Picture the following senerio. You are going every day to your job by car, maybe stopping to get a bite to eat at a coffee shop of your choice. What if you wake up tomorrow, and you found you couldn't do that? It can happen. Do you know how you would cope with your new found blindness to get you to your coffee shop and work after finding out you couldn't go by car any longer?
Welcome to a project I call White Cane Travel. I'm Jared Rimer. I started this web site in April 2015 because I found a specific need I could not find anywhere else. In fact, the information i was seeking was hard to come by. My mato on my network is to list everything in one place, and this site I feel may do that. I did some research for a company who wanted to learn how blind people travel safely as they never delbt with a blind person before. This agency has delbt with disabled individuals, but none who are blind. Even though these other individuals had other disabilities, they did not have devices to help them travel like blind people do. The disabilities are different in nature, and I was their first blind consumer and the need to teach them in case they had other blind consumers became evident.
The intention of the agency was to make sure I was safe, and I completely understand this. Everything on these pages have been sent to them in link form, and this site makes it easier to share the information I have gathered for them.
This site is not just for them, but for each fully sighted and newly blinded to get resources, ask questions, and get information on how it is like to be blind and traveling with a cane.
Everything for this project was hard to come by. Searching for one term yielded one set of results one time, and another set of results the second time. That made it very difficult to find the links to scope out, verify whether it would be good to post here, and also pass it along to the agency who needed it the most at the particular time.
This site is only going to deal with canes. Blind people also have the luxury of using specialized trained dogs, and it is an option for people who would like to utalize that. Most people you may encounter in your travels use canes, however, some you may encounter may use dogs. This site will only deal with cane resources. If you see someone with a dog, it is only because they chose that as it may be better for them and their needs. There are plenty of resources for dog users and some of those resources may be discussion lists and groups on social media. The cane resources have been checked for accuracy, and those that didn't pass our inspection are not listed. We want to make sure the information provided here is as accurate as possible. Any additions, corrections, or comments are very welcome. Please get in touch if you feel you have something to add here!
On these pages, I will describe my research and what I've learned in the process. We will talk about cane travel, my experience with canes and why I recommend the glow green cane, and finally, we'll talk about tips and canes as a whole and the different types you can get. I also put a page up with all of the resources linked throughout the site. Contact information will be given and a contact form will also be made available for E-mail contact. We have also created an E-mail list where discussion, questions, and answers may be asked and answered based on your needs.
The Cane Information and experience page may also include other experience on other types of canes as well if people would like to contribute. Just contact us through our contact page to submit your story. You may also subscribe to our list and we can discuss it on list where it is also available to the public.
We have a Blog as well! We may post interesting things dealing with travel experiences, news about canes and different tips, and may link to other blogs and articles the staff find of interest. You may go to our blog by going to it through this link. We may be able to post about outages as well, and it will also post our twitter feed tweets once a day in case we don't get to post. You may also comment on any of the items there if you wish, its open to the public and no account is necessary.
The twitter feed posts what is on our blog and tweets and discussion with you, the contributer. You may view our tweets we post by going to our twitter page. Thanks for checking out the twitter.
Podcasts were not thought of when we started the site, but we had a topic, and we have more in mind. This is why there is now a podcast feed, and you may go to the feed so you can copy the link and subscribe in your favorite player. The blog will also be updated, twitter will still be tweeted, and occasionally, a podcast. We hope the podcast will be of value to you, and know that the podcast may contain some strong language and we'll notate if it does. If you would rather use our portal page, go to the portal right here and remember to right click on the link and select save link as or save target as instead of double clicking or entering the link.
If you have any questions, comments, or want to drop by and you're the E-mail type, our contact page is where you'll find us. Telephone, E-mail, and even a place to submit your bugs with the site can be submitted there as well.
We hope this information we provide on these pages are of value, and enjoy your stay here!
If you are interested in donating to this project to keep it alive, please consider going to our donations page to learn how you can donate to the project. Any amount may help offset costs such as getting the word out about this site through advertising, so take a look at stopping by the page and sending something if you can. Thanks for visiting, and please select a link of interest from the list below. Enjoy your stay!
Please choose from one of the following links to navigate around the site. Thanks so much for visiting this site and come back soon!
This site does not endorse any particular product or service linked within these pages. The opinions are those of the people hosting the site. This site is for information and educational purposes only. Please consult a professional mobility instructor if you need immediate assistance with your mobility needs. This site only hosts resources and files that may be of interest in research and educational needs.
Podcasts are provided through our network here at WCT and they may contain some strong language. We want you to be aware of this, and please take this in to account. The opinions expressed in these podcasts are those of the show hosts and may not be a full representation of the JRN, or any other companies that may be on this podcast.
Jared Rimer would like to thank John Field from Wisconsin who got in touch with a mobility instructor named > Stephen McAuliff who is a certified mobility instructor for the State of Wisconsin at > Vision Forward Association. Steve is a > Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist.
We'd also like to thank all of the web sites who sell canes and other devices for the blind and visually impaired. Without you, we would not have the awesome technology we have today.