Unmasking My Blindness
How adopting a white cane declared my disability to the world
I only started using a white cane about a year ago, but I’ve been going blind for my entire life.
The reason for my vision loss: Retinitis Pigmentosa. It started early in life with a gradual decline in my night vision. As the years progressed, my peripheral vision deteriorated from the outside in.
Now in my early 30s, I see through the tiny windows of my remaining eyesight.
To me, this is normal, this is sight. And until last year, the rest of society saw me as “normal” as well. They didn’t know about my hidden disability.
Then I adopted the cane.
What is The White Cane?
To me, the white cane is both a mobility aid and a symbol of my independence. Over the past year, it’s become a natural extension of my physical being.
To give a more concrete definition, the white cane is a mobility tool and identifier used by many blind and visually impaired individuals. We use it both to tactilely scan our surroundings for navigation purposes and to signal to others that we have a visual impairment.
I could go down a bunch of different topics related to the white cane — its history, use, visual…
