[Nfbmt] White Cane Safety Day is Tomorrow

[Bruce&Joy Breslauer]

White Cane Safety Day October 15, 2015 

 

White Cane Safety Day: A Symbol of Independence

 

by Marc Maurer

 

In February of 1978 a young blind lady said, "I encounter people all of the
time who bless me, extol my independence, call me brave and courageous, and

 

thoroughly miss the boat as to what the real significance of the white cane
is."

 

The National Federation of the Blind in convention assembled on the 6th day
of July, 1963, called upon the governors of the fifty states to proclaim
October

 

15 of each year as White Cane Safety Day in each of our fifty states. On
October 6, 1964, a joint resolution of the Congress, HR 753, was signed into
law

 

authorizing the President of the United States to proclaim October 15 of
each year as "White Cane Safety Day." This resolution said: "Resolved by the
Senate

 

and House of Representatives., that the President is hereby authorized to
issue annually a proclamation designating October 15 as White Cane Safety
Day

 

and calling upon the people of the United States to observe such a day with
appropriate ceremonies and activities."

 

Within hours of the passage of the congressional joint resolution
authorizing the President to proclaim October 15 as White Cane Safety Day,
then President

 

Lyndon B. Johnson recognized the importance of the white cane as a staff of
independence for blind people. In the first Presidential White Cane
Proclamation

 

President Johnson commended the blind for the growing spirit of independence
and the increased determination to be self-reliant that the organized blind

 

had shown. The Presidential proclamation said:

 

The white cane in our society has become one of the symbols of a blind
person's ability to come and go on his own. Its use has promoted courtesy
and special

 

consideration to the blind on our streets and highways. To make our people
more fully aware of the meaning of the white cane and of the need for
motorists

 

to exercise special care for the blind persons who carry it Congress, by a
joint resolution approved as of October 6, 1964, has authorized the
President

 

to proclaim October 15 of each year as White Cane Safety Day.

 

Now, therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of
America do hereby proclaim October 15, 1964 as White Cane Safety Day.

 

With those stirring words President Johnson issued the first White Cane
Proclamation which was the culmination of a long and serious effort on the
part

 

of the National Federation of the Blind to gain recognition for the growing
independence and self-sufficiency of blind people in America, and also to
gain

 

recognition of the white cane as the symbol of that independence and that
self-reliance.

 

The first of the state laws regarding the right of blind people to travel
independently with the white cane was passed in 1930. In 1966, Dr. Jacobus
tenBroek,

 

the founder of the National Federation of the Blind, drafted the model White
Cane Law. This model act--which has become known as the Civil Rights Bill

 

for the Blind, the Disabled, and the Otherwise Physically
Handicapped--contains a provision designating October 15 as White Cane
Safety Day. Today there

 

is a variant of the White Cane Law on the statute books of every state in
the nation.

 

>From 1963 (and even before) when the National Federation of the Blind sought
to have White Cane Safety Day proclaimed as a recognition of the rights of

 

blind persons, to 1978 when a blind pedestrian met with misunderstanding
regarding the true meaning of the white cane, is but a short time in the
life

 

of a movement. In 1963, a comparatively small number of blind people had
achieved sufficient independence to travel alone on the busy highways of our
nation.

 

In 1978 that number has not simply increased but multiplied a hundredfold.
The process began in the beginning of the organized blind movement and
continues

 

today. There was a time when it was unusual to see a blind person on the
street, to find a blind person working in an office, or to see a blind
person

 

operating machinery in a factory. This is still all too uncommon. But it
happens more often and the symbol of this independence is the white cane.
The

 

blind are able to go, to move, to be, and to compete with all others in
society. The means by which this is done is that simple tool, the white
cane. With

 

the growing use of the white cane is an added element--the wish and the will
to be free--the unquenchable spirit and the inextinguishable determination

 

to be independent. With these our lives are changed, and the prospects for
blind people become bright. That is what White Cane Safety Day is all about.

 

That is what we do in the National Federation of the Blind

 

Model White Cane Law

 

C2011 All Rights Reserved - Copyright 2011 NFB

 

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Address: P.O. Box 1325, Great Falls, MT 59403 

Phone: (406) 454-3096

Email: president at nfbofmt.org

Web Site: www.nfbofmt.org

 

Live the life you want 

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.