How to Teach a Blind Person to Use a Cane

Teaching blind people navigation and orientation skills through the use of a white cane, called a "long" or "mobility" cane, is a highly specialized field. Professional certification requires a master's degree. A blind person works with a qualified teacher, during a four-stage process, to learn correct technique. The cane helps its user form mental maps of his environment, while traveling safely and confidently through it. Cane proficiency is the first step towards independence for a blind person. Most guide dog programs make it a requirement for eligibility.

Things You'll Need

• Mobility cane

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Instructions

• 1

  Give your student the cane. Teach him how to hold it correctly, with one hand centered in front of the body. Instruct him to move it with wrist and fingers only. Arm should remain still. The tip of the cane moves in an arc about an inch wider than the body, in rhythm with walking pace. Practice walking with the cane to develop your student's motor skills.

• 2

  Introduce distractions for your student to overcome. He needs to concentrate on maintaining correct cane technique, without being thrown off his stride by the distractions that he will encounter when using the cane on his own. Ask him questions while he is walking, so he can get accustomed to carrying on a conversation while using the cane. Your student should instinctively self-correct any errors in holding or moving the cane, after developing a feel for right and wrong positions.

• 3

  Add spatial orientation. Encourage your student to feel the position of the sun, notice the direction of any breezes, and listen for unfamiliar sounds. He can't respond to visual cues, so his other senses need to become more finely-tuned to surroundings. Urge him to compile mental lists of landmarks and reference points on various routes. Practice walking from one to the other and back again.

• 4

  Teach your student how to recognize and respond to subtle cues indicating danger. He must learn to pay attention to information the cane is communicating about the immediate environment. These include warnings of approaching drops, such as a curb or open manholes, hazards such as puddles and patches of ice, and unexpected obstacles on the sidewalk. Your student must be able to feel the tip of the cane dipping slightly over the edge of a drop before he reaches it. He should notice how the cane feels on different textures of terrain, and know when it is warning him of the presence of strangely-configured obstacles, such as the protruding handlebar of a bicycle.