Do you see my white cane?

They cross the street, stroll along the sidewalk, ride the bus, mrt and lrt, go malling and shop at the supermarket. The only distinction is the presence of a white cane. As eyes are to a sighted person, the white cane is to the visually impaired.

By virtue of R.A. 6759 or the White Cane Act, August 1 is observed as "White Cane Safety Day" in the Philippines. The authors of this law realized the importance of respecting and giving way to people who carry the white cane. With proper education and training, a visually impaired person can do more than just stay home and keep away from mainstream life.

Since its formation five years ago, Parent Advocates for Visually Impaired Children (pavic) has sought to promote social awareness of the needs of visually impaired children. It is a support group consisting of parents who have kids that are either blind, have low vision or other disabilities.

From just a dozen founding parents on its roster, pavic now has more than 150 members. The group’s main purpose, aside from giving each other support, is to create a friendlier society for visually impaired children.

It’s not an easy mission, but pavic’s goals proved so worthy that it got plenty of encouragement and attention from both local and foreign parties. In 2002, they were featured in Magandang Gabi Bayan, which enabled more people to learn about the group.

Later that year, the International Council for Education of Visually Impaired Persons invited pavic to submit a feature profile. The article was subsequently published in the December issue of their magazine Educator.

pavic soon held a forum in Manila Doctors Hospital and invited renowned doctors to lecture on "ROP: Retinopathy of Prematurity". As a result of this, medical professionals became more vigilant in screening for ROP, which has been a predominant cause of childhood blindness.

Early this year, parents of a public high school complained about the lack of sped (Special Education) teachers and a miserable learning environment for their visually impaired children. pavic got involved and the situation has greatly improved.

Today, pavic will host the White Cane Day Celebration at the Shangri-La Plaza mall with Senator Pia Cayetano as guest speaker.

Children who are visually impaired have been empowered to go to school. In the early intervention program of Resources for the Blind Inc., orientation and mobility are taught to visually impaired children as young as two years old. This enables them to move around comfortably in their community. More importantly, this training program will prepare them for the challenges in elementary, high school, college, and eventually, adulthood.

Despite these advances, visually impaired children still face tremendous obstacles in society. Oftentimes, they are met with unfriendly stares and uncaring attention.

Indeed, the Philippines has a long way to go to attain a safer and more accommodating environment for white cane users, both young and old. There is a great need to advocate better transportation accessibility, environmental safety and all-out support to maximize the blind’s independence and mobility.

Public transportation such as buses and rail systems have no designated spaces for the disabled. This is sorely needed, since seating a visually impaired person at the front not only helps him in terms of access but also facilitates faster and safer disembarking.

Special parking areas designated for the disabled are still not given to families with blind children if they do not have a wheelchair. And even in identifying the disabled, there still seems to be a certain degree of misunderstanding that excludes the visually impaired. Without a doubt, all these inadequacies spell an immediate need for better understanding of the "white cane" by the general public.

The good news, however, is that there are now several concerned establishments that champion the needs of the disabled. Among these are Victory Liner and Light Rail Transit-2.

At Victory Liner, the front seats are reserved for persons with disability (pwd). The LRT-2 (Santolan to Legarda ) is perhaps the best designed urban railway system operating in Metro Manila. It is pwd friendly and has a caring staff. Elevators are equipped with braille embossed buttons, while the textured flooring on its boarding platforms are well-designed for the blind. And inside the train, there are signs that say, "Please vacate these seats for the Disabled".

These may seem like minor benefits, but with the help of pavic along with concerned citizens and responsive establishments, white cane users will soon get the respect and care they deserve.

The authors are executive committee members of pavic. Mr. Domingo is also pavic chair for the 2004 White Cane Day Celebration.