[Blindtlk] Raising a Cane

Fri Sep 2 17:32:47 UTC 2016

Arielle and all,

Some sighted pedestrians look toward the vehicles idling next to the crossing. Many others just step off the curb. I tried looking toward the vehicles until I learned that this gave them the false impression that I was making eye contact. As soon as I hear the traffic patten information  I need I stride purposefully into the street and do not hesitate during my crossing. I always keep my cane tip on the ground so that I never lose contact with the contour of the pavement.

Marci
> On Sep 2, 2016, at 10:11 AM, Carly Mihalakis via blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Good morning, Mike, and everyone,
> 
> Personally, just laying the stick across your body plush against the curb while you're waitting on the light  is what works for me.
> Car At 03:52 PM 9/27/2015, Mike Freeman via blindtlk wrote:
>> 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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