vision loss, and more than 300 views on the training video posted on YouTube.
“Not only is this type of training responding to a need locally … I think this kind of training addresses a national need,” James said, adding that about 50 percent of those who have received the trainings are from the University of Michigan while the other half come from states as far as Arizona and Florida.
The new human guide training, which typically takes less than 20 minutes to complete, provides instruction on how to work with patients and visitors to move safely and smoothly through any environment. Guides learn to signal pauses, turns, steps and more through their voice and specific movements of their body.
The training program is available to all Michigan Medicine providers, staff and volunteers who would like to provide travel assistance to individuals who are blind or have low vision.
“Historically, this training was primarily just pictures and text on a website,” James said. “People need more interactive and rich types of media. My attention is on ensuring that staff and volunteers who need the training are getting it.”
According to Michigan Medicine patient records, approximately 55,000 patients who are blind or low vision visited the health system between 2021 to 2022. Patients can request help from the Office of Patient Experience’s HOPE Ambassadors Program, which staffs volunteers who work as wayfinders, but James said that human guides add another level of assistance for those who may use white canes or seeing-eye dogs for mobility assistance.
“Whenever there isn’t navigation accessibility, that’s a barrier to patient access and care,” James said. “Patients who are blind or low vision are at greater risk of poor health and outcomes.”
James said that in addition to helping people navigate the often confusing halls of the University of Michigan Hospital and its other health facilities, more services are needed to help people who are blind or low vision learn to navigate their environments in general.
“There is an extreme need in orientation and mobility services,” he said. “This kind of training teaches people how to move around their environment, how to cross the street safely, how to use your other senses to move around your environment, the differences in texture of a sidewalk vs. grass.”
“Orientation and mobility is just another service that we could enhance. That’s the direction the healthcare system needs to go in. Do I think (the Human Guide Training) has solved the problem completely? Absolutely not. (But) there was an infrastructure in place (with HOPE Ambassadors). We just had to build a system” to help individuals who are blind or low vision arrive at their medical appointments on time.
The following individuals and organizations were involved in the development of the Human Guide training:
- Lead: Tyler G. James, PhD, MCHES®
- Orientation and Mobility Specialist: Lori Board, TVI, COMS
- Blind/Low Vision Stakeholders: Will Purves and Mark Hymes
- Michael M. McKee, MD, MPH, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine, MDisability director and co-director of the CDHW.
- Interpreter Services: Christa Moran, MEd, NIC, CoreCHI
- Office of Patient Experience: Quinlan Davis
- Organizations: Disability Network Washtenaw Monroe Livingston, and Leader Dogs for the Blind
