Eh, whatever works, I say. Part of the issue is that there are a lot of low vision people for whom the cane is only situation ally useful. I'm in that category, it's nice when it helps but you also get the general weirdness of how people treat cane users (grabbing, people talking to you, etc.). Still, yeah, the cane is an awesome tool. I'm also learning braille which I think is also a skill many blind people avoid, which I can understand, but it's another good one for the toolbox.

I don't know if people are making attempts to get away from using a cane, it's not like there's much alternative unless you're going to go for a dog. But I do agree that the ability to use a cane in a decent fashion is completely essential. Call it cane skills if you like, makes it sound like military training, but everyone needs the ability to hit things with a stick to see if they're there.

I’m going towards getting one but honestly never thought of it as an option until someone suggested it here and like Amonwilde mentioned, I’m in the situational category right now so a lot of my hang up is how people will act when I can do x “normally” but need a cane to do y.

I know I shouldn’t care, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t intimidation there. And wrapping my head around needing help is still hard. That’s just my experience.

Agreed. There’s no replacement.