White Cane Safety Day 2021

According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindeness (IAPB) 2020 data, almost 43 million people are blind. This number is expected to reach 61 million by 2050: 500k more than the population of Italy, more than twice the population of Venezuela, more than 1.5 times the population of Canada, more than 2.4 times the population of Australia, 3 times the population of Mali, more than 1.5 times the population of California, more than twice the population of Texas, more than the population of Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts added together.

White Cane Safety Day or World White Cane Day was first proclaimed and celebrated in 1964 in the United States by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It is since celebrated on October 15 as an acknowledgment of the abilities of the blind and visually impaired people, their achievements, their independence, and the symbol of blindness and tool of independence that the white cane represents.

Despite the technological advancements that improve the lives of impaired people, the white cane remains the basic necessity for blind and visually impaired people to become independent and productive in society. For centuries, blind people relied on canes for mobility purposes. It wasn’t until 1921 that a photographer named James Biggs -who became blind after an accident- painted his walking stick white making him more visible.

The long cane improved throughout history. In 1944, a world war II veterans rehabilitation specialist at Valley Forge Army Hospital named Richard E. Hoover, used a white cane blindfolded around the hospital for many days and developed what is now recognized as the standard training method of “long cane” or the Hoover method. The Hoover method is based on swinging the long cane from the center of the body back and forth before each feet as the person steps.

Recently, Stanford researchers designed a High-Tech white cane, they called the “Augmented Cane”. It has integrated sensors and camera that collect data about the blind person walking environment and employes a haptic feedback that nudges users away from obstacles and supports them with steering direction.