15/10/2025
October 15th is designated as White Cane Safety Day, a day to recognize the importance of the white cane as a tool for independence for people who are blind or visually impaired
Throughout the world, the long white cane is used by people who are blind or visually impaired as a tool for safe and reliable navigation. The white cane is a symbol of the user’s skills and talents, mobility and independence. It also allows the sighted person to recognize that the user is visually impaired.
International White Cane Safety Day (October 15th) gives Lions an opportunity to increase awareness of the white cane traffic safety laws. According to the World Blind Union, which is a global organization representing the 285 million blind or partially sighted people worldwide, “White Cane Day is observed worldwide to recognize the movement of blind people from dependency to full participation in society.”
White Cane History
In 1921, James Biggs, a photographer from Bristol, England, became blind following an accident.
Because he was feeling uncomfortable with the amount of traffic around his home, he painted his walking stick white to be more easily visible.
In 1930, Lion George A. Bonham, President of the Peoria Lions Club (Illinois) introduced the idea of using the white cane with a red band as a means of assisting the blind in independent mobility. The Peoria Lions approved the idea, white canes were made and distributed, and the Peoria City Council adopted an ordinance giving the bearers the right-of-way to cross the street. News of the club’s
activity spread quickly to other Lions clubs throughout the United States, and their visually handicapped friends experimented with the white canes. Overwhelming acceptance of the white cane idea by the blind and sighted alike quickly gave cane users a unique method of identifying their special need for travel consideration among their sighted counterparts.
Also in 1931, in France, Guilly d’Herbemont recognized the danger to blind people in traffic and launched a national “white stick movement” for blind people. She donated 5,000 white canes to people in Paris.
Today white cane laws are on the books of every state in the US and in a few other countries, providing persons who are blind a legal status in traffic. The white cane universally acknowledges that the bearer is blind.
International White Cane Safety Day is an opportunity to increase awareness about the white Cane, which:
• Signifies that the pedestrian using it is blind or visually impaired;
• Alerts motorists of the need to exercise special caution and provide the user the right of
way;
• Symbolizes the independence, confidence and skills of the person who is using it.
