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I'm going to talk about white canes, blind people travelling, and how some sighted teachers try and police this. Buckle in because this is going to be a long thread.
If you get given a white cane, many teachers will give you one that comes up to your chest, about the length of your sternum. This is the "standard" length, which programmes that train orientation and mobility teachers for blind people say should be used.
Other models of cane travel, such as structured discovery and perceptual navigation, which are primarily taught and created by blind people, recommend a longer cane. Usually somewhere around up to your nose.
My cane is even longer, it reaches up to my forehead. I experimented with different lengths and found that this length works the best for me. It allows me to travel quickly and to have time to react to obstacles in my path.
I am objectively a better traveller because of it, I don't fall down steps or crash into things because I now have the time to respond to my surroundings.
You would think that orientation and mobility teachers, who have the job of getting blind people travelling safely, would celebrate this. For the most part they do not.
I hear stories all the time of blind people having their canes taken away from them and being replaced with shorter versions. Or teachers who refuse to train a blind person until they swap to a different length cane.
Blind people come to me and tell me these stories because they know what my views are. And these people are often trapped, they might need some training, but they can't get it unless they give up the mobility aid that works for them.
This is quite frankly bullshit and a horrible power dynamic. And it's just accepted because that's the way things have always been done. It's ok to treat blind adults like children and punish them for having an opinion, which isn't actually ok to do to children either.
Mobility aids exist to improve the lives of disabled people. Should we ensure that using the mobility aid isn't causing strain on the joints, absolutely. But so long as the mobility aid works for the disabled person and is comfortable, that's where it should end.
Many of these teachers have a self-righteous, angry attitude towards blind people deciding what length cane works best for them. And yet there is no substantial evidence to suggest that shorter canes are better.
What we actually know about blindness and travel is still quite limited. Expectations are typically very low, and many teachers will only teach a blind person routes, because they do not believe a blind person can travel freely.
There is literally no research to back any of this up. Nothing that says blind people are incapable of learning general travel skills as opposed to specific routes. And nothing to say that a shorter cane length makes blind people better travellers.
In fact, the studies that do exist have produced conflicting results. This study indicates that cane length may not have an impact on drop off detection. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3994889/
You're going to find blind people who are excellent at mental mapping and with a certain skill set can travel anywhere. And you're going to find blind people who learn specific routes and find this works best. Because blind people are people, with different strengths.
The age at which the blind person started using a cane, the amount of training they've received, and at what point the blind person lost their vision seem to have a greater impact than the length of the cane itself. This should not be surprising.
Knowing this, why does it matter what length cane a blind person uses. Whether it's to their forehead, or to their chest, so long as they are travelling safely and comfortably it isn't actually anyone’s business.
Suggesting different techniques, lengths and grips is fine, it's good to give a blind student options and show them what's available, but withholding training is not ok.
The only reason I can come up with is that teachers do not like to be wrong. These programmes teach them that they, the sighted, must instruct the blind. Until recently, the criteria to admit students into these programmes was deliberately written to exclude blind students.
A blind person could not get the certification required to teach other blind people how to travel, because the programme directors decided that blind people were not capable of this. And this is still happening across the world.
The thought process is that without their instruction we would be destined for a life of helplessness. When blind people start speaking out and insisting that they know best what they need, the whole notion of a sighted saviour is flipped on its head.
Suddenly, the sighted instructor is not the authority. They may still be needed and valued, but their role has changed. And so has the role of the blind person.
Of course if you only ever teach blind people routes, and tell them they cannot stray from the path, this is all they will be able to do. This limitation is literally created by the professionals, for the most part.
It's such a backwards and counter-productive viewpoint. Just because something has always been taught a certain way, doesn't mean that way is actually the best or that we should continue to use it.
This is why teaching theory exists and why we are constantly trying new methods of instruction because we recognise that traditional methods aren't necessarily superior.
There are some sighted teachers who are speaking out and saying this. I was introduced to Daniel Kish, a blind orientation and mobility instructor, by my sighted teacher. But these people are still a minority within the field.
When will the blindness field catch on? When will it become acceptable to say out loud that perhaps just because we once decided that canes should come up to the breast bone, this may not be the best or only length of cane that is effective.
And when will people start listening to blind cane users and recognising that the individual using the mobility aid has the right to say what feels most comfortable for them.
I do want to quickly share one nice story. A couple of years ago my cane travel teacher from school saw me when I came back to my old school for a teaching placement while I was at uni. The same teacher who introduced me to Daniel Kish.
She was so enthusiastic about my really long cane, and also amused I think because I had been a very reluctant cane user as a teen, trying to get the shortest cane possible because in teen logic this would make me less obviously blind.
She was just so supportive. When I was 15 and wanted to fit in, and now as an adult who didn't care how blind I look. We need more teachers like her.
This blog post expands on some of the points in this thread, and may be easier for some to read. https://bit.ly/2VrTOUx
