[Blindtlk] [BlindTalk] Raising a Cane
Bob Hachey
bhachey at verizon.net
Thu Sep 1 21:54:54 UTC 2016
Hi all,
Our outreach efforts are paying off as more agencies will be involved in
this year's White Cane Safety Day heer in Massachusetts. WE've also gotten a
popular evening talk show host to air our public service announcement over
WBZ Radio. This station seems to reach a good part of the eastern US at
night thanks to skips and things like that.
Bob Hachey
-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Carly
Mihalakis via blindtlk
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 9:45 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List; Blind Talk Mailing List
Cc: Carly Mihalakis
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] [BlindTalk] Raising a Cane
Every day is white cane day!At 05:29 PM 10/2/2015, Ericka via blindtlk
wrote:
>Hi Bob and all
>
>I love your idea of getting the DMV, police etc. involved. I just spoke
>to the aging and disability resource center today to inquire whether
>they were doing anything community education about White cane day
>coming up. When the lady at the desk gave me the Hem and haw over
>answering my question I figured the answer was no. She did give me the
>name of someone who does a lot of the community events.
>I love the notice for this Paula person and she did call me right back
>this afternoon. Unfortunately I was already at my next stop, the
>grocery store and missed the call. So we'll see how things go on
>Monday. We are having a fun and fit fair for people with disabilities
>coming up. Maybe this can be incorporated somehow although it's last
>minute. After all, walking in your community is not just independence
>and getting your mines done; it's also keeping yourself healthy and fit
>too. Many times doctors tell you to walk to lose weight etc. We can
>still hear the birds and the rustle of trees so there's benefit and it
>relates.
>
>Ericka Short
>"Friends are like flowers in the garden of life"
>
>Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Sep 28, 2015, at 12:25 PM, Bob Hachey via blindtlk
> <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Mark,
> > I hear you loud and clear. Seems that driving in America is the
> > fourth inalienable right, up there with life, liberty and the
> > pursuit of
> happiness.
> > While it is we the pedestrians who have been given this right by law
> > in theory, in practice, the rights seem to go to the driver, no
> > matter how careless or thoughtless that driver may be.
> > Perhaps instead of raising a cane to call attention to ourselves
> we ought to
> > raise Cain, (note spelling)
> > And, I'm not joking.
> > I love the idea of White cane day which is coming soon. But I wish
> > we could be more successful at getting not just the usual folks from
> > the Commission for the Blind involved, but the registry of motor
> > vehicles, local police, etc.
> > Bob Hachey
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> Mark Tardif
> > via blindtlk
> > Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2015 9:28 PM
> > To: Blind Talk Mailing List
> > Cc: Mark Tardif
> > Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Raising a Cane
> >
> > There is something about some people who, when they get behind the
> > wheel, turn into creatures you and I wouldn't recognize. Joking, but
just barely.
> >
> >
> >
> > Mark Tardif
> > Nuclear arms will not hold you.
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mike Freeman via blindtlk
> > Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2015 6:52 PM
> > To: 'Blind Talk Mailing List'
> > Cc: Mike Freeman
> > Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Raising a Cane
> >
> > Arrielle:
> >
> > I don't worry much about getting cars to conform to a certain
> > behavior pattern because (and I'm joking here but not altogether) I
> consider the very
> > act of getting behind the wheel tantamount to lowering one's IQ by
> > fifty percent. Put less acidly, I figure I have little-to-no control
> > over what cars do so I try to read their behavior as best I can and
> > feel that the position my cane is in (other than aggressively
> > sticking it out right as I start to cross) will have little influence on
driver behavior.
> >
> > Mike
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> > Arielle Silverman via blindtlk
> > Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2015 2:04 PM
> > To: Blind Talk Mailing List
> > Cc: Arielle Silverman
> > 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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