In daily life I am involved in making art and music. In addition, I do voluntary work regularly and when I can, I make trips to interesting cities, places of interest and people.

I am visually impaired. This has never stopped me from doing the things I want and giving my curiosity to new things space.

From my perspective, I am interested in the safety and mobility of the blind and visually impaired. Because I see badly I also use a white cane so that road users can take me into account, I do not see everything. Until recently the cane worked fine.

Why and how I started to pimp my White Cane

Until I was hit by a motorist who had not really seen me on a dark rainy evening. I got pretty good from it, I can still walk. But I never thought that the collision would have such an impact on me and on the other hand, I also could not have known that this event would initiate a new beginning of a major improvement for the Blind and the Visually Impaired!

Because of the collision I had lost a large part of my freedom of movement, and that (and the pain) made me depressed. I recognized the complaints and began to look for interesting activities in good company. Depressed people isolate themselves, and that reinforces the depression. We should not have that.

Debby Strikes back!

The FabLab van de Waag, on the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam, is filled to the brim with people who want all the best for all mankind. Good company, good antidepressant.

I registered for Prototyping Health at the Waag in Amsterdam. In 8 evenings, we would come up with solutions in groups to start (prototyping) health-related problems (health). I joined a group that wanted to make an “agenda with alarm clock” for an elderly man with a non genetic brain injury. In the end we made a prototype of a wearable.

After the first fine evening I stumbled back home and realized that I also had a problem. I had not thought of this in advance because of lack of energy. Once outside I thought that I could drastically reduce the risk of being hit by making myself more visible to “the other traffic participants”. Yes! If I walked with a cane of light they would see me from afar, also in the mist and rain.

The challenge gave me new energy!

 

I received this in response to my letter to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management: I hereby respond to
          it turns out that we are in book with our LightupCane!
Aankondiging VR filmpje
The collaboration between Debby and the Heroes & Friends of Amsterdam has resulted in a Virtual Reality (VR) movie about
Debby was interviewed in the studios of the Amsterdam TV / Radio Station AT5 for the American internet platform "Eyes
Sorry, this entry is only available in Dutch.
Here Debby gives a street interview in Amsterdam. (Dutch only).
Debby is always in motion. She is tinkering with the idea to find balance of the cane that would make
Debby is admiring the pretty artwork made of "Bondaged rubber bycicle tires" at the Dutch Design Week exposition in Eindhoven,
Especially for our Local Dutch Supporters! You can help Debby fund getting the Light-up-cane to production via her getfunded.nl campaign.
Debby started her GoFundme campaign. The aim is to get funds to make the cane ready for production and the