Oc­to­ber 15 is White Cane Day. The white cane is not a sym­bol of pity. It is a tool of in­de­pen­dence and a clear sig­nal of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion that tells dri­vers and pedes­tri­ans, “A blind or vi­su­al­ly im­paired per­son is here, slow down, give space, and be kind.”

As the T&T Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTB­WA), we’re ask­ing the coun­try to fo­cus on three big things:

(1) Prop­er train­ing for every blind per­son who needs a cane,

(2) Safer streets and build­ings, and

(3) Clear rules so every­one un­der­stands what the white cane means.

1. Train­ing and tools: In­de­pen­dence starts with good skills

A cane on­ly works well when peo­ple are taught how to use it. Ori­en­ta­tion and mo­bil­i­ty train­ing cov­ers how to sweep the cane to de­tect steps, curbs and ob­sta­cles; how to lis­ten for traf­fic; how to line up safe­ly to cross; and how to use land­marks and smells to stay ori­ent­ed. Tech­nol­o­gy like GPS and smart­phone apps is won­der­ful, but bat­ter­ies die and sig­nals drop. When tech fails, the white cane and the oth­er sens­es—hear­ing, touch, smell—must car­ry you home.

Here in T&T, the TTB­WA pro­vides this train­ing free of charge to all blind and vi­su­al­ly im­paired per­sons who reg­is­ter with the as­so­ci­a­tion. Our mo­bil­i­ty in­struc­tors are trained to help chil­dren and adults gain the skills they need to walk safe­ly and con­fi­dent­ly. In ad­di­tion, TTB­WA sup­plies white canes to per­sons who are blind at no cost. We re­move fi­nan­cial bar­ri­ers so that in­de­pen­dence is with­in reach for every­one.

2. Safe­ty on to­day’s roads:

Qui­et cars must be heard

Elec­tric and hy­brid ve­hi­cles are great for the en­vi­ron­ment but they are qui­et. Be­cause many blind peo­ple re­ly on sound to know a car is com­ing, silent ve­hi­cles can be dan­ger­ous at low speeds. That is why the in­ter­na­tion­al trend is to re­quire built-in sound on elec­tric and hy­brid ve­hi­cles when mov­ing slow­ly:

• The Unit­ed Na­tions has a safe­ty rule (UN ECE Reg­u­la­tion No. 138) that re­quires an Acoustic Ve­hi­cle Alert­ing Sys­tem (AVAS), a sound that ris­es and falls with speed so pedes­tri­ans can hear the car at low speeds.

• In the Unit­ed States, the road-safe­ty reg­u­la­tor (NHT­SA) cre­at­ed FMVSS No. 141, a stan­dard that re­quires min­i­mum sound for hy­brids and EVs at low speeds to pro­tect pedes­tri­ans, es­pe­cial­ly blind and low-vi­sion peo­ple.

• In the Eu­ro­pean Union, Reg­u­la­tion 540/2014 and re­lat­ed mea­sures make AVAS manda­to­ry on new types of EVs and hy­brids, phased in from Ju­ly 1, 2019.

Our re­quest to Gov­ern­ment: Adopt a clear rule that all elec­tric and hy­brid ve­hi­cles op­er­at­ing on T&T roads must have their AVAS (warn­ing sound) ac­tive at low speeds not mut­ed so blind pedes­tri­ans can hear them com­ing. (This aligns us with the UN, US and EU ap­proach.)

3. Cross­ings that work for every­one: Tac­tile and au­di­ble

Good de­sign saves lives. Two sim­ple fea­tures make a huge dif­fer­ence:

• Tac­tile paving (raised “dots” or bars on the ground) warns of plat­form edges and marks the start of a cross­ing. These are in­ter­na­tion­al­ly stan­dard­ised (for ex­am­ple, ISO 23599).

• Ac­ces­si­ble Pedes­tri­an Sig­nals (APS) add au­di­ble beeps, tones and vi­bro-tac­tile cues to tell when it’s safe to cross and which di­rec­tion is “walk.” Best-prac­tice guide­lines for APS are well es­tab­lished.

T&T has start­ed mov­ing in the right di­rec­tion: The Traf­fic Man­age­ment Branch (Min­istry of Works and Trans­port) re­ports APS at 15 sites in the first phase, and main­tains more than 60 pedes­tri­an sig­nals na­tion­wide. That is a good start, and we ap­plaud it but we need cov­er­age at every busy cross­ing.

Our re­quest to Gov­ern­ment and lo­cal au­thor­i­ties:

• Make tac­tile paving and APS stan­dard in all new works and retro­fit high streets, schools, health cen­tres, trans­port hubs, and ma­jor in­ter­sec­tions.

• Keep foot­paths clear (no parked cars on side­walks), fix bro­ken kerbs, and add dropped kerbs where miss­ing so a cane can roll smooth­ly.

4. Do our road laws pro­tect white cane users?

T&T made sol­id progress in 2024 with na­tion­al rules for Dis­abil­i­ty Park­ing Per­mits and fines for mis­use. That’s good for park­ing equal­i­ty.

How­ev­er, af­ter re­view­ing what’s pub­licly avail­able, we did not find an ex­plic­it “White Cane Law,” a clause that clear­ly says dri­vers must stop or give way to a pedes­tri­an who is blind or vi­su­al­ly im­paired and us­ing a white cane (or a guide dog), with penal­ties for fail­ing to do so. If such a clause ex­ists, it is not eas­i­ly dis­cov­er­able; if it does not, we should cre­ate it.

Our re­quest to Par­lia­ment: pass a White Cane right-of-way clause in the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cles and Road Traf­fic frame­work that:

• Recog­nis­es a per­son us­ing a white cane (or guide dog) as a pedes­tri­an who must be giv­en right of way at cross­ings and kerbs.

• Pro­hibits ob­struct­ing or en­dan­ger­ing such pedes­tri­ans, with mean­ing­ful fines and points for vi­o­la­tions.

• Man­dates dri­ver ed­u­ca­tion on white cane rules in every li­cens­ing test and de­fen­sive-dri­ving course.

5. What the pub­lic can do to­day

• Dri­vers: Slow be­fore cross­ings; look and lis­ten for the tap of a white cane; nev­er block a dropped kerb; nev­er park on a side­walk; when in doubt, wave the per­son through and wait.

• Busi­ness own­ers: Keep en­trances clear; add tac­tile strips where steps be­gin; in­stall a low-cost bea­con (dis­tinct chime) at the door; train staff to of­fer as­sis­tance— nev­er grab the cane.

• Schools and com­mu­ni­ties: In­clude a five-minute “white cane aware­ness” talk in as­sem­blies and vil­lage meet­ings every Oc­to­ber; in­vite TTB­WA to de­mo how the cane works.

• Ur­ban plan­ners & en­gi­neers: De­sign to ISO 23599 for tac­tile in­di­ca­tors and in­clude APS by de­fault; pair de­sign with reg­u­lar main­te­nance.

6. Health, se­cu­ri­ty and dig­ni­ty

When blind peo­ple move in­de­pen­dent­ly, health im­proves (more walk­ing, more so­cial life), se­cu­ri­ty im­proves (few­er falls and col­li­sions), and dig­ni­ty is pro­tect­ed. A white cane is not a cry for help; it’s a right to move. With prop­er train­ing, safer streets, and clear laws, that right be­comes re­al.

Our pledge: The TTB­WA will con­tin­ue to train every blind per­son who needs mo­bil­i­ty skills and to pro­vide every blind per­son who reg­is­ters with us a white cane at no cost.

Our ask: That Gov­ern­ment adopt EV sound and White Cane right-of-way rules; fund tac­tile and APS roll-outs.

Our promise to the pub­lic: If you see the white cane, give space, give time, give re­spect.

This col­umn is sup­plied in con­junc­tion with the T&T Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion

Head­quar­ters: 118 Duke Street, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad

Email: ttb­wa1914@gmail.com

Phone: (868) 624-4675

What­sApp: (868) 395-3086