Thus one needs more stopping distance in which to react to potential obstacles, and the increased length affords that distance. My education after attending the Iowa Commission for the Blind was in the field of special education, with emphasis on teaching the mentally disabled. I taught blind, mentally handicapped individuals in a state hospital school for some years. I then taught for three years at Blind Industries and Services of Maryland in Baltimore and nine at the Louisiana Center for the Blind in Ruston, Louisiana, where I am currently employed. As I see it, the major differences between blind and sighted instructors are philosophical.
Different techniques follow naturally from the different philosophies.
It seems to me that the variation in techniques causes some of the so-called problems we blind instructors face. As a blind person I teach other blind people how to use the cane properly. The technique is straightforward and simple and is one of the easiest tasks for most students to learn. For example, like me, most blind instructors I know use route travel in teaching our students. We send them on assigned routes which have been carefully planned to teach students how to deal with various types of travel problems, using problem-solving skills.