Walking Is Guided by a Sense of Direction
The person can follow an escort to reach daily destinations (bedroom, bathroom and dining room). They recognize their arrival when they see the toilet, bed or the table set with food and water.
They walk in the direction that is pointed to and will notice and adjust to obvious barriers below their knees when cued. Independent awareness of uneven surfaces that are less than the size of a curb or a stair step is not dependable, and an escort is needed to point out broken pavement, tree roots, rocks, gravel etc.
Many people walk all day long. They usually recognize a need to rest, but without a sense of time, they rarely rest very long.
Floors
Floor patterns can create artificial barriers when people begin to look below their knees. Dark spots, dark centers or edges seem to confuse some people. The person may stop in the middle of a room, cling to the wall or refuse to go into another room to avoid steeping on the dark surface. When people notice and avoid dark floors, their avoidance can seem like it is connected to a primordial fear and getting them to cross that floor is usually impossible. If forced, pushed or dragged, they are apt to have a fight or flight reaction.
Steps
Most people can step up, down, and over when cued. One step or curb will probably be the limit. Climbing three or four steps is unlikely until ACL 3.0.
The movement for lifting your foot is a vertical line, but scooting over and walking follow a horizontal line. Horizontal lines seem to be easier to imagine.
Within ACL 2.6, some people may be able to scoot over, but not lift their foot to step up. If so, stepping down may be frightening because they are unable to imagine the line. When they cannot imagine the connection between their foot position and the step or curb, those changes in height are barriers. Trying to force them to step up or down is apt to produce a combative reaction. The physical assistance of two people may be required to get them up or down a single step. To get them up and down three or four steps, the stairwell must be wide enough to accommodate all three people.