Covid-19 challenges for the blind, visually impaired
Everyday assistance requires physical contact
ONE of the major challenges facing the 1.4 million people who are blind and visually impaired in South Africa is shopping, if they have no sighted family members to assist.
Cape Town Society for the Blind public awareness officer Vincent Daniels has since highlighted the difficulties facing those with visual impairments as the country grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown.
He has mastered the art of mentoring and counselling them as well as encouraging them to be self-reliant.
Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare disorder that involves a breakdown and a loss of cells in the retina from the age of 4, and faced with the prospect of losing his sight, Daniels learned orientation and mobility skills with the use of a cane.
It helped him gain independence and travel from home to work using public transport, in traffic or at a shopping centre.
The pandemic and the lockdown has created new challenges for the blind, Daniels said.
It was difficult for the visually impaired or the blind to practise physical distancing as they rely heavily on touch to, for example, navigate their way through a shopping centre, he added.
The correct way to assist someone who is visually impaired is to put a hand on their shoulder and ask if they need assistance, he added.
A smartphone app is also able to help with identifying items on a shop shelf, Daniels said. A smartphone can now audibly “read” out the item to the user when they point the phone at it.
The Cape Town Society for the Blind assists with training on how to optimally use a smartphone, at no cost, Daniels said. The visually impaired were also vulnerable to theft while walking, he added.
Sandra Dreyer, head of the society’s department of training, education and development, said her greatest obstacle now as someone visually impaired was to access and use the internet at her local internet café, because the management won’t allow her to enter with a guide: her husband.
At the counter, the café also won’t allow him to stand within a metre of her.
As a blind person, she also said she was afraid to use Dial-a-Ride or public transport because she was unsure whether the driver or fellow commuters wore masks, or if the seat belts and other surfaces had been sanitised.
“I use skills for daily living which I mastered long ago. I know exactly where my clothes and anything else in my house is,” Dreyer said.
For information about the Cape Town Society for the Blind, call: 021 448 4302