When I was first blinded I was told in word and action that my white cane was an embarrassment and that I; by extension, was an embarrassment as well.
As I was trying to get a grip on my new reality, my mother was busy shoving my cane into the background; insisting that I was better off without it. I remember times when she would wrench my cane from my hand and stick it back in the corner as we were leaving our home. She always insisted that it was just in the way; she would sight guide me instead.
This notion crippled me from the very beginning. I personally have many issues going sighted guide. When using this method of navigation, A blind person is literally surrendering their free will to another person. If you simply learn to use a cane, you can then determine for yourself where and when you will go.
This left only one way for me to travel, by holding onto my mother’s arm. This didn’t work so well; she proceeded to bash me into things when we were out walking together. I was forced to give her the benefit of the doubt back then; surely my mother wasn’t doing this intentionally? Hmmmmm. No one understood why I couldn’t allow it to continue that way.
I was blind for nearly eight years before I was finally handed a white cane and was allowed to learn how to use it. I could finally see where I was going again! It was marvelous. I will always remember that feeling of freedom when I received my first cane with training.
The truly ridiculous thing about it was this; It was the white cane that finally set me free from the bondage of blindness. The one tool that my parents had fought against the hardest was the one that I needed the most. What could be more embarrassing than constantly falling down and injuring yourself the way I was being forced to do?