Shortly before my second year of college, I received a few orientation and mobility lessons for learning how to navigate with low vision and a blindness cane. These lessons were helpful for learning general travel skills, but I noticed they didn’t get into specifics about navigating college campuses or using university resources available for students with vision loss. One lesson that would have been really helpful is how to deal with unwanted attention or harassment from other students related to me using a blindness cane, so I’ve created the College O&M series to share my most-used tips and strategies for learning about this topic and others. Here are my tips for handling campus paparazzi and unwanted attention that comes from me using a blindness cane with low vision, and how I handle unexpected questions from students and other bystanders.
Disclaimer
I am not a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS), and I strongly recommended working with a COMS from the state department for visual impairment or vocational rehabilitation to determine the appropriate mobility solution for individuals. The tips and strategies shared throughout this post are informed by my lived experiences using a blindness cane (white cane) on my college campus.
Some background
For many students, college may be the first time they encounter a person using a blindness cane (white cane) or visibly using assistive technology. While many interactions are neutral or positive, others can feel intrusive, uncomfortable, or even hostile.
I attend a large public university with a significant population of students with visual impairments, including others who use blindness canes. That said, I might be the first visually impaired person or blindness cane user that a student has ever encountered. I have had students that I do not know approach me and tell me I was using my cane “incorrectly”, question whether I really needed to use a blindness cane, or even accuse me of faking my visual impairment because they saw me using a phone. Sometimes, I have also had students just point and ask “what’s with the stick?”
Instead of internalizing these encounters or hiding my cane, I’ve learned to treat them as a predictable part of campus life, and something I can prepare for. Since I didn’t start using a blindness cane until my first semester of college and I am currently studying for a degree in assistive technology, I often view these interactions as an opportunity to educate others (though that doesn’t mean I’m always excited to do so).
Related links
- Dealing With Imposter Syndrome: College O&M
- How I Talk About Disability With New Friends
- Smartphone Apps For Orientation and Mobility
- How I Write Research Papers On Accessibility Topics
- Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing a College
Should I just ignore it?
One of the most common questions I receive from younger students with visual impairments is whether they should ignore questions, comments, staring, or people whispering about them. I often tell students that this is up to them; they do not anyone an explanation, and students with disabilities are not required to educate others about their condition, assistive technology, or orientation and mobility strategies. Engaging with others is a personal choice.
Since I run a website about visual impairment and assistive technology, I am generally open to answering respectful questions or talking to students who seem generally interested in something. However, I also prioritize my safety and energy and will minimize or avoid interactions where I am fatigued, if the person is being disrespectful, or if a situation feels unsafe.
If a student feels unsafe or threatened, there is no pressure to answer questions. In these scenarios students should disengage and report unsafe or suspicious behavior to campus security or Disability Services rather than attempt to manage the situation alone; I share an example of how I handled a situation like this in another section.
Related links
- Ten “Odd” Things I Do With Double Vision
- Questions To Ask Other Students With Low Vision
- Online Safety for Visual Impairment: YP2T Part 11 – Perkins School for the Blind
Formulate responses for frequent questions
One strategy that significantly increased my confidence was pre‑planning responses to questions I hear frequently from students, or that I expected to hear frequently when I first started using a cane in college (since I anticipated that my high school classmates would wonder why I was suddenly using a blindness cane, which ended up happening). Some examples of questions I practiced included:
- How can you use a phone if you’re blind?
- Why are you using a cane if you can still see?
- What happened to your eyes?
I then practiced short, accurate responses that felt natural to say while walking or standing in busy areas, so that I could sound confident and avoid unwanted conversations. This way, I could stay calm, keep moving if I choose, and avoid oversharing personal information. I share several example answers in the posts linked below.
Related links
- How I Respond To Questions/Comments About My Eyes
- How I Respond To Questions/Comments About My Glasses
- How I Respond To Children’s Questions/Comments About Low Vision
- Having An Undiagnosed Chronic Illness In High School
Encourage people to do their own research
While I enjoy talking about assistive technology or accessibility strategies used by people with low vision, I don’t have time to educate everyone who asks me a question. Instead of saying “just look it up,” I try to provide a brief explanation followed by a reference point so they can learn more on their own. Here are some examples of real conversations I have had with curious students, mostly while standing in the dining hall:
- How do you watch movies if you can’t see?
- I sit close to the screen or I use audio description, which describes what is going on. Audio description is awesome!
- Can you use the ice cream machine?
- Yes, the knobs are different shapes so I know which flavor is which. Aren’t tactile labels cool?
- Are you taking a photo of the dessert table?
- No, I’m using my phone as a video magnifier to enlarge the labels. I can zoom in on labels with my camera so they are easier to read!
- How do you know what’s at the dining hall?
- I read the menus in large print on my phone. Larger font sizes are a huge help!
- Do you know what is in this social media post?
- I can’t see it very well now, but I can zoom in later or read the alt text/image description. Alt text is really helpful!
- Why does the bottom of your cane look weird?
- It’s a marshmallow tip! There are several types of cane tips, and mine is a rolling marshmallow tip.
If the person asking me this question is one of my classmates, I often provide a more detailed answer since there is a strong chance I will be interacting with this person again in the near future. Alternatively, if the person who is asking me this question is also visually impaired, or mentions having a friend/roommate/classmate who is visually impaired, I will share more examples or provide examples of resources that they can check out on their own.
Related links
- A to Z of Assistive Technology For Low Vision
- How Students Can Celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day
- Teach Kids About Low Vision and Assistive Technology: Free Resources
- How To Write Alt Text and Image Descriptions for the Visually Impaired
Teach friends to be active bystanders
When I’m out with my friends and people start asking us questions about how I am able to do a certain task or how well I can see, my friends know how to answer these questions in simple terms, how to redirect questions, or when to physically move away from a situation. For example, when I was in a cafe with my friend S, an employee kept asking us if I really needed a blindness cane and how well I could see. S responded by saying I have some usable vision, and my blindness cane helps keep me from running into things like the short shelves or refrigerated cases. They also reassured the employee that I was capable of ordering and eating without assistance, and that I knew what money looked like.
When the questions continued, S suggested we move to another part of the building. I hadn’t heard the employee asking these questions, but S made the right call in having us move somewhere else.
Related links
- How To Be An Active Bystander For Academic Ableism
- How I Talk About Disability With New Friends
- How To Be An Effective Human Guide For People With Vision Loss
- How To Approach Someone with Low Vision Without Scaring Them
- Avoiding Flashing Lights On Social Media
If you feel uncomfortable, contact Disability Services
While I am lucky that a majority of my interactions with students on campus are positive, there have been a few negative interactions with others who feel that I do not know about my own condition. One of these people was a street preacher on campus who shouted that if I just followed their advice, my visual impairment would be cured. They then tried to grab my cane while I was walking and get my attention while repeating various offensive statements about vision loss. I immediately reported the incident to campus security and Disability Services, as I felt that this visitor might target other students with vision loss and shout the same things at them. I wanted to protect myself, but I also wanted to protect other students with disabilities too.
In that incident, I chose not to engage with the visitor because I didn’t want them to get the idea that this was an acceptable way to talk to people, and they were clearly trying to get a reaction from me and other students around me— I wasn’t interested in becoming a viral video or having the person retaliate. Disability Services and campus security responded by banning this person from campus and I never saw them again.
Related links
- Reporting Accessibility Issues: College O&M
- Reporting Academic Ableism For Someone Else
- Identifying Campus Buildings: College O&M
How to report photos taken without consent on social media
A friend at another college had their photo taken without consent while using their blindness cane; someone had taken a photo of them using their phone and cane simultaneously. This is unfortunately not uncommon, especially at the beginning of the academic year, and my friend found out about the photo after their roommate discovered it on a social media page; this was years before I was interviewed by the BBC for a campaign raising awareness about how blind people use phones.
Most social media platforms allow photos to be reported as unauthorized or non‑consensual images, cyberbullying, or as sensitive content involving a protected class (disability). The exact reporting path may differ, but removal is often possible, especially when the photo is used in an offensive way. We were successful in having the photo reported as an unauthorized image that exposed personal information, and it was taken down within 48 hours. To keep the image from spreading further, we didn’t draw attention to the post by encouraging other people to report or block it, or forward the image to others, other than my friend’s roommate taking a screenshot of the original post.
Related links
- My interview with BBC on using a phone with low vision
- Online Safety For Visually Impaired Users: Safer Internet Day
Other tips for handling “paparazzi” and unwanted attention from students
- The majority of unwanted comments and attention usually take place the first two weeks of the fall semester, and after that I have very few experiences with students asking questions or staring
- I don’t change my behavior to match what other people expect a blindness cane user to do/look like. I still use my phone, talk to friends, or look around while walking
- One of the ways I improved my confidence about using a blindness cane on campus and worrying about people staring at me was to get custom colored blindness canes that I could match to my outfits. Learn more in How To Order Custom Colors for Blindness Canes
Published December 16, 2019. Updated December 2025