28 Oct East Texas marks White Cane Day at Tyler’s Bergfeld Park

“It was a little touch-and-go this morning with the rain, but all the vendors were great,” Lansford said. The annual gathering included vendors, food trucks, games, face painting, a balloon artist, and a DJ.  “The goal is just to really spread awareness of the white cane and the independence that it provides its users and all of the accomplishments and the abilities of people who are visually impaired or blind,” Lansford said.

White canes are issued by a certified orientation and mobility (O&M) specialist and are measured to fit the specific user. The cane acts as a navigational tool, held in the dominant hand and swiped side-to-side to detect obstacles. “They can also use it to navigate stairs, find the edges of a sidewalk, or the edges of a wall,” Lansford explained. “Ultimately, the cane is just to help them navigate, be mobile, and kind of orient themselves to their environment.” Versions of a cane can include a more rigid, simplistic design as well as the folding version for convenience. While the traditional white cane has proven a tried-and-true tool for those with vision impairments, there have been developments to bring more modern uses, like the Smart Cane, which has features like GPS, sensors, and AI to enhance safety and mobility for the visually impaired and older adults.

“So, they are out there on the market,” Lansford said. “But really, we find that the tried-and-true model is really doing what it is supposed to be doing.”

The East Texas Lighthouse for the Blind is a non-profit organization fulfilling its mission through two divisions: a manufacturing operation (Horizon Industries) and a community rehabilitation facility (Client Services). They serve about 500 people in East Texas each year.

“We train about 600 nurses a year to be able to be better nurses and communicate more effectively with people who are blind or visually impaired,” Lansford said.

The organization offers comprehensive “wrap-around services,” which are flexible enough for individuals to seek assistance for a single specific need or engage in a full range of offerings. Full services include independent living training and O&M (white cane training). The ultimate goal is to help clients remain independent in their homes by adapting how they perform daily tasks as someone who is blind.

The Lighthouse also connects individuals with resources to address employment and travel, working closely with Texas Workforce Solutions. “We are a large employer of people that are blind, but we also support people in the community that would like to get a job somewhere else,” Lansford said.

Understanding that blindness encompasses a wide range of visual impairments, the Lighthouse tailors its services to meet the diverse needs of their clients.

“Blindness is a spectrum… So, people who are blind can actually have vision,” Lansford said. “They can actually have quite a bit of vision… So, we do see people who are visually impaired all the way to legally blind.”

The organization uses criteria established by the state or the Social Security office:

• Visually impaired is defined as having vision of 20/70 in the best eye after correction.
• Legally blind is defined as having vision of 20/200 in the better eye after correction.

According to Lansford, the leading causes of blindness are glaucoma and diabetes, noting that not only are diet and healthier habits important for upkeep in eye health, but so are regular visits for eye exams.

“Even if you don’t have anything going on, there are many times that those diseases and those challenges can be uncovered just during a routine eye exam,” she said. “In many cases, the earlier that you catch it, the more opportunity that there could be to correct it if it is something that can be helped.”

 The support system provided by the Lighthouse is critical for families navigating vision loss. Enedina Jordan, whose three children are visually impaired, encourages others to seek help. 

“There are so many resources, people who can help you either get a cane or, if you’re interested in a guide dog,” said Enedina Jordan, who has children who are vision impaired. “There’s so much help out here. It’s amazing.”

Jordan said her three children were all born with a rare genetic disorder known as Branchio-Oculo-Facial Syndrome (BOFS). Her husband was born with only one eyeball, but her first child, now 17, was unaffected — making her next child’s diagnosis an unexpected discovery.

“When she was born, the first thing we noticed was her cleft lip, which came with the syndrome,” Jordan said. “… Then I asked them to check her eyes, and when they came back and talked to us, they were like, ‘Okay, so she doesn’t have either of her eyeballs.’ So that’s how I found out.”

Her daughter is now 14, and her younger children are 13 and 11. Despite the challenges they face, Jordan said they work together to navigate daily life and support one another.

“Being out and about and trying to keep everybody together is probably the biggest issue,” Jordan said. “But they’re pretty good about staying close. We let them know the dangers that they’re not able to see. And people don’t always know… that’s why having the cane is important for awareness.”

In addition to its in-house services, the East Texas Lighthouse for the Blind invites the community to participate through Camp Lighthouse, its summer camp program, and through sponsorships or donations.

“Our goal is really just to make sure that our agencies are not the best-kept secret,” Lansford said. “To celebrate individuals who are blind themselves, and then really just bring out awareness to the community because even if someone here today isn’t personally affected by blindness, just them knowing about us and coming to an event like this means that they’re ready to tell someone else if they run across someone else that might need our help.”