Short answer: If you find you are running into things and/or falling off drop offs, then a cane will be a very useful tool to keep you safe. There is no specific level of "blindness" where someone needs to use a cane. I have a client who has ridiculously good visual acuity (she sees things that are too far away for me to see), but her visual field is poor and she trips on stuff a lot.

Some people do prefer to use the term low vision over blind, because that stops a lot of people then going "Well, you can see" or something like "how many fingers am I holding up?"

I started using a long cane when I was 25, I'm now a guide dog owner. I was really apprehensive about starting to use a cane in my 20s but it honestly made things so much easier and I don't know how I managed without it! My parents were a bit unsure at first but once they saw the positive effect it had on my independence it didn't take them long to accept it. So, I would say go for it.


As for blind / visually impaired etc essentially it comes down to which wording you relate to most. Everybody is different and there's no rules, it's what you feel comfortable using.

If your vision is so poor that you're getting injured running into and falling off of things, it's time to use a cane and the people who try to look down on you for it can shut up and deal. It's harsh to say it that way, but they're putting your safety under their feelings, which is not cool.
As for reclaiming the word blind for yourself, if you're comfortable with it, go for it! There's nothing wrong with being blind and most sighted people don't know what it really means. I'm gla^glad you didn't grow up under the weird sight-based hierarchy that some of us went through being blind young, though. But this is your experience. Use the words you feel the most comfortable using to describe yourself. People are probably going to ask you how many fingers they're holding up no matter what you tell them (try to resist the urge to flip them off and ask how many fingers you're holding up :D).

You do need a cane, and contacting your state’s rehabilitation agency for the blind would be what you have to do. They can provide you O&M Training and a cane. They go by different names throughout the states.
If someone is asking, you can say that you need a cane because you are ligally blind.
Many people get to the point where they are frustrated, because every conversation ends in blindness; you have the right to stop, and change the topic.

As far as a cane any time you feel it will help you is acceptable. I have a refused visual field and have no light perception in my left half but on the right my vision is ok with glasses. So I can read and do many other things without a problem but still constantly ran into people and objects when I was walking around and use a symbol cane now and it helps a lot. I have info printed out for people who comment on my use of a cane and if they still have a problem with it then it's that jerks problem not mine.

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I use an ID cane and its quite obvious that I have vision. However, before I started using it, I feel nervous and anxious almost to the point where I avoided crowds because I would bump into people or stand in people’s way. I felt like people thought I was rude, clueless, or both. Now I have a lot more confidence using my cane in public even though I imagine some people think I’m faking because I do indeed have some remaining vision.

I also use the term partially sighted over visually impaired to describe my disability. I only have a partial visual field and partial acuity remaining, so it feels like a quick way to express my vision. Low vision would work too. Most people think no sight at all when they hear the word blind, so I try to eliminate the connotation from the equation.

I am sighted but work with and hence am freinds with many people who are blind. I recommend cane travel as soon as you have any difficulty, it helps people with sight know you may not see us or objects in your path. I have totally blind freinds who say they are impaired, others who can read large font type and navigate with out a cane who say they are blind. Seems to be a person and situational preference.

so my 12 year old daughter is legally blind (completely blind in one eye, some useable vision in the other) and I use the word blind for her sometimes because its a heck of a lot easier to say shes blind or legally blind than to stand there for 20 minutes and explain that no, glasses won't actually help her to every stranger I meet.

She can get around fine most of the time. She has enough vision that you might not notice right away that she's visually impaired, she runs around the house like any other 12 year old, but I find that when we are out and about, she's totally different with her cane and without it. Without it, she clings to my arm, or stops every time the ground changes to stick her toe out to make sure it's not a curb or a step up or down or a puddle (with no light perception in one eye, she has REALLY bad depth perception.) With her cane, she just moves so much more confidently. I think having a cane and learning how to use it are super important things, and if you just stick it in your backpack or whatnot, no one even needs to know you have it unless youre in a situation where you want to use it.

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As for your parents. That's a tough one. I have a lot of friends with different issues who use different mobility devices and a lot of times their parents have trouble accepting that they need them. I pushed for my daughter TO get a cane and instruction on how to use it, but for several years, my family wasn't okay with it. "I can just hold her hand" might work at 8, but not so much at 14. This year she went on vacation with her grandmother and I was VERY pleasantly surprised to see her cane in some of the pictures. I don't know how much effort they are willing to put into learning, but you could try showing them a video like $1 to see if they'll start to understand how much a cane would help in high glare/uneven ground situations. Good luck!

Using a cane is acceptable when you feel like you need to use one! Don't care about what other's think of you, do what you need to do for your personal health and wellbeing!