[blindlaw] Canes and Blindness

[David Andrews]

Mark:

I suppose it is a goal to "blend in and not stand out" as you say, 
but not just in a physical sense.  I want to be a part of society, an 
equal, getting the bad and the good do along with my sighted 
counterparts.  With the tools available to me today, cane, dog etc., 
I will always stand out some.  So instead of trying to hide that I 
need to be proud of my blindness and promote a positive attitude 
towards those tools and blind people, so the stigma goes away.  There 
is a stigma because we are not equals -- our unemployment rate etc. 
prove that.  When we change that it won't matter that we carry a 
cane, use a dog etc.  We won't change attitudes by not using canes 
and the like though.

Dave

At 08:00 PM 3/28/2010, you wrote:
>I'm not quibbling with the white cane as a mobility tool.  However,
>recently a thread started here about carrying a white cane merely to
>identify oneself as blind, so as not to cause confusion when being
>unable to read name tags, etc., at a symposium or whatever.  It was
>put forth that canes should be carried, in addition to any value they
>may have as a mobility aid, merely to identify a blind person as
>blind, and to allow the sighted to give them a "handicap," in not
>being able to read name tags.  For this purpose, a sign declaring "I
>am blind, please act accordingly," would serve just as well, it seems
>to me, and the white cane then becomes a stigma-maker, not a tool.
>For purposes of this discussion, the "white," color of the cane
>becomes the "distress cry of the blind," or something; the identifying
>mark by which blind people are known and warn their surroundings that
>they are in fact in need of a handicap.  This is one reason why I want
>to use a cane that's other than white with a red tip.  It is very true
>that, even with my guide dog, when I wear sunglasses, I am often
>mistaken for a dog-walker, not a guide dog user.  It's like that old
>left-handed compliment, "No one would know you're blind, you do that
>so well."  That infuriates me when it's said to me.  It seems that
>some here are trying to avoid just this situation--being mistaken for
>a sighted person--when I should think that was the ultimate goal of
>any blind person--to blend in and not stand out.