White Cane Awareness Day

It’s not a day that is celebrated annually in many Carmel classrooms, but this year White Cane Awareness Day drew a lot of interest and a big crowd to Raquel Patterson’s class at Kent Elementary School.  

That’s because 5-year-old Mackenzie, who started kindergarten at Kent Elementary in September, uses a white cane to help guide her through her day and she was happy to tell the other children in her class just how it works.  

Mackenzie helping teach kindergartners about braille

“It helps me to feel around rather than seeing around,” said Mackenzie, who is blind. “I can fold it up, too.”  

Mackenzie is teaching the other children in her class a lot about what it’s like to live with a visual impairment.   

“The kids are very responsive and helpful,” Patterson said. “The students are always making sure that Mackenzie is ok. They are truly the Carmel 6Cs personified.”   

Jessie Howard-Brine, a teacher of the visually impaired, is teaching Mackenzie how to read braille and adapting the kindergarten curriculum so it is accessible to Mackenzie.  

“Anything that’s visual, I turn into something tactile or auditory,” said Howard-Brine, who showed the children the braille typewriter she uses to create braille so that Mackenzie can read the same books the rest of the class is reading.  

“I read with my hands,” Mackenzie said to her classmates.   

Howard-Brine explained to the class how braille works, and then had each student use special paper to create the first letter of their name in braille dots with liquid that puffs up as it dries. 

“This is magic,” said Jackson, 5. “It pops up like a balloon. You can close your eyes and feel it.” 

Joy Bieder, a certified orientation and mobility specialist, is Mackenzie’s mobility coach. She explained that the white cane is a tool that blind people can use to safely and independently navigate the world.     

“In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson designated October 15 as White Cane Awareness Day,” she said. 

Mackenzie’s mother and grandparents came to the class to celebrate the day with her.   

Then Howard-Brine gave each child a red, black and white pencil she had turned into a toy cane that they could use or save to remember the event.