My braille students and I made white cane pointers for their teachers and their administrators to celebrate White Cane Day this year. We made 36-inch canes from 18-inch model pointers. We chose the larger size, as that is the distance one of my students needs to be from any distance activity. This can serve as a great reminder to the teacher, as well as having a functional use of being a pointer for the teacher.
Materials
- dowel rod (I used 0.625-in x 36-in dowel)
- 0.625 dowel knob
- red paint
- white paint
- black shelf liner (cut into 5 in x 4 in pieces)
- black jute or rope (cut into 8 in pieces)
- painter’s tape
- duct tape
- Gorilla glue
Procedure
The rod was taped off to aid in the painting. The grip was measured to be 5 inches and the red tip was measured to be 4 inches. Each area that was painted received two coats of paint as did the cane “tip”. The “cord” was glued on and then secured in place with duct tape before adding the “grip” on. We used Gorilla glue to affix the tip to the cane as well as the grip to the “cane” shaft.
We printed “The History of the White Cane” by Philip Strong and folded it into an envelope. On the envelope I wrote: “Happy White Cane Day from the Vision Department”. The students delivered their canes to their teachers/administrators on the 14th, as that was when White Cane Day activities were being celebrated in Austin this year. On the 15th during school announcements, there was an announcement made about it being White Cane Day and a few sentences were from the history.
