Hello accesindian! Friends! Good morning to all of you. Today is 15th October.
Today we are celebrating white cane safety day here is a history of the day.
WHITE STICK AS SYMBOL OF BLINDNESS - HISTORY
(From RNIB reference library information file)
An Englishman and a Frenchwoman both claim to have originated the idea.
1921 - James Biggs of Bristol (as he claims in New Beacon article, Dec. 1937,
pp. 320/321) thought of idea of painting his stick white -- wrote to various
institutions, Chief Constables, newspapers, magazines, etc...
1930 - First reference in New Beacon (December, p. 265) to white stick - "In
Paris, the Prefect of Police is supporting the idea that blind pedestrians
shall carry white sticks"
1931 - February - Mlle Guilly d'Herbemont, with the assistance of one of the
editors of l'Echo de Paris launched national white stick movement in France.
1931 - Taken up by British Press - West Ham Rotary Club's offer to supply white
sticks to blind people in the area accepted - in May, the BBC broadcast the
suggestion that all blind persons should be provided with a white stick, which
should be nationally recognised by the public
1932 - National Institute for the Blind started stocking and selling white
sticks
WHITE CANE SAFETY DAY
By provision of P.L. 88-628, 88th Congress, 2d Session, October 15 to be
proclaimed each year by the President of the United States as White Cane Safety
Day. First such proclamation issued by Lyndon B. Johnson on October 6, 1964.
(Ref.: NOB, Dec. 1964, 58 (10), 332.)
October 15, 1970 was declared International White Cane Safety Day for the first
time by the President of the International Federation of the Blind. This date
was adopted at the first quinquennial convention of the IFB, held in Colombo on
October 4, 1969. (Ref.: Braille International, July 1971, 4(2), 14-18.)
First celebrated in United Kingdom 15 October 1979. (Ref.: New Beacon,
September 1979, 63(749), 232.)
******
(Viewpoint, June 1991)
The White Cane - A Commemoration by Dr. A Mutter
(Editor's note)
The white cane is now recognised as the blind person's mobility aid the world
over. Ever since US President Lyndon S. Johnson first proclaimed it in 1964,
"White Cane Day" has become the day of the year to publicise the needs and
achievements of blind people everywhere. What follows is an appreciation of
Peguilly d'Herbemont, the French woman who was responsible for introducing the
white cane 60 years ago. She was a lady of French high society who devoted much
of her time and fortune to the welfare of the blind. The writer of the article,
himself blind, taught for a time in the mid-30s at Worcester College for the
Blind, later joining the German Diplomatic Service and finishing up as First
Secretary to the German Legation in Berne, Switzerland. The article is
reproduced by kind permission of the German Federation of the Blind, in whose
organ it first appeared in January of this year. It is based on a book
commemorating the originator of the white cane who died in her 92nd year, on
28th February 1980, by Mireille Oblin-Briere who met our heroine towards the
end of her long life. She was so moved by her story that she set it down before
her memories faded altogether and her papers and records were lost to the world.
Peguilly d'Herbemont was born on 25th June 1888 into an old French noble family
of the same name. In her youth she led the conventional and protected
existence, devoid of great activity, of a girl from a "good family", an
existence reminiscent of the life of the aristocracy before the French
Revolution. She never visited a public school, but was educated by German and
English governesses and convent sisters. Her movements were restricted and were
mainly confined to the family positions in Paris and Belgium, but she spent
most of her time at the castle of Charmois not far from Verdun. A lyrical
strain in her nature led her to write quite sensitive poetry, reminiscent of
Verlaine. Her biographer sees their origin in a secret love affair which was
never revealed. In time, this became subsumed by a passionate love of nature
and the sympathy to her less favoured fellow human beings.
In the process of helping individual blind people across the road, Mademoiselle
d'Herbemont was made aware by narrow scrapes which almost led to accidents, of
the precarious situation of the visually impaired brought about by the steadily
increasing traffic on the roads. She first spoke about measures to protect the
blind against street hazards to her mother in 1930, but she was of the opinion
that it was unfit for a lady of good society to create a public outcry and
advised her to stick to the transcription of books, a popular pastime of ladies
of rank at the time.
But the idea did not leave her. The urgent wish to encourage the integration of
the blind into society by providing them with a means of moving about more
freely without endangering others, and at the same time attracting the
attention of passers-by ready to offer assistance, caused her to take the, for
her class, unusual step of writing to the editor of the Paris daily "Echo de
Paris" in which she suggested issuing the blind of the Paris region with white
sticks similar to those used by the traffic police.
The editor took up the idea, published it in November 1930 and saw to it that
the relevant authorities acted with atypical speed. Thus it was that the white
cane received official backing, and on 7th February 1931 Peguilly d'Herbemont,
during a small celebration in the presence of the minister of war, Maginot, as
well as the ministers of education and health, was able to present the
President of the French Blind Veterans and a representative of the civilian
blind each with a white stick as a first step of its recognition as the
official means of protection in traffic.
The occasion and the idea provoking it received great public attention from the
press. On the one hand the idea, while not exactly ingenious, had to be
conceived; on the other, the matter was ridiculed by suggesting that the
victims of marital infidelity should be issued with yellow canes because their
distraught feelings might put them at risk in traffic. But there was general
agreement that this was an altruistic gesture at a time of ruthless competition
and unlimited pleasure seeking.
Each middle has its reverse side. Peguilly d'Herbemont was not destined to rest
easy on the fruits of her ingenuity. Whereas the emphasis on the war veterans
and the restriction to Paris and the Department Seine were undoubtedly intended
to be a beginning only, nation-wide protests soon started to the effect that
all French blind should be issued with a white cane and that the employment of
the blind was also a 'field of honour' .
A few weeks after the introduction of the white cane a tragic accident helped
to complicate matters. The attempt of crossing the Champs-Elysées along the
pedestrian strip under the protection of a white cane ended in a fatal
accident, when Doctor Racine was run over and fatally injured by a wild-cat
driver. Doctor Racine had just qualified as a medical practitioner after many
years and left a mother and a wife with two children without means of
subsistence.
Left extremist circles tried to exploit the situation by ascribing the fault to
the white cane and to make political capital out of the contrast between the
needy blind and the prosperous initiator of the white cane.
Despite a serious illness - a tubercular infection which caused her to seek a
cure in Montana for four years - she returned to her life's work of
distributing white canes wherever she could. In gratitude for a successful
operation in Lausanne, Switzerland, she distributed 100 white canes to blind
people of the Canton in 1938, and initiated the introduction of a new symbol of
blindness in a country where hitherto only the yellow arm band had been
recognised. Over the years, the blind person's cane has changed shape and size,
material of construction and method of use, but not colour. Peguilly
d'Herbemont, who avoided publicity all her life, received many private
expressions of gratitude; in 1947 she was decorated with the Legion of Honour,
and in 1976 received the Freedom of the City of Paris.
(New Beacon, September 1979)
¨ October 15, White Cane Day in many countries is to be celebrated this year
for the first time in the United Kingdom. The object of the exercise is to
stimulate the general public to a better understanding of blindness and visual
handicap, and to make people more aware of the white cane as a mobility aid.
***************************
(New Beacon, December 15th 1937)
HOW I OVERCAME MY BLINDNESS."
This series of articles is intended to show how the many difficulties attendant
on blindness can be overcome in following various occupations and professions
IV.- An ex-Photographer
By James Biggs
Before I can tell you how I have tried to overcome the handicap of blindness, I
must tell you something of my tastes and habits before I lost my sight. As a
youngster I was very keen on athletics (gymnasium, cycling, swimming, rowing,
etc.), and I helped to start the Y.M.C.A. Swimming and Chess Clubs, Winning
medals and prizes in various events. Despite these sporting proclivities,
however, it was decided that music should be my profession. Organ pedals were
fitted to my piano for home practice, and at the age of 22 I obtained Royal
Academy diplomas for both piano playing and teaching, and organised concerts
and played a good deal in public. In turn I became organist and deputy organist
at two or three city churches. Nevertheless, I was destined for another
profession. Amateur photography had always occupied a good deal of my spare
time and gradually I drifted into professional photography. I began by doing
trade work and corporation work; I took series of photographs for contractors
erecting large buildings, for libraries, for a University from foundation to
completion, in fact all kinds of technical and general work. Eventually I
became manager of the photographic department of a very large firm, and later
still a firm's operator traveller, taking military groups, hospitals, etc., and
undertaking all kinds of photography up and down the country for three
provincial newspapers, which meant travelling from Leeds to Plymouth and from
London to Tenby and most of the towns between.
It was about this time that the "crash" came. Whilst taking the place of a man
at the Front employed by a Leeds firm, I received accidentally a violent blow
in the right eye, which resulted in detachment of the retina and after several
weeks in hospital, the sight of this eye went completely. I carried on for some
six months, when the other eye became affected, and altogether I was nearly
eight months on my back with scarcely any movement. The sight ultimately went
from that eye also, and for a time this seemed the end of things. A
"black-out"! Up against a stone wall, at a "dead-end." It seemed terrible at
the time, and I knew then why many commit suicide in similar circumstances. But
after sympathetic talks with the kindly house surgeon and the practical advice
of a cheerful Grenadier Guardsman who had also become blind, I determined to
make the best of a bad job, take a firm grip of things and "carry on. " The
soldier said" What's the use to worry? There are scores worse off than you,
however bad it seems now. You may be poor, but you can be happy. Worrying won't
make things better. Try to see all the fun you can in everything, and above
all, don't bleat your troubles to other people they've got enough of their
own." All this was splendid counsel, and I followed it. It reminds one of the
very practical Americanism "Quit squawking." This saying, by the way, was
quoted recently by a noted London preacher on the Radio.
It was now just like beginning life all over again, but I formed many new
friendships, and after a time things gradually settled down. The soldier had
taught me the Braille alphabet, and still taking his advice, I got cheerful
yarns from the splendid assortment of books in the National Library. It is not
fully appreciated what a blessing to the blind community this library is, with
its vast variety of books on innumerable subjects. The only improvement I can
suggest is that many of the "maudlin,'' miserable, depressing tales should be
burned. The blind want cheerful reading and not doleful, dreary stuff.
Another piece of the soldier's advice was: "Try to cultivate independence. Go
out by yourself as much as possible. Going about with others makes you lose
your nerve when alone." Soon after starting on my travels, it occurred to me
that if my stick were painted white it would help matters. So I tried it, and
the result was eminently satisfactory. I advised others to do the same, and
those who did so found equal benefit. Then I started writing about white sticks
to various institutions, to Chief Constables, newspapers, magazines, motor
journals M.P.'s, including the Minister of Transport; then to newspapers
abroad, in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, France, Egypt and
other countries; also to the Safety First Association, to Rotary Clubs and
similar organisations; and I got the BBC to broadcast the idea. The
organisations I have mentioned took the matter up so heartily that the white
stick movement rapidly spread, for whoever tried the white stick found it most
useful, and now, after 17 years, white sticks are in use over a large part of
the world, and at least 35 per cent of the British blind are making use of
them. It is very gratifying to me to see the scheme spreading and I receive
many letters from those who have proved the value of the white stick. Strange
as it may seem, some sections of the blind appear to object to it at first, but
when they have given it a trial they are as keen as anyone.
In addition to being totally blind, I am stone-deaf in the left ear, and suffer
from vertigo which tends to make me always veer to the left in walking, and a
few years ago, to make matters still worse, a severe attack of sciatica came
on, making movement extremely difficult. After trying many so-called cures,
including an expensive course of electrical treatment, without effect, my son,
who is in the Navy, suggested physical exercise in the form of "army jerks,"
moderate at first but gradually increasing, and carried out regularly night and
morning. This effected a complete cure, and I am now able to do my old trick of
holding out a bucket of coal or water at arm's length on my little finger. Not
bad for all old crock of 70! I have been asked to demonstrate these exercises
to other sufferers, who derive benefit from them.
A matter regarding myself that I have never heard other blind people speak of
is this. When I am asleep, sight is fully restored to me in dreams. Recent
incidents and those of years ago are brought vividly to life. Light and colour
are there as distinct as when sighted. Old friends are recognised, street
scenes, buildings, etc. The anxiety of steering the choir through a difficult
anthem, pulling out the stops and turning over the pages of music, or dodging
about getting the best position for some royal procession, everything is seen
clearly and distinctly. I wonder if other blind people get this sensation, and
I also wonder what people who have never seen dream about.
Let me mention one or two of my "gadgets." For accurate timing I have a cheap
metal clock with the glass removed, and little blob of solder put on the rim
opposite 12, 3, 6 and 9, with file marks by the other figures. If the clock is
hung on a curved dresser hook by your favourite seat and hung on the bed rail
at night, you can get the time to a minute and correct it by the radio. And
what a God-send the radio is! An ever-ready companion, waiting at an instant's
notice to read to you, lecture to you on travel and all manner of useful
subjects, and supply you with a never ending selection of music. I often hear
piano pieces that I used to struggle with, faultlessly rendered on the
exquisite studio pianos, to say nothing of the scores of records. Sighted
people do not know the value of the radio to the blind.
For ordinary correspondence I have had made a light wooden frame to fit over a
Braille writing-frame with 22 piano wires stretched about half an inch apart
and a little above the surface of the paper. This prevents the breaking of the
pencil point and the wires "give" for h's or g's.
Chess and cards are useful for spare time, and I now practise hands of "long
crib" when alone. This is better than "Patience." Instead of using 5 or 6 cards
as in ordinary crib, we tried 9, later 12 and after discarding 4 and turning up
1, you have 9 cards to count. The highest you can have in ordinary crib is 29,
but in the 12 you may hold anything from 4 to 180. This makes it most
interesting.
In getting about I have made many new friends, and some say, "You always seem
very cheerful, but then you have nothing to worry about, I suppose." They spoke
truly," You seem so cheerful."If they only knew! But trying to cultivate that
spirit of cheerfulness is the only way to keep going. Keep your mind occupied
with something all the time, and don't brood over your troubles. Get out in
God's fresh air as much as possible. "Quit squawking" and always carry a White
stick! And finally, just think over this little quotation: "Turn your face to
the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind."
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