[NFBWATLK] Article: White Cane Day gives students new understanding of blindness, KXLY News, October 16, 2018

[Les Fitzpatrick]

That is awesome, thanks Noell.

Les Fitzpatrick

Piano Technician
Ham Call Sign: K5FPT

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Subject: [NFBWATLK] Article: White Cane Day gives students new understanding
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https://www.kxly.com/news/white-cane-day-gives-students-new-understanding-of
-blindness/808375528

White Cane Day gives students new understanding of blindness KXLY News
October 16, 2018 By Taylor Graham

SPOKANE, Wash. - Some students became teachers at Garfield Elementary
Tuesday, in honor of White Cane Day. The holiday celebrates the blind, but
the school looks at it as a way to educate others.

"We were setting up the course and we heard a lot of kids saying, 'oh my
gosh, it's White Cane Day, this is the best day ever!,'" said Janet Carlson,
an orientation and mobility specialist for Spokane Public Schools.

For 30 minutes, kids walked with canes and played beep kickball while
blindfolded, which gave them a chance to understand what life is like for
six of their classmates.

"Reach out, good job, square off," one staff member told a blindfolded
student. "Now remember, shoulder to shoulder, walk straight."

Second grader Russell Winkler listened as his classmates got lost on the
playground.

"So they know what it's like for me," Russell said. "I know how it feels for
blind kids."

Winkler knows how it feels, because he himself is blind. He let his
classmates into his world on Tuesday.

"It's sort of pretty easy since I've been doing it since I was little - a
baby, I was born like this, so it's pretty easy for me," Russell said.

Some of the other students struggled Tuesday as they made their way through
a cane circut, using the wall, fence and their cane to walk in a circle
around the playground. Other students played kickball -- they kicked the
ball, listened for a beeping noise, then ran to the obstacle making the
noise while blindfolded.

"That is it," Russell said. "You do it for a half an hour."

After half an hour, the 450 students going through White Cane Day could take
off the blindfold. But for Russell, Sadie Barrett and four of their
classmates, this is their reality.

"It's very fun seeing other kids do what we do," said Sadie, who has
septo-optic dysplasia, which she says affects her depth perception.

As they helped others go through the course, they helped them understand
what it's like to be blind.

"They all were really like, 'wow, there's a lot to this. It takes a lot of
concentration. I see now why our students move the way they do in the
hallways," Carlson said. "So it was a really good day."

Garfield Elementary has an award-winning vision program. Elementary students
in the program won the Chase Youth Award for Compassion this year.
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