White Canes

Today celebrates and recognises the achievements of people who either can’t see or who have a visual impairment. It’s often a white cane which provides them with their independence. It was October 15^th 1964 when this day officially became a day of celebration. In 1970, it was declared an International Day of celebration. Let’s go back to 1921… James Briggs was a photographer in England until he lost his sight. He suddenly found it frightening to walk around his home, hearing the traffic passing him and not being able to see anything. So, James painted his walking stick white… in the hope people would see him more easily.

Then, in 1931, in France Guilly d’Herbemont launched a white stick movement for people who were blind. 5000 white canes were sent to blind French war veterans and blind civilians. In America, Lions Club International members promoted the idea of white canes for the blind. After WWII, Richard E. Hoover used a white cane for a week. He walked, blind-folded, around the hospital with the wooden cane. Finding it heavy to carry, he designed light weight, long canes. He also developed the swinging motion, which people with canes still use today. Today’s blind children are being introduced to the cane much earlier than ever before. Once, children were made to wait until they were 7-10 years old before getting their first cane. Now, children are being encouraged to start using a cane as soon as they can walk. These canes are longer, but the children learn to walk correctly and gain independence from a much earlier age.

Info and picture

Challenge: spend the day blindfolded… good luck!

It’s also Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day – eww! Awful thought! I’m going to pretend I can’t see how messy my virtual desktop is!