Years ago, there was a public service announcement on tv. It was put out by an agency that provides services to blind people. I believe it was inspired by my requests for them to help with the awareness effort for the checkered eye symbol for low vision. One of their reasons for not helping was that there is a symbol for blindness already; the white cane. I acknowledged that and told them that I use one myself but that it’s not always the best option to communicate my blindness. Few people understand that white canes may be used by people with many levels of blindness, not just completely blind people, so while improving understanding of the cane, let’s also inform people about the wearable blindness symbol, the checkered eye. They declined to help with checkered eye awareness but came up with a series of PSAs to inform people that “not all people who look blind are completely blind”.
In one of the spots, a young boy waves his hands mockingly in front of the face of a man carrying a white cane.
Here’s my fantasy of what I’d do if a kid did that to me.
Description: I, a slightly smaller than average adult female, walk up to an intersection where two young men are leaning on the stop sign. I am carrying my white ID cane and I stop. One of the young men elbows his friend as if to say “watch this” then gets all up in my face waving his hands around.
I give him a swift left hook and he lands face down on the ground.
