[Nfb-seniors] NFB Seniors Division - Blindness and Aging Literature Archive - Learning to Use a Long White Cane

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Hi You All

RE: Another article from our Blindness and Aging Literature Archive

 

This comes from the December, 2012 issue of The Braille Monitor." 

 

If you ever have, or need to face the decision, "Is it time to use the long
white cane?" Then check out this guy's experience with it. Share this with
others, discuss it!

Respectfully yours,

Robert Leslie Newman, NFB Seniors Division, Second Vice President

***

 

 

Learning to Use a White Cane as a Senior

by Jonathan Ice

 

            From the Editor: Jonathan Ice is a cane travel instructor with
the Iowa Department for the Blind. He is a longtime Federationist and
delivered the following remarks at the 2011 convention seminar of the NFB
Seniors Division. They were reprinted in the 2012 spring/summer issue of the
Division's newsletter. He began by pointing out that this was the first time
he had given a presentation using Braille notes. He said he had been a high
partial and was just now learning Braille. This is what he said:


            I am not going to make the assumption that all of you are
experienced cane users. I want to talk about the value of the cane and how
it is best used. I did not use a cane until I was in mid life, although my
vision has not changed. Let me explain why I started using the white cane.
Most of the time I could get around all right; my central vision is missing,
but I can see around the periphery of my eyes. So what if I cannot see
things directly in front of me.

            It wasn't until I finally went to an NFB training center and
used a cane under sleepshades that I realized that I had been fooling
myself. I couldn't read signs, which caused me a lot of problems. I was
trying to get around as a sighted person, but I had to ask questions, which
confused sighted people. They thought I was really odd for asking about
signs and things that were right in front of my face.

            The first answer to the question of why use a white cane is for
safety. If a person cannot always see stairs or curbs, the cane is a
necessity. I know that I have saved myself from some nasty falls. Also, no
matter how blind a person is, when you ask for help, the sighted person will
usually give detailed directions instead of saying that something is over
there, which has no meaning to a blind person.

            Basically, the cane acts as an antenna. It alerts the blind
person of a change in the space ahead, on, or near the ground. With practice
the blind person learns to move into the safe space. One doesn't want to
swing the cane in too wide an arc because this provides unnecessary
information and does not provide the data in front of the cane. When the
cane does find something in the path, a turn or stop is essential. Besides
depending on the cane, the traveler can use hearing to assist. But those who
have poor hearing can touch things in the environment with the cane or even
the hand to aid them. It is important to keep the cane on the ground during
each step. If it is in the air, you can miss a curb or step-down.

            I have been asked if I use the same methods when teaching
seniors. Since I'm older myself, I realize that I have to use more
repetition with older folks. I also stay closer to the senior. If I'm
working with a person who is eighty and he or she falls, it might mean a
broken hip. A younger person would probably get up and go on.
            I teach my students that, if we make a right turn at the corner,
a left turn will be required when we turn around to retrace our steps.
Sometimes I notice that older people think they know something when they
really don't. I just let the senior make the mistake and then figure out
that it was not a good choice. When I get a new student, I realize that he
or she usually has a lot of fear of being injured or simply being watched as
a blind person for the first time. However, after a while these problems
usually abate.

            People have inquired about using sleepshades with older
students. I have found that, if I don't use them, the older person does not
learn because he or she is using limited vision even though it did not work
well in the past. At one point I was teaching a group of seniors. The star
of the group was eighty-nine. She was safely crossing streets after only
four days. She was highly motivated, but she always kept safety in mind. She
told the others that, if she could do it, they could too.

            I had one older person who had serious problems, and I thought
she would have a hard time learning, but she proved me wrong. The part of
her brain which had been injured was not involved in travel. Another of my
older students was having trouble finding her way around her kitchen, and I
was about to give up on her, but one day she got the hang of the layout.
Then we progressed out to the porch, then down the steps and finally around
the neighborhood. Visiting neighbors was her goal.

     If any of you at this meeting have not used a cane before, now you have
heard all these stories and might want to give it a try. Everyone I know
agrees that the NFB cane with its metal tip is the best. For most seniors,
using a backpack or bag with long handles is best for carrying things
because they leave the hands free.