Every year on October 15th, we celebrate White Cane Day to raise awareness of this remarkable tool of independence and the skills with which it is used by blind people to independently move about their world. Cane travel (sometimes called “Orientation and Mobility”) is probably one of the least understood basic skills of blindness. It is a unique and exciting skill set that takes some time and practice to develop, but it enables blind people to move about independently in almost any situation when mastered.

I was trained in the Structured Discovery Cane Travel method (SDCT) at the Nebraska Commission for the Blind in the late 80s. This method, which utilizes blindfolds and (most of the time) a blind instructor over several months, means that I have never had to have formal orientation and mobility training again, even when traveling or moving to different cities. It is a bit of a different approach than more traditional O&M instruction, where mostly sighted instructors teach a blind person to memorize pre-prescribed routes that have been supervised and approved by a sighted instructor. Structured Discovery uses a sort of Socratic questioning, plan-ahead research and “detective” methods to gather clues and information to enable the blind person to go anywhere they want without sighted pre-approval.

What are Basic Skills Anyway?

In my previous post, I talked about basic skills being so important to using adaptive tech and I described how my partner, Nik and I found our way to a train station in a unfamiliar city using basic skills that we learned in structured discovery. (Nik, who is also blind, did not formally learn SDCT, but he essentially did a self-taught organic version of it when he lost his vision at the age of 11. He has had almost no formal cane travel training but is one of the best travelers I know.) I thought that I would list some of the specific basic skills that I learned in SDCT and to highlight some of the differences between this method and more traditional O&M practices.

The Long White Cane

I was taught cane travel with an NFB fiberglass rigid cane that came up to my chin. I now use one that comes up to about my nose. This cane is lighter and more “springy” than the more traditional ambutech collapsible aluminum canes that you often see. The longer length allows more reaction time and allows for a faster pace. the flexibility of the cane allows for more tactile feedback and when it occasionally stabs you (as all canes are wont to do) it bends and does not hurt as much as the less bendy, heavier aluminum collapsible.  It is also much lighter in your hand, which you hold at a comfortable level by your belly button instead of out in front of you at arm’s length. The NFB cane has a metal tip which makes a distinct “tap, tap, tap” on the ground. I am Deaf, so I can’t vouch for this, but Nik tells me that this tapping sound gives an enormous amount of sonic feedback, unlike the nylon or plastic alternatives. I still like the feel of the tap of the metal cane. It gives a vibration to the fiberglass shaft of the cane that I don’t feel in the nylon/aluminum canes.

Critics claim the cane is too long and gets in the way of others when walking. There is some common sense to this. If used in a crowded space, a “pencil grip” may be required to shorted up the extension of the cane. But the good thing about the longer cane is that you have the option of shortening or lengthening it up to what suits your needs. As far as stashing the cane, I was taught how to store it in a car, on a plane, in a theater, at a restaurant, etc. so that it doesn’t get in the way. If you know these methods, stashing is not a big deal. I do have a folding version of the NFB cane, and there are instances where having a folding cane is appropriate, like when you ride on amusement park rides, for example. But generally, there is not a great need to fold up a cane in most circumstances.

“Gait”

Traditional O&M instructors work a lot with “gait.” But I think I only had about 5 or so minutes of instruction on how to actually step and tap the cane. Cane travel is 99% of what goes on in your head and only about 1% of how you walk or actually swing your cane. Essentially, you alternate swings and feet. When you step with your left foot, your cane swings to a bit wider than your right shoulder, and when you step with your right foot, you tap your cane a bit wider than your left and so on. This will give you a two-step reaction time when you hit an obstacle. As confidence builds, so will your speed and thus “gait” will become more natural and improve. The best way to learn to use the cane is to get out there and use it, even if you don’t have the best gait. A poor gait should not hold you back. The goal is to travel functionally and independently. Looking pretty while doing it (read: like a sighted person) should be a low priority, especially at first.

Canes are supposed to hit things. That’s how they work. When they hit things, go around them. If the thing you hit is alive, say “excuse me” and go around them. It’s no harder than that. Thinking too hard about obstacles or spending too much time trying to walk a perfectly straight line trying to avoid them takes too much time and concentration. It takes your brain away from the more important aspects of cane travel and makes you feel self-conscious every time you hit something, as if you failed. You didn’t. If you are hitting things with your cane, you are doing it right. A story I like to tell is about a time when I was at a conference and the panel of blind people was switching out to make way for another panel of blind people to come up and speak. “Tap, tap, bang, bang, tap” went about ten canes. An older woman suddenly exclaimed, “Listen to that! That is the sound of independence! Never be ashamed of using your cane.”

There are  a few other cane techniques, like how to use it to detect stairs, particular landmarks you want to find, shore lining to find a sidewalk, etc. But that it pretty much the “cane” part of cane travel. The ‘travel” part is much more fun. And that takes place entirely in your brain.

Mental Mapping

As I said, 99% of cane travel goes on in your head. You need to understand and take responsibility for where you are in space and where you are going. Even if you use a sighted guide, you need to be responsible for where you are (which is why I was always taught to use my cane while using a sighted guide. I am still responsible for finding steps, etc. even if the guide is also helping me.) I grew up in the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro area, and even though I lived there and visited there often for 25 years, I don’t know my way around there very well. And that is entirely because when I lived there, my parents took responsibility for all of my mobility. This is typical of most kids, but even as an adult, I don’t know my way around there very well because I never took responsibility for my own mobility when I was there. I always had my parents. After I had cane travel instruction and lived and traveled to other cities, I started taking responsibility for my mobility. This does not mean that I never ask for help or a sighted guide, or get a ride from someone, or ask questions when I get lost. This means that I don’t turn off my brain and turn over my responsibility for my mobility to someone else entirely. This is one of the main challenges I see with many blind people who struggle. They have always depended on others to take responsibility for where they are in space and where they are going. They have not practiced doing this themselves. A variety of mental mapping methods allow this skill to develop

Cardinal Directions

Keeping a working compass in your head so that you know which way north, south, east, and west is at any given time is a great skill to develop. It takes time to develop this skill, but it is essential for creating a mental map in your head. If you lose your mental compass, all kinds of clues might help you find it again. The sun on your face, an address of a house, a one way street, which way a door or window is facing are all ways to re-establish your compass. Also necessary is to know how to translate your NSEW directions into lefts and rights and vice versa. You will find that the majority of the world does not have this skill and you will need to translate a lot of instructions from left/right into cardinal directions. Cardinal directions are a fantastic tool to orient yourself.

Know City Planning Patterns

Every city or town has patterns, and these patterns are a great tool to orient yourself. For example, I know that in Portland, there are five “sections” labeled North, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. Every address has a letter designation to tell which section it is. I know that the dividing line for east and west is the Willamette River and the dividing line for North and South is Burnside Street. I know that in downtown Portland, the traffic goes in a rough grid and that the streets alternate one way directions. I know that at about Burnside, the grid “turns at an elbow of the Willamette River.” I know that addresses on the  East and South sides are even numbers and on the North and West sides are odd numbers. I know that the NE and SE sections of town are grids but there are a few diagonal streets such as Sandy Blvd. I know that it gets a little messy in the West Hills. All of these things allow me to make a mental map in my head that I fill in as I go along. After living here for 20 years, the map is very extensive.

But even when visiting a city, a quick bit of research can give you the basics of this information. You can google information about the city, call the bus company or a chamber of commerce, or call a local NFB chapter and get a good ten minute review of basic city planning principles. Just a basic understanding of city layout and organization can give you a powerful tool to travel in an unfamiliar place.

Know How to Drive

Ok, I don’t mean literally drive, but understand how traffic works and how intersections work. You can get a digital copy of the DMV drivers manual for your state and this can tell you a lot. Understand whether drivers can turn right on red. Understand whether U-turns are allowed. Understand the variety of traffic patterns at intersections, such as when the turn lanes happen and what a blinking green arrow means, or where left turn islands might be, for example. Cities are notorious for having inconsistent intersections that have different turn lane patterns. So understand how to wait a cycle or two at an intersection until you understand what is going on. (Politely ignore those who yell at you to go, or not go) Beware of depending on audio traffic signals that chirp and cuckoo in no consistent manner and rely on your own assessment of parallel and perpendicular traffic.

Understand the Transit System

Many transit systems have customer service agents who will help you learn it, but you can also just study the website or app and talk to people who use transit. Understand where the main arteries of transit are, where the transit centers are, how the schedules and payment systems work, etc. This develops over time and you sometimes just have to get out there and do some trial and error to figure out the best way to utilize transit. If at all possible, try to live near transit hubs and stay out of the suburbs unless your suburb has excellent transit access.

Be a Detective

There are literally thousands of clues around you that you can learn to incorporate into your sensory perception of where you are. This is where I see the most advantage of having a blind travel instructor over a sighted one, because unless they really focus and train under blindfold extensively, sighted instructors tend to miss a ton of usable non-visual information. This can include anything from smells, like a gas station smell or a coffee shop smell, to sounds, like this is the corner where there is a bird shop on the northwest corner, or this  is a one way street, to tactile information like, this is where the sidewalk turns to brick or this decline tells me that I’m nearing an ally. The sun on your face or the rain suddenly stopping because you are under an awning are all clues. This is a really cool part of being blind. You notice and interpret things in your environment that no one else even comprehends. The tactile information I get from my fiberglass cane gives me a wealth of information that I can’t even quite describe. Those with better hearing also can interpret the sounds of tall buildings, open spaces, trees, etc. I am not good at that, but I can feel sudden changes in the wind and pressure and a feel of openness or closeness which are additional clues. Ask yourself questions about what you hear, feel, smell even sometimes see or taste and collect this information in your internal mapping file in your brain. After a while, these clues will incorporate themselves along with your internal compass and your knowledge of your city and its patterns. You will develop a fairly elaborate mental map that you can follow with ease.

Don’t Be Afraid to Get Lost

Everyone, and I mean Everyone gets lost from time to time. It can be frustrating and even a little scary sometimes, but it’s no different if you are sighted or blind in that regard. Sighted people are allowed to get lost and figure out how to find their way, but when it happens to blind people, it can be looked upon as a crisis or a failure. It’s not. It’s just life. Don’t let the fear of getting lost stop you from your adventures. Unless you are in the middle of a deserted and wild forest in the dead of winter, you probably aren’t going to die. You can get yourself out of it. The first thing I do once I make the declaration that I am lost is to take a few minutes to just clear my head. Take a few deep breaths and maybe have a laugh at myself. Then, I usually start from trying to figure out my cardinal directions, gather clues as to what is around me, retrace my steps from the last point where I knew where I was and see if I can make sense of it. I might also ask passersby, if available, specific questions. I find its best not to say “I’m lost! Help!” because they tend to get flustered and run away. It a self-assured manner, just ask, “what street is this in front of me?” or “Which way to my destination?” or “Did I just cross X street?” You can ask which direction you are facing, but they likely won’t know. If you think of a big landmark that everyone knows, it might help. “Which direction is the Willamette River from here? Is it behind me?” It also helps a lot to ask two or three people (if available) the same questions to sort of triangulate your data because often people don’t know much about where they are or may be from out-of-town or just mistaken. Wait a few minutes until you ask the next person, though, to avoid upsetting the first person. Take your time and take all information with a grain of salt. Ask yourself if it makes sense.

You can also find some transit. Listen for busses or trains and go to any bus stop. Transit drivers know their stuff and you can ask them for directions or you can get on the bus, any bus, because it will likely at least take you to a familiar train station or transit center, and then you are on your way. Also, know the cab numbers by heart as that can always be used as a back up to get you out of a pickle. Go to a nearby business and ask for the address. You can even knock on a residential door, and hopefully, a nice person might let you wait for a cab there and even help you call it. Now, with ride share apps like Uber and Left, this is even easier.

I’ve tried to stay away from tech, here, because this is supposed to focus on “basic skills.” But the reality is that tech makes it much harder to get lost. Your google map will tell you where you are and where to go. Your compass can tell you your direction. An app like blind square will also tell you where you are and where to go. But in case your batteries ran out, there are other ways to get un-lost. Its frustrating, it happens, but it’s not a tragedy and it’s not a reason to limit your mobility.

Know that Cane Travel is a Specialized Skill that the Average Person Can Learn

When I say that traveling while blind is almost entirely in your head, I am talking about the mental problem-solving skills you need to learn, but I’m also talking about something else. Confidence that you can do this. Give  yourself permission to be an expert on traveling. You are the expert on traveling while blind and you have the advantage in a lot of situations over others who use their vision only. Traveling without sight is a highly specialized skill that not many people learn how to do. It does take time and practice to develop these skills. However, in the sort of cultural narrative in a sighted world where the vast majority of people don’t ever learn or practice this, the myth is that it is impossible. It’s not. Getting around using other senses besides sight is highly learnable skill that the average person, with training and practice can become competent at. Barring other disabilities that may affect cognitive, mobility or sensory functions, anyone who puts the time in can learn this. Even those with other disabilities can become competent at it with additional work or by modifying aspects of it and adding some additional supports. Its just that most people don’t have to learn it, so don’t think to hard about it and thus don’t believe that it is possible. Blind people don’t get hit by cars at higher rates than other pedestrians. They generally tend to get where they are going as others do, they just do it using different, more deliberate methods. So many times, it feels like blind people just need the confidence and “permission” to be told they can do these skills and work on these skills and they will be successful at these skills. It’s not surprising that people lose confidence in their own ability to move around their environment when they are constantly being told they can’t do it and that it is too dangerous. It’s not any more dangerous than how sighted people travel, in fact, it may be less dangerous because blind people use a lot of redundant systems and extra caution. (Most blind people would never jaywalk or rush across the street on a yellow light, for example. They stay out of cars less and are less at risk in car accidents. They do not take safety measures for granted). Traveling while blind may seem “amazing’ to others in the same way that a gymnast on a balance beam seems amazing to others, because it is a highly specialized skill that most people don’t learn. But most people recognize that a gymnast has put in considerable time learning the skills and that they are, in fact, possible when practiced. Cane travel is the same way. Don’t believe the hype. When given time and practice, traveling without sight has proven over and over for generations to be not only possible, but rather ordinary for the blind people doing it.

Be Adventurous and Experiment

Try to learn your way around when you have time to kill, not when you are under pressure to be somewhere at a particular time. If you move to a new city, spend some time researching the city and hanging out with other blind people who will let you shadow them, but also just go out and take walks and get on busses and trains. start simple and venture further and further as you go. Try and take a new walk or ride a little further each day when time permits. It’s fine to get help from others to show you around, but also don’t be afraid to just venture on your own. Look up an interesting coffee shop or destination that interests you, do research on the route at home before you leave, and then just go. One of the best things about my SDCT experience was that my blind travel instructor not only sometimes got lost with me (and then made me figure out how to get back on track) but largely let me go adventure on my own. My only other sort of formal O&M training was at guide dog schools, where a sighted instructor not only follows you everywhere a couple of steps behind, but tells you what is coming up as you go, seemed almost pointless to me. It was good to spend that time bonding with the dog and refreshing myself of all the guide dog commands, but my guide dog training didn’t really start until I got home and could go off on my own. That is when I really figured out how it felt when I dog stopped for steps and how to trust the partnership with my dog. When a sighted person is constantly with you and spoon-feeding you information, you become dependent on them (even if you don’t mean to) and you don’t develop your own sense of orientation and mobility. I hear people talk about how an 0&M instructor told them they couldn’t cross this street or live in that neighborhood because the instructor didn’t approve. That isn’t really what they should be doing, they can give you information about the environment and advice on how to maneuver it, but assessments of risk and safety are the responsibility of the blind person only. Visual information is only one set of clues in all the clues you will use as a detective to assess an environment. Visual information is no more reliable than any other set of information and should not be prioritized over your own abilities to maneuver through space. So, adventure out on your own, take your time, get lost, and find yourself again. GO WHEREVER YOU WANT TO GO!

Happy White Cane Day!

For more detailed information about cane travel, read Care and Feeding of the Long White Cane.

Get a free NFB rigid long white cane from the NFB’s Free Cane Program.

The NFB 2018 Press video for White Cane Day: