This article is general information, not training. If you want to learn properly, Guide Dogs and Vision Australia both run sessions with people who do this for a living.
What is a sighted guide?
A sighted guide is a sighted person who physically and verbally guides someone with low vision while they're out walking. They're in charge of crossing roads and making safety calls, which means the person being guided has to trust them and they have to be competent. It's more involved than it looks, and some training before your first outing together is a good idea.
This article assumes the person you're guiding has no usable vision. Every rule below applies in that case. Where someone has some vision left, you can relax some of them.
The greeting
You've pulled up at your friend's house, walked to the door and rung the bell. They open it, ready to go. The first thing to do is say who you are. If you're there on behalf of a company, say so: "Hi Tom, it's John from Guide Dogs." That removes any question about who they're dealing with.
The setup
Ask which side they'd like to use. Most people hold on with their non-dominant hand so the dominant one stays free for a cane.
Offer your arm. Someone who's been trained will take your upper arm, then find the spot just above your elbow and hold it like a giant mug handle. Keep your arm relaxed and by your side. Tensing up or lifting your shoulder will exhaust you within a kilometre.
You should both be facing the same way, almost side by side, with you half a step ahead.
Starting and stopping
You have all the control. If you start, they start. If you stop, they stop. Practise both a few times before you go anywhere.
Use your voice as well: "Tom, let's walk", or "Tom, we'll stop in a few paces." But your friend also has to be able to stop and start without a cue, because circumstances won't always allow one — a car pulling out without warning doesn't wait for you to finish a sentence.
Footpaths
Walk up and down a path first. Notice what's in the way and guide around it, or have them duck.
Some cues worth knowing. For a low branch, call "head protection" and they'll raise their free hand to shield their head, assuming it isn't holding a cane. For a tree root lifting the concrete, tell them a bump is coming.
You'll meet branches too thick and low to duck under. Snap Send Solve is the quickest way to put a path hazard in front of the local council. If the branch is in a private yard, ask whoever lives there to cut it back.
When pedestrians are coming the other way, switch to single file: say "single file", then move your arm behind you. As your hand comes back and to the centre of your body, your friend steps in behind. They must not let go. Once it's clear, say "double file".
Roads
Crossing a road is the most daunting part of this for most people with low vision, especially relying on someone else to judge it.
Tell them a road is coming. Stop at the ramp and wait. Look right, then left, then right again. It sounds like something from primary school, but you have another person in your care and you're responsible for them. Don't commit to crossing until you're actually crossing. If there's a pedestrian island, stop there and read the road again before going on.
Don't ask them to rush. If rushing is needed, the gap wasn't safe, and your friend won't feel secure either. Every decision you make is building trust or spending it.
Kerbs and stairs
Same as a road: give a cue a short distance out and be specific. "Tom, three steps coming up."
Approach the first step and let them find the edge with their foot or cane — the edge going down, the base going up. Ask if they're ready. Then go, with cues as you climb, and tell them as the last step arrives so they can reset.
Car parks
Car parks are dangerous. Watch for brake lights coming on, and for the ones already on. Finding a footpath should be your first priority.
If you have to cross the car park itself, treat it like a road: right, left, right. Treat speed bumps like a root under a path — call it before you reach it, and again as you go over.
Ask how you're going
During the walk or after it, ask how you did. Enough cues? Too many? Anything to do differently? You'll be better at it next time, and asking is itself a way of saying they're in charge of their own outing.
When to offer
Any time, anywhere. The thing to remember is to ask. They might ask you, too; there's no rule. On one outing they might want more independence, on a nearly identical one they might need more help. Low vision isn't only a physical thing — some days are harder than others. It never hurts to ask.
