Registered as a "Blind Person"

A social worker for the blind visited me at my home and after a chat, I was asked to register as a partially sighted person but I refused on the grounds that I did not consider that I was at that stage or was I being stubborn? The social worker continued to visit me even if it was only to ask how I was, I went to help with the talking newspaper and enjoyed helping out and meeting the other volunteers.

One day while shopping in town, I fell and badly grazed both my knees and you would never had guessed but the social worker turned up at my home the next morning before going to work, to see how I was doing! I told the social worker that I have had a bad fall but I had a feeling that she already knew and again, she asked me if I would go for registration so that she could help me. I agreed to go probably because I was feeling very vulnerable at that time; this led me to my being registered as a “Blind Person” and not as a “Partial Blind Person” as I expected. I was horrified and would not accept the label “Blind Person”, a blind person cannot see anything and I still had some vision so how can I be registered as a “Blind Person” was the argument that I used. It was just words that were hurting me, nowadays it is sight impaired (Partially blind) and severe sight impaired (Blind), a more acceptable description and does not make you feel that you are heading for the scrap heap.

The social worker wisely kept out of my way for a few weeks and I had no contact with her until the day that I received an invitation to the Derby Branch of the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society of which I was a member to attend a meeting the next day at Derby. Their quest speaker was Mary Guest, a founder member of the Society with special interest in deaf people with retinitis pigmentosa. I really wanted to attend but realised that it was not possible as at the time we did not have a car. Later that day, I received a phone call from one of the volunteers at the Talking Newspaper and this was followed by a call from my social worker who arranged for some transport to take me to Derby.

I enjoyed the meeting and afterwards was able to discuss my difficulties in accepting my registration as a blind person with Mary Guest, she was very understanding and I have always appreciated that time she gave me. The next day, I went to help out at the Talking Newspaper and saw my social worker who asked if I was ready to talk and after replying that I was, followed her to her office. After thanking my social worker for arranging the transport, we discussed the meeting. The social worker offered me a white cane plus a red and white cane but I explained that I would never use the red and white cane but would use the white cane when I was ready.

The reason that I would not use a red and white cane was that I found there were not many people aware of what the red and white cane indicated, people know that a white cane indicates that the person carrying the white cane is vision impaired but did not know that a person carrying a red and white cane was deaf as well as being vision impaired. I believed that I would feel more secure using the white cane rather than the red and white cane. At the time, it was the correct decision for me.