Welcome to the official website for the Austin, Texas, White Cane Day celebration. Check back often to see what's been added.
For the second year running, White Cane Day has made it onto the ballett for the BlindBargains.com Access Awards. These awards are conducted to determine the best products, innovations, and technologies in the blindness community from the prior year. For the second year in a row, White Cane Day has a place in the "Best blindness related website or blog" category. Voting is open from now until 2/10/12 at 11:59PM Eastern. Though no award is actually given for the winner of each of the 12 categories, the winner does get lots of recognition and bragging rights, and that might be enough. To vote, visit the following page: http://blindbargains.com/awardvote11.php You can only vote once per category. If you submit multiple votes for the same category or multiple entries, then all of your votes will be disqualified. Thanks to those that helped us get to this point. There are a lot of great companies, products, sites, and worthy people on the 2011 ballett. It is definitely a huge deal to be nominated, but let's take it one step further and see if we can win the award this year!
It is time to start planning for the 2012 White Cane Day Austin celebration and events. Meetings will be at the Criss Cole Rehabilitation Center, 4800 North Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX, 78756. Meetings will be held in the Recreation Room, which is Room 110, and is located right next to the Auditorium. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, February 8, at 10:15am. Come and help make this year's events bigger and better than last year.
Following are the sponsors for the 2011 White Cane Day celebrations and events in Austin, Houston, and Harlingen.
Description of the 2011 shirt (Word 2003 document, 23 KB) Image of the 2011 shirt (PDf format, about 1 MB)
The White Cane Day committee will meet at the Criss Cole Rehabilitation Center, 4800 N. Lamar, in Austin Texas. The committee will hold its next meeting in 2012. The meeting will be in the CCRC Recreation room, #110. Come and help make this year's celebration even better than last year.
If you've missed a committee meeting or want to catch up on what's been going on, then check out the following list of meeting notes, all available in Word 2007 format (.Docx).
On Facebook: Yes, you can now find White Cane Day on Facebook. Be sure to visit the official White Cane Day Facebook page and become a friend or fan of White Cane Day!
Below is a list of the media coverage that White Cane Day 2010 received, whether it be local, national, or international. If you know of a media outlet, whetehr it be print, radio/TV, or online, that has done a story on White Cane Day, send an email to the White Cane Day Gmail address, located at the bottom of this page, with the information.
On 8/19/08, the National Federation of the Blind issued the following press release. There doesn't appear to be any closing date on the offer, so it's assumed that it is open from now on. Read on for details on how you can get a free white cane.
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), has launched an initiative to ensure that any blind person in the United States and Puerto Rico who needs a long white cane will have one, regardless of their ability to pay. The NFB will provide a free cane to anyone in the fifty states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico who is blind or has low vision and who uses or desires to use a white cane in order to travel independently. This historic initiative is the largest effort ever of its kind to provide white canes to individuals who are blind or have low vision.
The long white cane provides an effective means for blind students to get to school, blind adults to get to work, and blind seniors to remain active.
It is estimated that 109,000 of the 1.3 million legally blind people in the United States use a white cane. By supplying canes free of charge, this program provides the opportunity for all blind Americans to have a white cane and to participate fully in society.
The National Federation of the Blind will provide a straight, light fiberglass cane to any blind individual in the United States or Puerto Rico who requires the cane for personal use. Canes are available in the following lengths: 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, or 63 inches. Individuals may only request one free cane in any six-month period.
Click here to Apply for a free cane from the NFB.
Here are some sites with information on the history of White Cane Day and the white cane.
Here's the official 2011 State of Texas Proclamation for White Cane Day
View past shirts for White Cane Day
Need a cane? Here's a list of places that sell them:
If you have any questions or comments about White Cane Day, this site, or the Austin celebration/events, then email:
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