[Blindtlk] Raising a Cane

Mon Sep 28 04:14:00 UTC 2015

Hello Christine,
I believe you are correct in thinking that the suggested cane raising is not 
helpful. I would think that it would look like you were about to step out 
into the street to those driving by. It would show that you were blind but 
it would confuse them since they wouldn't be sure what you were planning to 
do. Standing still with a raised cane does not sound like a natural posture 
to adopt at curbside. In your shoes I would completely ignore the mobility 
instructors statement.

Regarding the people who grab you unawares and say things, perhaps you might 
like to try my approach.
I usually use a quick come back. For example, to those who put their arm 
around my shoulders or take my arm and say "you're doing a great job", I say 
"unlike you, who is touching a complete stranger without their permission." 
This usually brings them back to reality and they apologise and leave me in 
peace. To those who grasp my arm and ask "Can I help you?", or "How can I 
help you?" I say "You can help me by letting go my arm and by not grabbing 
me unexpectedly please." I have not yet encountered anyone who thinks these 
responses are rude, though I probably will one day since their altruism is 
really all about feeling good themselves and they don't like the blind 
person being independent and taking away their "feel good" opportunity for 
the day.
Hope this is useful.
Best,
Heather

-----Original Message----- 
From: Szostak, Christine via blindtlk
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2015 4:30 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Cc: Szostak, Christine
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Raising a Cane

Hi All,
  Much appreciated Arielle, thanks, and very well said:)!

Dr. Christine M. Szostak
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Department of Social Sciences
Shorter University
Rome, Georgia
szostak.1 at osu.edu
cszostak at shorter.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle 
Silverman via blindtlk
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2015 5:04 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Raising a Cane

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> 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> 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:;><mailto:szostak.1 at osu.edu
>> <javascript:;>> cszostak at shorter.edu <javascript:;>
>>
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