Last week I wrote about the importance of
taking my white cane with me so that other people would see it and recognize
that I am someone with a vision impairment. I wrote that a white cane is a
useful tool for identification. This week I was reminded that this doesn’t
always work.
Again, I was in a large medical facility
and for the umpteenth time was sitting with a young staff person to give my
personal health history. When she was done, she looked up and commented, “I see
you have a walking stick. Why is that?”
My cane was folded on my lap at the time
but I told her that it was a white cane and that I carried it because I was
legally blind.
“Oh!” said the young woman. “A white cane?
I’ve never heard of that before.”
I am sure that my mouth fell open in
surprise. This person was in her mid-twenties and worked in a medical facility
and yet had never heard of a white cane. It is an instance like this that
reminds me that education about white canes and their significance and purpose
still has a way to go.
As I reflected, I remembered coming across the
following quote:
In order to educate the blind, one must
first educate the sighted.
Wow cannot believe that someone working in a medical clinic did not know what a white cane was for.
ReplyDeleteDorothy