| What
should you do when you meet a
blind person?
- Always announce your name, even if they know you. Don't expect
them to recognize your voice.
- If necessary, touch the blind person gently on the elbow to
get their attention. Don't grab a cane or pet a guide dog without
asking permission first.
- Offer your help, but don't be offended if the blind person
prefers to cope on their own.
-
Address the blind person directly, not through
their companion. There's no need to raise your voice; blindness
is not deafness.
- Use words like 'see' and 'look' naturally in conversation.
- When guiding a blind person, let them take your arm and check
if you are moving at a comfortable speed. Warn them when you
are approaching steps or the kerb.
- When helping a blind person to sit down, guide their hand to
the back of the chair and let them seat themselves without assistance.
Never push them backwards into a chair.
- If you are driving and you see a blind person waiting to cross
the street, proceed normally. Don't hoot, shout instructions,
or stop suddenly.
How does a blind person
...
... learn Braille?
Sighted people who come into contact with Braille often remark
that they don't know how blind people make any sense at all out
of the rows of tiny raised dots.
So, how difficult is it to learn Braille? In fact, it's not difficult
at all.
Mastering the basic alphabet seldom takes more than a few weeks
and then, as with anything else, practice makes perfect!
... count money?
Believe it or not, a coin has six distinct features by which a
blind person can identify it: size, thickness, shape (not all are
entirely round) pattern of grooves round the edge, the sound it
makes when dropped onto a table and the raised picture on the face.
One, two, three, four or five raised diamond shapes in the middle
of the bottom half of the new South African bank notes enable blind
people to identify them as R10, R20, R50, R100 and R200 respectively.
The notes are also different lengths.
For the benefit of the partially sighted, the Reserve Bank has
introduced geometric shapes on the front of the banknotes. The
R10 note features a diamond, the R20 a square, the R50 a circle,
the R100 a 'flat' hexagon and the R200 a 'honeycomb' hexagon.
For quick and easy reference, plastic coin identifiers and money
sticks (to measure banknotes) are available.
... know which clothes go with which?
Getting
dressed in the morning can be tricky when you don't know which
colours you're mixing and matching ... so blind people often
sew buttons of various sizes and shapes onto the inside of skirts,
shirts and trousers to help them match up outfits.
... thread a needle?
Fortunately, help is at hand with an ingenious invention known
as a self-threading needle!
The eye of the needle has a tiny hinge on a spring. When the thread
is pressed down firmly, it springs open and, hey presto, the needle
is threaded.
...
sign a cheque?
A cardboard or metal template, with a cutout
area corresponding to the space where the cheque is signed, enables
a blind person to 'sign on the dotted line'.
|
