Working for needs of visually impaired
AS A blind person, I am an active campaigner for equitable access for all people with disabilities.
This means I believe that people with disabilities should have equal or parallel access to the same opportunities, goods and services as people without any disadvantage.
Access means different things to different groups. A well-designed environment can take account of blind people’s needs, for example – but sometimes, there’s a conflict between the needs of one group and another.
For instance, in some city areas there are slopes off the pavement so that people who use wheelchairs can cross the street, but those slopes can pose a risk to blind people who could wander into traffic because they are looking for a curb.
Design that successfully incorporates all the needs of the various types of disability is known as universal design, and is the gold standard in equitable access, but it is not always achievable.
People with disabilities do not speak for people with other types of disabilities, so I can speak only for the needs of blind people.
For us, access to the written word is one of the most crucial issues.
I can go for longer without food than without reading, and to ensure my access, I use four different technologies to help me.
I have a Braille Note that delivers braille or synthetic speech for reading from digital sources, but braille in general is expensive and takes time to produce, so it’s often not immediately available for magazines or books.
I have an audio player and I read e-books off a memory stick on my computer. Jeanette, my PA, also reads for me, scanning the media in which we are interested.
But most blind people don’t have the advantage of personal readers, although a family member might sometimes read for them.
It is possible, however, for websites to be designed so that text and images can be accessed by blind and partially-sighted people, so that this portion of the population is not excluded if they do not have access to the support of others or to the expensive technology that delivers the written word to them.
With successful universal design, everyone gets in via the same route, but when equitable access is not possible, perhaps parallel access can be achieved.
For example, wheelchair users may not be able to use the stairs, but a ramp can easily be created alongside a staircase. If that’s not possible, at the very least there should be an acceptable alternative route, that isn’t through the back door.
We should have a world that is designed to consider all kinds of users, but even in well-resourced countries like the United States, people with disabilities have difficulties daily.
In South Africa we have admirable and world-class legislation and policies, but the implementation is very poor, especially in the area of access.
Unless there is a radical change in approach, we are not going to see universal access become a reality in this lifetime.
There are, of course, some positive stories to tell. The South African Reserve Bank recently met with rep- resentatives from the SA National Council for the Blind to discuss the new Mandela commemorative banknote series due for release in July.
There will be five banknotes and a R5 coin, and they have markings that make them easier to identify.
In my opinion, these markings are not adequate, but at least they engaged with us on whether the design was accessible.
Another good example is the Michaelis Gallery in Cape Town, where they have pictures processed in such a way that blind people can feel them. They have also considered people who use wheelchairs.
The gallery is in a listed build- ing, which means that the exterior cannot be tampered with, but they obtained special permission to break down part of a wall to install an accessibility ramp.
On some airlines, when I am seated, an attendant comes to my seat and delivers a verbal briefing, checks that I understand how to use the equipment, tells me where the nearest exits and toilets are, and shows me how to use the call button.
On SAA, there is a Braille manual, and I was proud to be part of the negotiations for that 20 years ago.
When I was in Mexico last November, when we were departing through Mexico City airport I was served by nine airport staff, three of whom were disabled, in the time it took to walk from the entrance to the airport lounge. The people who checked my boarding pass were disabled people. Why not?
I also serve on the SAB Foundation, and we fund small business enterprises in the developmental sector.
Two years ago, we introduced the Disability Innovation Awards, and acting as a judge for these is a highlight of my year. One of my favourite “finds” through the awards programme is the Cape Town coffee bar, Brownies & Downies, where everything from preparation to servicing is done by people with intellectual disabilities.
While the ideal would be to mainstream disability, these kinds of enterprises, where disabled people dominate, are also very positive developments in South Africa.
These examples show what can happen when various stakeholders get involved and work together.
There are several players who can play a role in ensuring that equitable access becomes the norm – government, business, institutions like galleries and museums, systems such as transport operators, and the individuals and organisations creating the architecture and design of buildings or even aircraft.
But while the world has to adapt to people with disabilities, we also have to adapt to the world – and in some instances it is up to us to demand the access that isn’t available.
A dominant theme in the disability rights movements since the 1980s is self-representation, so we have to campaign for ourselves rather than have others campaign for us.
But ultimately, society in general has a responsibility to all the people who make up its fabric.
There remain tremendous inequalities. For any individual or representative of an organisation of any kind reading this, consider what you can do to make the lives of the disabled people you might come into contact with easier.
You are not giving them a free ride, you are helping them to have the same access that you take for granted every day.
Dr Rowland is the chairperson of CBM International, an international Christian development organisation committed to improving the quality of life for people with disabilities in the poorest communities of the world. In 2017 it was active in 54 countries, reaching 15 million people with disabilities. It carried out 565 000 eye operations, of which 413 000 were cataract removals, which means that sight was restored to those patients