White Cane Awareness Day
The National Federation of the Blind celebrates White Cane Awareness Day every year on Oct. 15.
The day is meant to raise awareness and promote understanding of the white cane, an essential tool used by people with vision impairments that allows them to live a more independent life.
“It's great for the public to know if you see a person with a cane and it's red at the bottom, just be patient,” said Jessica Sloan, an orientation and mobility teacher with Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV.
Sloan works on orientation and mobility with more than 40 area students with visual impairments.
One of Sloan's students is Kadyn Czepiel, a sixth-grader at Dassa McKinney Elementary School in the Moniteau School District.Kadyn, 11, has lost all vision in his left eye and is learning how to use a white cane, so he can travel independently. Sloan said there are four basic techniques needed when using a white cane: constant contact, two-point touch, trailing and going up steps.Constant contact involves moving the cane on the ground from right to left, feeling for obstructions.Two-point touch is tapping the cane along the ground, which helps in situations in which the ground is bumpy and the cane cannot be rolled on the ground.Trailing is walking with the cane against the bottom of a wall, which helps with moving in a straight line.Traversing steps requires bumping the cane off steps either above when going up a stair or below when going down a stair, and feeling for when the steps end.Sloan said Kadyn has mastered all four of those techniques in two years.
Kadyn approaches each lesson with a positive attitude, Sloan said, and is always willing to help others understand his cane and what he uses it for.“He really embraces learning these skills, which in middle school isn't always the case,” Sloan said. “Some of the kids in the hallways will stop him with curiosity, and he is always eager to explain, willing to share.”Sloan is teaching Kadyn the three-point technique, which is used for navigating curbs, and how to read Braille.After this school year, Kadyn will be the first of Sloan's students to transition to the high school.Sloan said that with a bigger, unfamiliar building, she will need to take Kadyn there ahead of time to become familiar with it.Sloan also plans to recommend that Kadyn be given a locker at the end of a row and an adaptive lock that can be opened either with a key or some type of push.Ultimately, Sloan said she is confident Kadyn has enough skills to use his cane to get around unfamiliar environments.“(A positive attitude) is almost everything. You can't teach that,” Sloan said. “He's so positive it's an inspiration. He inspires me.”
Another of Sloan's students is Moniteau High School senior Robert Benscoter.The 17-year-old has enough usable vision that he does not require a white cane for mobility, but instead is learning to use a monocular for independent travel.Sloan said Robert's vision is 20/400, meaning that what people with perfect vision can clearly see at 400 feet, Robert would need to be 20 feet away to see clearly.While this means the teen is legally blind, Sloan said it is important to realize that just because someone is designated legally blind, it does not mean they cannot see at all.The monocular, which Sloan described as a binocular with just one lens, can be used to help Robert see objects at a distance he otherwise would not be able to.The example Sloan gave was that Robert could be walking on a sidewalk and use the monocular to read a street sign if he wanted to know what street he was on.Sloan began working with Robert two years ago and said he has really embraced using the monocular.“High school is a tough age to use different equipment,” Sloan said. “He's embraced it. His family are big hunters, and he's been able to relate it to using a scope.”
Robert attends the Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School culinary program, and Sloan said he hopes to attend culinary school upon graduating from Moniteau.Sloan said Robert has adaptive equipment he can use while cooking, such as talking scales, oven mitts that cover more of his arms than usual and a finger guard to use while cutting.Like Kadyn, Sloan said Robert's success with her teachings can be attributed to something she cannot teach him.“He's amazing at accommodating and making things work for him,” Sloan said. “You can't teach a kid to accommodate for himself.”Sloan said that raising awareness about visual impairments and the equipment used helps to normalize her lessons for her students.The more people understand about the equipment can make her students feel more comfortable using the equipment and, ultimately, help them be safer when traveling independently.
