Green cane day: an essential tool for visually impaired people

There is a wide and long line between seeing and not seeing. Millions of people, an estimated 11% of the world’s population, suffer from a type of disease that causes severe reduction in vision. They are not blind, but they see very little and need help with orientation and movement.

Visually impaired people may feel misunderstood or not heard, their visual field is narrow, and they see very differently than usual.Some can see to move around but cannot read road signs, or they can see through a tube if they have glaucoma, others can read large letters on their cell phones but at the same time , have trouble finding their way around. Something important to help them is to distinguish that they are not blind, and that is why they should not be treated as such.

Every September 26, Green Cane Day is celebrated. The tool was created by special education teacher Perla Mayo (MN 763788) as a guidance and mobility tool that identifies visually impaired people. In addition to helping patients move and locate themselves in space, the color green is essential to distinguish them from those who are blind and use a white cane..

The tool has two objectives, it is a guiding instrument for those who use it and, in addition, it allows others to identify those who see little to be able to help them if necessary.

The idea of ​​the green cane is an initiative of Perla Catherine Mayo, a Uruguayan specialist educator based in Argentina. Mayo developed the idea after the experience of a student who had problems with low vision and manipulated herself with a white cane and a disability certificate with blindness. The teacher discovered a problem, in everyday life it was essential that the rest could identify visually and non-blind people, and the white cane was confusing. For example, when a student took public transport and used a cell phone or could read a poster, the rest of the people thought that their blindness was false and that they were taking advantage of it.

In dialogue with Infobae, Perla Mayo explains: “Low vision occurs when a patient, after the best optical correction, has a visual acuity not exceeding three tenths or having a visual field of less than 20 degrees. To understand it in a simple way: during a visit to the ophthalmologist, in the typical poster with letters in 10 lines, he cannot read or distinguish beyond the third ”.

The World Health Organization estimates that 11% of the population suffers from a severe visual impairment. This means that around the world, 325 million people have low vision.. This severe decline limits the ability to perform visual tasks in daily life. This deficiency cannot be corrected with normal glasses, contact lenses or medical intervention.

“Low vision can be caused by multiple pathologies such as glaucoma, maculopathy, diabetic or premature retinopathy, degenerative myopia and, also, by rare diseases, which usually cause visual impairment that goes undiagnosed, ”Mayo said. These are people who see, but sparingly and in different ways.

Professor Mayo told Infobae the pandemic has caused an increase in myopia and other visual disturbances due to excessive use of computers and screens, conditions that could be avoided or addressed in time, for example the exercise of distance vision. Living in tight spaces, the months of isolation meant that many people did not exercise their eye muscles by focusing on objects farther away and this had consequences. This is why prevention is so important.

In 1995, Perla Mayo had the idea to paint the first cane green, this decision, born from the need to improve the well-being of her students, was a before and after in her life: for more than 30 years of Mayo providing education to the blind and visually impaired.

The acceptance of the initiative has been so good that little by little laws have been promulgated around the world approving the importance of this guidance tool. In Argentina, the Bastón Verde law was enacted in 2002 and in Uruguay in 2011. In addition, other Latin American countries such as Costa Rica, Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua, Colombia, Paraguay, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama and Venezuela have implemented its use..

From those days Perla Mayo began a long journey, the results of which were reflected in the Mayo Center for Low Vision, an institution that currently helps people in the process of assessment and rehabilitation, and provides therapeutic support. to improve their quality of life. those diagnosed with low vision.

These patients are between the limits of seeing and not seeing and reject the use of the white cane simply because they are not blind.. Mayo told Infobae, one of his biggest dreams: “Let there be a right to see, I imagine offices full of healthy people, going for their annual eye check-up at an early age. It would help many, many people who are condemned to blindness today. A situation that can be avoided or improved, with rehabilitation, if visual disturbances are detected early ”.

For all this, every September 26 is celebrated the day of the green cane, with the #bastonverdeesbajavision campaign, to make the rest of the population aware of the reality of others and to collaborate if they need help.

There is a long way between not seeing and seeing very little, a huge path that the green cane helps to cover.

To collaborate and help more people access their green cane and / or request information: @bastonverde

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