Hey, everyone. Mike Mulligan here. Thank you so much for joining me today. I am a certified orientation and mobility specialist. And in today's video, I'm gonna be talking about the benefits of a long white cane for somebody who's blind or visually impaired.

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So the first thing I'd like to do in this video is just talk a little bit about what a white cane is and how this can be such an awesome tool for somebody who's blind or visually impaired, and then I'm gonna break down the different benefits of the white cane. So a white cane is a tool or device that helps people who are blind or visually impaired travel safely and independently throughout their environment. There are a lot of different types of canes out there, and styles, and heights, and different types of cane tips. So it really helps, if you're interested in a cane or you need some help with a cane, that you meet with an orientation mobility specialist who can really help you decide what type of cane, what type of cane tip would really be the best fit for you, and even give you the training you need to feel comfortable using the cane. So now I'm going to get into the benefits of using a white cane, and the first one I want to talk about, and it's probably the one most people think about when they think of somebody using a white cane, and that is obstacle detection. So that is really detecting obstacles in a person's environment that might be in their travel path or in the direction or way they are walking. And the cane is great at detecting those objects in the environment to make sure the person stays safe. So the cane is out in front of the person. The cane detects that object before the person does. So if they don't have the cane, they might not see that object and come right in contact with it or bump into that object. So having a cane can be really helpful in keeping one safe from those unexpected obstacles, or just obstacles that might be in somebody's travel path. So now I want to talk about the second benefit of a white cane, and that is being able to feel the change in textures or terrain that a person is going to be walking on-- so, being able to feel either when the sidewalk turns to the grass or maybe the carpet turns to the tile in the kitchen. There's a lot of different ways that being able to feel the texture of the ground can be really helpful, can be helpful for orientation-- so, helping somebody know where they're at-- but also for safety, if there's some change in terrain that might be a safety risk for tripping or something like that. But that's actually a great feature of the white cane, is being able to feel that change in textures or terrain. So now I want to talk about the third benefit of a white cane, and that is being able to use the cane to detect landmarks within a person's environment. So landmarks are something permanent or solid that a person uses to help confirm to themselves where they are in their environment. So that could be anything from a set of stairs a pole, a tree, um...could be so many different things, depending on the person and what they're doing and what their route is like. But having the cane is a great way to detect those landmarks to help confirm to the person that they have found that landmark and they are where they think they are. So now I want to talk about the fourth benefit of using a white cane, and I find that many of my clients-- this is the reason they decide to even use a cane, and that is being able to detect the top of stairs. So they're able to find the stairs with their white cane without it being their feet first so they have that safety and confidence that they have found the top of a set of stairs. And also detecting drop-offs in their environment, and a big one is curbs. Curbs can be a real tripping hazard; so having the cane out in front of the person, giving them a few steps of warning, can be really helpful in avoiding a fall or trip on either curbs or stairs. So now for the fifth benefit of the white cane, and that is to be able to identify to other people or the general public that the user is blind or visually impaired. This can be helpful in a lot of different situations. A main one is, say, the person is shopping, and they need to ask somebody for help. The person's more aware of why the person might be asking. Or if somebody accidentally bumps into somebody, and they're using a cane, it's just a little more clear what is going on. So this can be really helpful in a lot of kind of social situations, or out shopping, and different things like that. So now for the sixth benefit of the white cane. It's very connected to the fifth one that I just talked about, and that is being able to alert drivers that the person is blind or visually impaired. So if the person using the cane is crossing streets, it helps just the drivers be more aware and more cautious that the person has a vision impairment and just might need a little extra time to cross the street and so on. And there's also a white cane law in most states in the United States that require drivers to stop for a person who is blind or visually impaired who is using a white cane. So now I want to talk about the seventh benefit of using a white cane-- and I find this one to probably be the most important, at least in my view-- and that is it really increases somebody's safety, confidence, and independence when traveling throughout their environment. So, before using the cane, the person might be hesitant or scared of falling or tripping, but once they start to use the cane, they just feel so much more confident and safe when getting out that they're able to do a lot more things that they weren't doing before. So I work with a lot of different clients who struggle with the idea of should I be using a cane, should I not be using a cane. And there's a lot of genuine concerns there, but once they start to use the cane and feel how they're just feeling more confident and safe, and are able to get out more, really kind of tips the scales, and they become, so to speak, even fans of using the white cane. And there's a lot of different experiences along that line. So I hope this video was helpful in at least sharing some of the benefits of using a white cane, especially if you or somebody you know is on the fence of using a white cane or wasn't sure if that was really the best fit for them. Hopefully this video will help kind of explain what the purpose of a white cane is and how it can be helpful to increase somebody's safety, confidence, and independence. And I also recommend, if you're on the fence about getting a white cane or you want to speak with somebody, reach out to a local blindness agency, which will probably have an orientation mobility specialist like myself who can talk you through it, and even maybe meet with you to decide if a white cane is a good fit for you, and even help decide what size, and what cane tip, and help with all those kind of orientation mobility skills that might be necessary to help increase your independence. And thank you so much for joining me today. I hope this video was helpful. And if you're interested, please subscribe to my channel. And if you click that little bell icon, you'll be notified when new videos are available. And have a wonderful day. Bye.