White Cane Safety Day is a national observance in the United States, celebrated on October 15 of each year since 1964. The date is set aside to celebrate the achievements of people who are blind or visually impaired and the important symbol of blindness and tool of independence, the white cane.
On October 6, 1964, a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, H.R. 753, was signed into law as Pub.L. 88-628, and codified at 36 U.S.C. ยง 142. This resolution authorized the President of the United States to proclaim October 15 of each year as "White Cane Safety Day".
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the first White Cane Safety Day proclamation within hours of the passage of the joint resolution.
In 2011, White Cane Safety Day was also named Blind Americans Equality Day by President Barack Obama.
Famous quotes containing the words white, cane, safety and/or day:
“On the whole, yes, I would rather be the Chief Justice of the United States, and a quieter life than that which becomes at the White House is more in keeping with the temperament, but when taken into consideration that I go into history as President, and my children and my children’s children are the better placed on account of that fact, I am inclined to think that to be President well compensates one for all the trials and criticisms he has to bear and undergo.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“But a blind man’s cane poking, however clumsily, into the inmost corners of the house.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Perhaps in a book review it is not out of place to note that the safety of the state depends on cultivating the imagination.”
—Stephen Vizinczey (b. 1933)
“How selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love is proved in the letting go.”
—C. Day Lewis (20th century)