Council addresses challenges blind commuters face in Johannesburg

The South African National Council for the Blind, together with some of our member organisations and Mr Zain Bulbulia, the Director of Special Programmes (Disability rights), were invited by The MEC for Community Safety, Ms Nonhlanhla Faith to discuss road safety issues for visually impaired people. Representatives from COSATU were also present.

The purpose of the well-attended meeting was to forge a relationship with the visually impaired community to understand and address their safety needs, particularly road safety challenges and also to integrate and align issues of disabilities in the departmental programmes. The topic of inclusivity and sensitisation in the workplace, regarding visual impairments and the employment of visually impaired persons, were also discussed. SA National Council for the Blind’s CEO Mr Jace Nair said that government was not adequately meeting its own set targets for employing persons with disabilities.

The meeting was held at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Newtown which houses the SA National Council for the Blind’s Dialogue in the Dark exhibition. The tour guides of the exhibition are blind and have great difficulty in accessing safe routes to get to work due to a lack of infrastructure and understanding around the challenges of blindness.