Don’t hold white cane or grab us, offer your elbow: people with visually impairment to individuals who want to help

On the International White Cane Day, people with visual impairment explained the ideal way to help them in navigating on roads. The image is used for representative purposes only.
| Photo Credit: VISHNU PRATHAP

Empathetic individuals who want to help people with visual impairment in crossing or navigating on roads often hold their cane to direct them on main roads filled with traffic. However, people with the partial or complete disability say that this method throws them off the path. The ideal method, they stress, is to let them hold just above the elbow, at the lower portion of upper arm. 

Types of canes

Preetham Sunkavalli, corporate executive, says there are broadly three types of canes: support cane, mobility cane and ID cane. The latter two are used by people with visual impairment. Some of the mobility canes have revolving tips at the bottom.

“My cane tip rolls along the ground. Based on how it vibrates, I can tell what the ground is. If someone holds the cane, it doesn’t vibrate anymore and I don’t get the feedback,” says Mr. Sunkavalli, who has partial visual impairment and uses a cane regularly. 

Mental notes

Sadaf Irfan Khan, who works as a HR recruiter and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advocate, says there are some markings that she makes a mental note of on regular routes. When someone holds the cane and lifts it, she gets disoriented from the route.

Ms. Khan recalls that she was once waiting for a friend by the side of a road when a traffic policeman assumed she wanted to cross the road, held the cane and started to pull her. 

“I was telling him I don’t want to cross the road. It was only after I pulled him by the elbow and said it again that he stopped,” adds Ms. Sadaf.

Recalling an instance, B. Basawaraju, a teacher, who has complete visual impairment, says a person held his cane and started to direct him on a road and left him near a divider. “I was lost for a while,” he said.

The ideal method

T.V. Aishwarya, co-founder of Grailmaker, says that, ideally, a person who wants to help must ask the person with visual impairment to hold them just above the elbow.

“This helps us to know if the person is ascending or descending or moving sideways,” adds Ms. Aishwarya. 

White Cane Day marked

Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma presided over the White Cane Day-2024 celebrations at Samskruti Hall, Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on Tuesday (October 15, 2024). 

Organised in collaboration with Friendly Environment for Disabled (FED), an NGO working for the welfare of the visually impaired, the event underscored the vital role of the white cane as a symbol of independence and empowerment for individuals who are visually challenged. Addressing the gathering, the Governor lauded the extraordinary strength and spirit of people with disabilities. 

Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma presided over the White Cane Day-2024 celebrations at Samskruti Hall, Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on Tuesday (October 15, 2024). 
| Photo Credit:
By Arrangement

The Governor launched India’s first Assistive Compact Device, developed by young innovator Kiran, with support from the Telangana State Innovation Cell, aimed at enhancing accessibility for the visually impaired.