October is Blindness awareness month and I don’t know about you, but I love a good celebration of independence! In this episode, we’ll dive in to 5 simple and easy ways to celebrate blindness awareness month with your students. 

In Episode #3 of A step Forward, we are talking about 5 easy ways to celebrate White Cane Day and Blindness Awareness Month with your Orientation and Mobility Students!

5 Easy Ways to Celebrate White Cane Day and Blindness Awareness Month with your Orientation and Mobility Students:

1. Have a big celebration. Invite 1,000 of your closest friends to march along main street and have a party! Make shirts. Hire a bounce house. Have the mayor give a proclamation. Pull out ALL THE STOPS. This way to celebrate White Cane Day with your students and the entire community. In Austin, they start planning in April and have a lot of support from the community. This is a great option if you are looking for ideas for next year and if you want to get the community involved. If you don’t have an extra few months to plan that, check out the other options below.

2. Plan an awareness activity. You can show the video “Just Ask” and have students do fun activities like sandwich making, simple obstacle course, tag, teach guide technique under blindfold. This idea is great for O&M students who want to showcase their abilities and help educate their friends. We talk about more specific ideas in the podcast.

3. Have your student make a thank you card and deliver it to teachers on campus. This idea is great for students who want to celebrate with the teachers who have helped them along the way.

4. Have the student make a card for someone and mail it from the post office. Making a card allows the student to be involved in the process and helps them create something meaningful. Taking it to the post office to be mailed can help increase their independence and teach them all about post offices, address systems, city blocks, etc.

5. Make Cane pretzel rods. By taking a simple pretzel rod and dipping it in white chocolate, you can have a fun, easy to eat (or give away) snack! Who doesn’t love snacks?

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