[nabs-l] canes and increasing sensation of blindness

Mon May 3 19:47:32 UTC 2010

I use my cane as well.
Rania,

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jewel S.
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 12:42 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] canes and increasing sensation of blindness

Hi,

I use my cane while holding someone's arm all the time. However, I do not
consider it "sighted guide" so much as keeping with my friend who knows the
way...especially since the person who usually does this with me is my
legally blind boyfriend. I hold his arm for balance primarily, and to keep
track of where he is, as I have no peripheral vision. As we walk, he might
point things out to me that I would miss with my cane no matter what (the
mailboxes that stick out at head-height, the wet branches in front of my
face, etcetra). I use my cane so he can concentrate on where we are going
and things in front of us. I find the curbs and steps on my own, and
sometimes if the light is too low, I find curbs and such for the both of us,
as he is not as good with the cane (lack of practice!).

I find that if I take someone's arm, I am far less likely to learn the
route. I have done entire routes on someone's arm that, looking back, I
couldn't tell you the first thing. This is partly because of my poor memory,
but also because when I hold someone's arm, unless I'm in charge of
navigation (which does occur sometimes), I let that work go, and concentrate
more on balance, what my cane is finding, and sounds.
I can enjoy myself a bit better this way.

Personally, I think holding someone's arm and using a cane at the same time
is perfectly fine. That's just my opinion, so feel free to shoot me down,
but that won't stop me from doing it myself! I don't like to put all the
responsibility on the other person, no matter how good a guide they
are...though there is one exception. My O&M instructor would do sighted
guide with me to get quickly to a location, and my cane just got in his way,
and he was very good at guiding (he better be, since he teaches other people
how to be sighted guides, too!), so I allow my cane to remain at my side,
ready to pull out if I should need it, but I put my trust in him.

~Jewel

On 5/3/10, clinton waterbury <clinton.waterbury at gmail.com> wrote:
> As far as the cane issue goes, when I was about three years of age, I 
> started learning how to use the cane.
>
> The only problem was that I would flat out refuse to use it until the 
> time I was about five.
>
> The travel instructor finally said "Ok, you don't want to use it?  
> I'll take it from you."
>
> At that point, I tried and faled miserably to walk around without it!
>
> At the day's end, I did get the cane back, and have been using it ever 
> since.
> On May 2, 2010, at 4:49 PM, Gerardo Corripio wrote:
>
>> Hi guys: I'm curious as to is it fine to use a cane while going 
>> sighted guide with someone? for instance suppose the person whom I'm 
>> going with has never done sighted guide with a blind person, thus 
>> doesn't know to alert us of steps and the like. So I was thinking 
>> that if this technique is fine to
>>
>> use it can serve two purposes:
>> 1.-Be able to go along sighted guide but at the same time being able 
>> to oneself find and sort obstacles the sighted person might not have 
>> the mind
>>
>> to let us know.
>> 2.-Be able to start mapping in our minds the route following, thus 
>> make it
>>
>> easier to get to know the route by ourselves.
>> Also I've got another subject on my mind, thus sending in the same email:
>> Is
>> it normal that when using a cane I have conflict in using it? though 
>> I know the cane is how we get around by ourselves thanks to a bad 
>> experience while studying for a diploma in Humanistic Therapy some 
>> years ago in that when I
>>
>> wanted to use the cane again after some years of having it dusting, I 
>> held
>>
>> it in my hand but wasn't able to use it at ease because memories of 
>> the experience came flooding back. fortunately I've been able to work 
>> them out
>>
>> but am curious as to know if this has happened to you guys? It's a 
>> conflict because for one I'm aware that the cane makes us unique as 
>> blind people and lets us move around by ourselves but also because 
>> here in Mexico the blind
>>
>> aren't viewed as equals in some respects, thus when using the cane 
>> gives me the feeling that lets blindness show even more, making the 
>> sighted people feel ill at ease; speaking from experience in another 
>> country when I know in the US you guys don't have to cope with these 
>> things because of how advanced you guys are in the work you've done 
>> all these years. some day I hope to be able to be like you guys and 
>> really live by your standards, thus hoping these questions bring on a 
>> good discussion from which more than one might learn something new 
>> and enrich the topic of appreciating our roots brought
>>
>> on recently.
>> Gerardo
>>
>>
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>
>
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