[Blindtlk] Raising a Cane

[River Linda]

Okay. I was not understanding the point of the raised cane. My O&M was
based solely on listening for cars and not on what a driver is saying to
you. I am glad Chris asked the question because I had never heard of the
raised cane.


On Sunday, September 27, 2015, Arielle Silverman via blindtlk <
blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Christine does use a cane, the issue is being told to hold the cane up
> while waiting to cross the street, as a signal, then putting it down
> and crossing with it. As to Mike's comment, How do sighted pedestrians
> signal that they are crossing, without a cane or a turn signal? I
> assume they use some form of body language. I consider extending my
> cane slightly in front of me to be an appropriate form of body
> language. Like Christine I don't see the additional value of raising
> my cane up off the ground. Further, I agree with what I think she was
> saying, which is that we want cars to drive normally rather than
> stopping in the intersection or doing other weird things because we
> are blind. If they depart from normal car behavior, they give us
> confusing information about whether or not it is safe to cross. Of
> course if I am in the middle of crossing I want cars to stop. That
> goes for any pedestrian, blind or sighted.
> Arielle
>
> On 9/27/15, River Linda via blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org <javascript:;>>
> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Are you saying you can see well enough to cross the street without using
> a
> > cane? Or, you just do not want to use it because you are embarrassed to
> use
> > it and you do not want the attention from people? The cane is for your
> > safety. As you have described holding your cane vertically off the ground
> > in front of you, the cars coming from behind you will not see your cane.
> I
> > was taught to keep the cane tip on the ground and hold it out diagonally
> > from you so that cars coming from all four directions can see it.
> >
> > As for people grabbing you, you have to tell them how you want to be
> > treated. When people grab me, I tell them to wait and let me show you how
> > to help me. When people make that comment about me being amazing because
> I
> > can cut my food and eat it, I simply respond with "you, too".
> >
> >
> > On Saturday, September 26, 2015, Szostak, Christine via blindtlk <
> > blindtlk at nfbnet.org <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi All,
> >>   Ok, this might be a very odd question, but I was just thinking about
> >> this and to me, it  seems really illogical.
> >>
> >>   When I was getting O&M to help with transitioning to a cane, every
> time
> >> we stopped at a curb to cross a street, the instructor would have me
> hold
> >> the cane directly in front of me and hold it up in the air vertically
> >> about
> >> 2-3 or so inches off the ground. The explanation given to me for this
> was
> >> so that others would see that I am blind and am using a cane.
> >>
> >>   The reasons that this seems a bit odd to me as a good practice are:
> >>
> >> 1)  I do not want a car to stop at a stop sign and wait for me to cross
> >> as
> >> I have always been taught not to trust in drivers that say, go ahead I
> >> will
> >> wait because they may not see other cars coming that could hit me if I
> >> follow their advice. Also, just because they stop, it does not mean that
> >> they see you so the signal you are assuming they are giving you, may not
> >> be
> >> the case.
> >>
> >> 2)  I do not necessarily want to bring attention to my blindness.
> >>
> >> 3)  I tend to look younger than I am and thus people, to my
> >> consternation,
> >> always try  to grab my arm... to help me. When I was in training for one
> >> of
> >> my prior guides, my instructor always joked that I was a really
> touchable
> >> person because total strangers would try to drag me across the street
> >> since
> >> they just assumed that I did not know  how to cross a street with a
> >> light:). This happens to me, regardless of whether it is with traffic or
> >> even in places like restaurants, total strangers will frequently grab my
> >> arm, put their arms around my shoulders... and tell me how amazing I am
> >> to
> >> be eating so well:). Since I really do not want this type of attention,
> I
> >> tend not to want  to use methods that are likely to induce it:). Since I
> >> could see holding a cane in the air as one good way to get this type of
> >> attention, I am not overly eager to keep up this practice.
> >>
> >>   Thus, do others here hold up their canes while standing on curbs and
> if
> >> so, what has been your experience with respect to the above issues? I
> >> really, personally do not like this practice as it would seem to me that
> >> if
> >> you are a competent traveler who follows the  rules of the pedestrian
> and
> >> knows what you are doing, then you should not need to do this as it
> >> simply
> >> tells someone, this person is blind so stop and wait for them as they
> >> will
> >> not be a safe traveler or is trying to signal that they need your help.
> >> Perhaps I am completely misunderstanding the point of doing this but I
> >> just
> >> really feel like this is an out-of-date practice, one that tries to
> >> heavily
> >> point out blindness which would seem to lead to increasing the stigma
> >> rather than showing that we are competent individuals, and something
> >> that
> >> could actually be dangerous rather than helpful to a cane traveler.
> >>
> >>
> >>   I can understand this type of practice if you want for some reason to
> >> indicate that you are blind or have a VI (i.e., when  you are concerned
> >> that you may trip... and do not want individuals to just think that you
> >> are
> >> clumsy...) so please know that I am not trying to discount these types
> of
> >> situations rather it is just on the curb side if you are just trying to
> >> cross the street  and have any of the above three reasons for not
> wanting
> >> to do so that I am asking about and feeling this way about.
> >> Happy weekend all!
> >> Chris
> >>
> >> Dr. Christine M. Szostak
> >> Assistant Professor of Psychology
> >> Department of Social Sciences
> >> Shorter University
> >> Rome, Georgia
> >> szostak.1 at osu.edu <javascript:;> <javascript:;><mailto:
> szostak.1 at osu.edu <javascript:;> <javascript:;>>
> >> cszostak at shorter.edu <javascript:;> <javascript:;>
> >>
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