[Blindtlk] Raising a Cane

Tue Sep 29 16:01:23 UTC 2015

Good morning, Chris,

         It sounds like you may be taking what you were taught a 
little too seriously, not letting a given situation dictate the how 
you hold your stick. Personally, I while crossing the street, that 
is, if not on Ol'Sighty's shoulder being guided, let the stick lay 
across my body while preparing to cross the street. In the spirit of 
total disclosure, I have been hit by a car.
Car 46 AM 9/27/2015, Szostak, Christine via blindtlk wrote:
>Hi All,
>   Thanks. The idea, as this instructor taught me was a little 
> different from that. The idea was that as soon as I reached the 
> curb, I should raise my cane (regardless of how soon I would be 
> crossing) and continue holding it in the  air about 2-3 inches or 
> so so as to give the drivers a signal that I was blind and waiting 
> to cross the street.
>Happy Sunday!
>Chris
>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 
>Mike Freeman via blindtlk
>Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2015 11:30 AM
>To: Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>Cc: Mike Freeman <k7uij at panix.com>
>Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Raising a Cane
>
>Christine:
>With respect, I believe that you are misinterpreting the gesture. 
>When a car is about ready to turn, it uses turn signals to indicate 
>the drivers intention. When stopping, a cars brake lights come on 
>similarly to indicate intention. When you're about ready to cross 
>the street, raising the cane quickly and emphatically indicates to 
>the drivers your intention to cross. Think safety, not blindness.
>
>Mike Freeman
>
>
> > On Sep 26, 2015, at 18:45, 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<mailto:szostak.1 at osu.edu>
> > cszostak at shorter.edu
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > blindtlk mailing list
> > blindtlk at nfbnet.org
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk_nfbnet.org
> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
> for blindtlk:
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindtlk_nfbnet.org/k7uij%40panix.com
> > 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<mailto:szostak.1 at osu.edu>
> > cszostak at shorter.edu
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > blindtlk mailing list
> > blindtlk at nfbnet.org
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk_nfbnet.org
> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
> for blindtlk:
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindtlk_nfbnet.org/k7uij%40panix.com
>
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