An exciting end to last week, VisAbility celebrated International White Cane Day on Sunday 15 October. A day to raise awareness about White Cane Users in the community, International White Cane Day is to celebrate the range of mobility aids available to people living with vision impairment and blindness, and to recognise that they can and do travel independently in our community.
This year, Guide Dogs Australia and VisAbility partnered to conduct a survey on white cane users experiencing collisions with other people on the street. The study revealed that almost half of all people who use a white cane were bumped into at least once every time they are out, with almost 60% of cane users reporting the incidences were caused by people engrossed in their mobile devices! To raise awareness about pedestrians keeping their ‘Eyes Up’, VisAbility created a video highlighting the issue. Kenneth Phua, white cane user and VisAbility Radio Host featured in the video, and spoke to us about his previous experiences with people on their phones. “I’ve definitely had the occasional experience being bumped into. It’s hard enough navigating while being blind, so if the person on the street with sight chooses to be blinded by looking at their devices, then we are set on a collision course. My white cane can’t tell me where they’re looking. I’m hoping a campaign like this will educate the younger generation to look out for others while commuting” Kenneth said. You can watch this video here.
To celebrate International White Cane Day, VisAbility team members, friends and community members gathered in Fremantle on Friday 13 October for our annual Beach Walk. The rain held off and the group enjoyed the lovely walk to Bathers Beach followed by a finish at Cicerello’s for a delicious dinner. Thank you to everyone that turned out, it was a fantastic event to celebrate. You can see our photos here.
In addition to this to raise awareness for White Cane Day on Sunday 15 October we invited our wonderful Facebook community to send us photographs of where they were using their cane! We saw lots of great pictures, some enjoying the spring weather and others having fun on a holiday trip to a concert! We loved seeing your photos, a big thank you to all who shared.
That wraps up the International White Cane Day celebrations for 2017. On behalf of VisAbility we thank you getting involved and spreading awareness with us. Until next year, happy White Canes everyone!