Blind Awareness Month is being observed in Dominica during the month of May under the auspices of the Dominica Association of Persons with Disabilities (DAPD Inc.)
The event also forms part of the Association’s 30th anniversary celebrations which is being commemorated under the theme: Thirty years of advocating for an all-inclusive society.
The programmes theme is: “Preventing blindness and assisting those whose sight cannot be restored.”
According to the DAPD the objectives of observing the month include teaching sighted people how to communicate effectively with persons with impaired vision, enabling the general public to discover how the built environment can affect someone with a visual impairment, enabling sighted persons to learn practical techniques to increase their confidence guiding visually impaired people and assisting the general public to learn of services required by persons living with this disability
The programme will feature workshops, media and video programmes, educational tips, and school presentations, all designed at creating a more enabling and accessible environment for persons with impaired vision, according to the DAPD.
Here are some tips the DAPD wants to share with readers to help better understand Blindness and deal with persons with impaired vision.
When you meet me, don’t be ill at ease. It will help us both if you remember these simple points of courtesy:
1. I’m an ordinary person, just blind. You don’t need to raise your voice or address me as if I were a
child. Don’t ask my spouse what I want—”Cream in the coffee?”— ask me.
2. If I am walking with you, don’t grab my arm; let me take yours. I’ll keep a half-step behind, to
anticipate curbs and steps.
3. I want to know who’s in the room with me. Speak when you enter. Introduce me to the others.
Include children, and tell me if there’s a cat or a dog. Guide my hand to a chair.
4. The door to a room, a cabinet, or a car, left partially open, is a hazard to me.
5. At dinner I will not have trouble with ordinary table skills.
6. Don’t avoid words like “see.” I use them too. I’m always glad to see you.
7. I don’t want pity. But don’t talk about the “wonderful compensations” of blindness. My sense of
smell, touch, or hearing did not improve when I became blind. I rely on them more, and therefore
may get more information through those senses than you do—that’s all.
8. If I’m your house-guest, show me the bathroom, closet, dresser, window—the light switch too. I like
to know whether the lights are on.
9. I’ll discuss blindness with you if you’re curious, but it’s an old story to me. I have as many other
interests as you do.
10. Don’t think of me as just a blind person. I’m a person who happens to be blind.
where r my comments DNO?
Good time for Dominicans to open up their eyes and see what is going on in the country.
Did St. Jean name the awards? lol!!!
Glaucoma, an incredibly common cause of blindness, can be arrested by daily drops – stopped in its tracks! Why do pensioners have to pay for these drops out of their own pockets? Why are they $100 in Portsmouth and $30 in Roseau? If anyone out there is serious about preventing blindness, how can a government expect a pensioner to spend 66% of his monthly income on glaucoma drops? It’s all very well being “aware” of blindness, but someone has to do something to prevent it!