I hope you have enjoyed 'The Cane and I' series so far. In Part 3, we look at the first few cane lessons. It's just the start, but if you've read the first two parts of this series, Blind People Faking It': The Truth and Mentally Preparing for Cane Training, you will know it's been... Continue Reading →
The Cane and I, Part 2 – Mentally Preparing for Cane Training
Welcome to Part 2 of the The Cane and I mini-series. We have already looked at how I came to decide I need a cane in Part 1, Blind People ‘Faking It’: The Truth. Next, let’s talk about how I prepared for cane training. This wasn’t a conscious process, but looking back there were two... Continue Reading →
The Cane and I , Part 1 – Blind People ‘Faking It’: The Truth
Many visually impaired people rely on smart phones to navigate their surroundings and without them, some wouldn’t be able to go out on their own. This this technology is vital to our independence, but our ability to use it has caused some people to make accusations of cane and guide dog users faking their visual impairment. Unbelievably, it is still not common knowledge that blindness is not binary. There are many variations of visual impairments that lead to someone using a cane or a guide dog, but there is no visual impairment that is a barrier to using a mobile phone. It’s hugely unfair that visually impaired people have been made to feel uncomfortable about using a smartphone in public due to those incidents that have been talked about in the media and it is time that people were told the truth about blind people ‘faking it’. Because we do fake it, but not in the way you might think.