You are not logged in. Please login or register.
AudioGames.net Forum → Off-topic room → embarrassed to hold the white cane
Actually, one of the very, very few good things that going to a school for the blind did for me was give me more confidence to use my cane. After all, everybody else was doing it, I wasn't constantly being harassed about it, so that bolstered me enough to not care so much what people thought.
Strange, a lot of the people I know who go there refuse to use canes, at least most of the time, and it doesn't seem like anyone really enforces it one way or another.
I was in blind school for much less than anyone else around here, but was taught O&m years after in the summer tutoring course. The one that made me depend on cane was my braille translator/tutor. Then I started to like it when I discovered I could go anywhere without having to rely on a friend's arm. It was awesome, and I've had my sense of traveling alone from then on.
Similar thing for me in that I hadn't been able to leave the house without sighted help for a few years. It was one day I found myself down the park on a sunny day walking alone with my cane, and I thought this is fantastic to just be out walking again. Though at that point I still found it challenging, and would get quite nervous before going out of the house with no sighted help. I did lapse back into not using the cane for about three weeks after that, but consciously thought I'd better force myself to go out with it every day or it'll get harder and harder to pick it back up again. I think that was the final hurdle between me and my being comfortable with a cane.
I would get out more, but all my friends either have jobs, have other friends they go places with, or they don't go anywhere. I rarely see the point in going somewhere if I will be alone. We don't have anything to eat for dinner or lunch a lot, but that bus trip or walk will take awhile. I love subway, but I don't walk there enough. I guess it is because I don't want to get in the habit of spending money. Because once you start spending it's hard to stop
Hi,
I to am embarrassed to hole the white cane, as it makes me stand out more. The fact is however I've gotten to the point where I no longer care about my personal safety, if I die I die and so be it.
Once, I forgot my cane because I was in a hurry to leave my house. Since I lived in the dorm at the school for the blind I went to, that meant I would have gone a whole week without a cane. My O&M instructor ripped me a new asshole when I asked to borrow one, so I kept it out of spite. I still have that cane to this day, since I prefer graphite canes and that one is alluminum. the point of this story is that, for the totals at least, using a cane was pretty strictly enforced around the school. For those who had low vision, it wasn't though, illustrating one of the many double standards that exist in those places.
In the school for the blind I went to, the totally blind students weren't even allowed to leave uless they'd 'passed' a route. Like...I'm relatively confident about said route, and as I've already stated above, if I mess it up and end up dead, I really couldn't care less.
I lost the rest of my vision at age 11 and had to transition to a cane. Even up through college, I hated using it. Even if walking sighted guide as a teenager, I wouldn't bring my white cane with me. My grandma would tell me, "You need to bring it so people know you're blind and can know that." I didn't see the point in advertising my blindness to the world if I was walking sighted guide with her. Now I'm 28, and a much more confident person with less of a "give a damn" about society. If I have a hand free with sighted guide, I have my cane in it. I want to know I have that tool with me if I need it. It also gives me more information about the world around me as we're walking. I still get very nervous in crowds though. I tend to pull my cane back to try to avoid tripping people around me. I haven't developed that bullish charge ahead mentality yet. My mobility instructors tell me I'm so gentle with my cane because I don't make a lot of noise with it or bash it around. I don't want to be bashing and crashing around, so I tend to use my ears a lot for spacial orientation. Also, I have a purple cane with a rolling tip, and people dig the purple color.
I'm been using a cane for most of my life, since like kindergarden, years before I went completely blind. But sometimes I walk way too fast and that's when my cane skills get bad. Also when I am in familiar areas, I tend to not use it well either. Like at school. But if I am not moving extremely fast, I have a good skillset with my cane. But then there is that habit of talking on the phone while I am walking. Really dumb for me to do. If I am walking in a neighborhood I think that's ok, but talking on the phone while in busy places, yeah I'm guilty of it, and I shouldn't have done it even once, but no one is perfect. So that's a habit that I need to stop if I want to be safer.
To start off, i have used a cane since the age of 5. I am 30 now, and I am totally blind.
For those of you not wanting to advertise to the world, there is something that you are forgetting. Having a cane tells people that you might not be able to see them. For example, when someone is driving a car, and they see someone walking across a streett, they expect that person to react a certain way. Now, if that same person sees someone walking with a cane, they might think to slow down or pay a little more attention because the cane tells them you are blind. This is one of the reasons I am against people putting odd colors on their canes. I think all canes should look the same, so the public will learn what they stands for.
I personally don't use a cane while doing sighted guide; it tends to get in the way and I wasn't taught to do it that way. I do keep my folding cane on my belt, and I can pull it off and move around on my own when I need too.
Unless it's a street that is busy, I don't need my cane. My hands, coupled with my graite echolocation type skills works just fine. But a cane does help people know I'm blind, and find things on the ground I can't hear.
I use echo location to cross streets as well. My main problem is most people think I can see because I turn my head when I am tracking a car or talking to someone. Without the cane in my hand, people tend to assume I can see.
@64 I do as well. People get confused when I look directly into there eyes, or at least into there face, my eyes never sit still so I can't lock ont something like that.
AudioGames.net Forum → Off-topic room → embarrassed to hold the white cane
Generated in 0.018 seconds (54% PHP - 46% DB) with 9 queries
