Re: [AI] info regarding white cane day
restored to me in dreams. Recent incidents and those of years ago are brought vividly to life. Light and colour are there as distinct as when sighted. Old friends are recognised, street scenes, buildings, etc. The anxiety of steering the choir through a difficult anthem, pulling out the stops and turning over the pages of music, or dodging about getting the best position for some royal procession, everything is seen clearly and distinctly. I wonder if other blind people get this sensation, and I also wonder what people who have never seen dream about. Let me mention one or two of my gadgets. For accurate timing I have a cheap metal clock with the glass removed, and little blob of solder put on the rim opposite 12, 3, 6 and 9, with file marks by the other figures. If the clock is hung on a curved dresser hook by your favourite seat and hung on the bed rail at night, you can get the time to a minute and correct it by the radio. And what a God-send the radio is! An ever-ready companion, waiting at an instant's notice to read to you, lecture to you on travel and all manner of useful subjects, and supply you with a never ending selection of music. I often hear piano pieces that I used to struggle with, faultlessly rendered on the exquisite studio pianos, to say nothing of the scores of records. Sighted people do not know the value of the radio to the blind. For ordinary correspondence I have had made a light wooden frame to fit over a Braille writing-frame with 22 piano wires stretched about half an inch apart and a little above the surface of the paper. This prevents the breaking of the pencil point and the wires give for h's or g's. Chess and cards are useful for spare time, and I now practise hands of long crib when alone. This is better than Patience. Instead of using 5 or 6 cards as in ordinary crib, we tried 9, later 12 and after discarding 4 and turning up 1, you have 9 cards to count. The highest you can have in ordinary crib is 29, but in the 12 you may hold anything from 4 to 180. This makes it most interesting. In getting about I have made many new friends, and some say, You always seem very cheerful, but then you have nothing to worry about, I suppose. They spoke truly, You seem so cheerful.If they only knew! But trying to cultivate that spirit of cheerfulness is the only way to keep going. Keep your mind occupied with something all the time, and don't brood over your troubles. Get out in God's fresh air as much as possible. Quit squawking and always carry a White stick! And finally, just think over this little quotation: Turn your face to the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind. - Original Message - From: Anirban Mukherjee sparsha.anir...@gmail.com To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2011 9:49 PM Subject: [AI] info regarding white cane day Dear all, please give me some information regarding white cane day, it's history, how it is celebrated in India etc. we, Paschimbanga Rajya Pratibandhi Sammelani, an affiliate association of National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, are pondering over placing some demands to the government related to trafic problems faced by the persons with visual impairment. please share your own views regarding this topic as well and please suggest what demands can be raised. looking forward to your suggestions and lively inputs with warm regards and greetings, Anirban Mukherjee, Paschimbanga (West Bengal) Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Re: [AI] info regarding white cane day
Dear sir. Very good posting. Thanks a lot. Mittal -Original Message- From: accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of srinivas.karnati Sent: Monday, September 05, 2011 1:01 AM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: Re: [AI] info regarding white cane day Please find an article regarding white cane day WHITE STICK AS SYMBOL OF BLINDNESS - HISTORY (From RNIB reference library information file) An Englishman and a Frenchwoman both claim to have originated the idea. 1921 - James Biggs of Bristol (as he claims in New Beacon article, Dec. 1937, pp. 320/321) thought of idea of painting his stick white -- wrote to various institutions, Chief Constables, newspapers, magazines, etc... 1930 - First reference in New Beacon (December, p. 265) to white stick - In Paris, the Prefect of Police is supporting the idea that blind pedestrians shall carry white sticks 1931 - February - Mlle Guilly d'Herbemont, with the assistance of one of the editors of l'Echo de Paris launched national white stick movement in France. 1931 - Taken up by British Press - West Ham Rotary Club's offer to supply white sticks to blind people in the area accepted - in May, the BBC broadcast the suggestion that all blind persons should be provided with a white stick, which should be nationally recognised by the public 1932 - National Institute for the Blind started stocking and selling white sticks WHITE CANE SAFETY DAY By provision of P.L. 88-628, 88th Congress, 2d Session, October 15 to be proclaimed each year by the President of the United States as White Cane Safety Day. First such proclamation issued by Lyndon B. Johnson on October 6, 1964. (Ref.: NOB, Dec. 1964, 58 (10), 332.) October 15, 1970 was declared International White Cane Safety Day for the first time by the President of the International Federation of the Blind. This date was adopted at the first quinquennial convention of the IFB, held in Colombo on October 4, 1969. (Ref.: Braille International, July 1971, 4(2), 14-18.) First celebrated in United Kingdom 15 October 1979. (Ref.: New Beacon, September 1979, 63(749), 232.) ** (Viewpoint, June 1991) The White Cane - A Commemoration by Dr. A Mutter (Editor's note) The white cane is now recognised as the blind person's mobility aid the world over. Ever since US President Lyndon S. Johnson first proclaimed it in 1964, White Cane Day has become the day of the year to publicise the needs and achievements of blind people everywhere. What follows is an appreciation of Peguilly d'Herbemont, the French woman who was responsible for introducing the white cane 60 years ago. She was a lady of French high society who devoted much of her time and fortune to the welfare of the blind. The writer of the article, himself blind, taught for a time in the mid-30s at Worcester College for the Blind, later joining the German Diplomatic Service and finishing up as First Secretary to the German Legation in Berne, Switzerland. The article is reproduced by kind permission of the German Federation of the Blind, in whose organ it first appeared in January of this year. It is based on a book commemorating the originator of the white cane who died in her 92nd year, on 28th February 1980, by Mireille Oblin-Briere who met our heroine towards the end of her long life. She was so moved by her story that she set it down before her memories faded altogether and her papers and records were lost to the world. Peguilly d'Herbemont was born on 25th June 1888 into an old French noble family of the same name. In her youth she led the conventional and protected existence, devoid of great activity, of a girl from a good family, an existence reminiscent of the life of the aristocracy before the French Revolution. She never visited a public school, but was educated by German and English governesses and convent sisters. Her movements were restricted and were mainly confined to the family positions in Paris and Belgium, but she spent most of her time at the castle of Charmois not far from Verdun. A lyrical strain in her nature led her to write quite sensitive poetry, reminiscent of Verlaine. Her biographer sees their origin in a secret love affair which was never revealed. In time, this became subsumed by a passionate love of nature and the sympathy to her less favoured fellow human beings. In the process of helping individual blind people across the road, Mademoiselle d'Herbemont was made aware by narrow scrapes which almost led to accidents, of the precarious situation of the visually impaired brought about by the steadily increasing traffic on the roads. She first spoke about measures to protect the blind against street hazards to her mother in 1930, but she was of the opinion that it was unfit for a lady of good society to create a public outcry and advised her to stick to the transcription of books, a popular pastime of ladies of rank at the time. But the idea
[AI] info regarding white cane day
Dear all, please give me some information regarding white cane day, it's history, how it is celebrated in India etc. we, Paschimbanga Rajya Pratibandhi Sammelani, an affiliate association of National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, are pondering over placing some demands to the government related to trafic problems faced by the persons with visual impairment. please share your own views regarding this topic as well and please suggest what demands can be raised. looking forward to your suggestions and lively inputs with warm regards and greetings, Anirban Mukherjee, Paschimbanga (West Bengal) Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
