1 Convention Text
1.1 States Parties shall take effective and appropriate measures, including
through peer support (R1), to enable persons with disabilities to attain and
maintain maximum independence, full physical, mental, social and vocational
ability, and full inclusion and participation in all aspects of life (R2). To
that end, States Parties shall organize, strengthen and extend comprehensive
habilitation and rehabilitation services and programmes, particularly in the
areas of health, employment, education and social services (R3), in such a way
that these services and programmes:
(a) Begin at the earliest possible stage, and are based on the multidisciplinary
assessment of individual needs and strengths; R4
(b) Support participation and inclusion in the community and all aspects of
society, are voluntary, and are available to persons with disabilities as close
as possible to their own communities, including in rural areas; R5.
1.2 States Parties shall promote the development of initial and continuing
training for professionals and staff working in habilitation and rehabilitation
services; R6.
1.3 States Parties shall promote the availability, knowledge and use of
assistive devices and technologies, designed for persons with disabilities, as
they relate to habilitation and rehabilitation.
2 Declaration of Needs and Characteristics
2.1 Those whose visual disability occurred at birth, childhood or during
adolescence sometimes experience difficulties in making the transition from
school/college life to working life and habilitation can help to ensure that
blind and partially-sighted young people have the opportunity to develop and
achieve their full potential.
2.2 People who become blind and partially-sighted during their working lives
have to learn new communication, daily living and travel skills and how to
overcome the difficulties of access to information. These skills and coping
strategies have to be acquired at the same time as psychological and emotional
adjustments are made to visual loss. Blind and partially-sighted people may also
need additional vocational training before they return to work. It is essential
for those in employment when visual disability occurs to remain on the payroll
of their employers during their rehabilitation and training. This will help to
ensure that they have the opportunity to return to their former post or one
similar to it if this is practicable.
2.3 The highest incidence of visual disability occurs in later life; the
prospects of becoming blind or partially-sighted increases substantially with
age. Although older people face similar challenges as adults of working age when
adjusting to visual loss - learning communication, daily living and travel
skills as well as making an emotional adjustment - for most people the
imperative to return to work does not arise. Consequently, it is essential for
rehabilitation services for this group of people to be focussed on helping blind
and partially-sighted people to continue to have the opportunity to lead fully
inclusive lives in the community and to continue to contribute to family life.
2.4 Older blind and partially-sighted people face an additional challenge. As
people become older their general health, hearing, physical and/or mental
abilities diminish. Deteriorating abilities interact with visual disability to
progressively reduce the capacity to lead a full and active life. Rehabilitation
services must be designed and delivered to enable blind and partially-sighted
people to adjust to the impact of ageing, so that optimum independence and
activity can be sustained.
2.5 Sometimes, visual disability is caused by health conditions which also have
an adverse effect on other abilities. For example, diabetes can effect eyesight
and touch sensitivity. Head injuries can affect the ability to see as well as
result in memory loss and learning difficulties. A substantial proportion of
blind and partially-sighted people, especially older people, also have a hearing
disability. The concomitant effect of dual sensory loss on a person's
communication, daily living and travel capabilities can be very significant.
Rehabilitation services must be capable of assisting blind and partially-sighted
people with other health conditions and/or disabilities to lead inclusive lives
in the community that are commensurate with their functional abilities.
2.6 Whilst the primary task of all blind and partially-sighted people's
rehabilitation services must be to help blind and partially-sighted people to
adjust to visual loss and to learn communication, daily living, information
access and travel skills, it is also essential that these services help to
ensure that the environments that blind and partially-sighted people interact
with are appropriate to their requirements. Rehabilitation services should, for
example, help to ensure that the lighting in a partially-sighted person's
kitchen or workplace facilitates optimum use of residual vision. Rehabilitation
services must also be ready and willing to campaign, for example, for the
installation of a safe crossing at a busy road junction used by a blind person
to visit local shops. If such environmental aspects are not addressed, the value
and effectiveness of individuals' rehabilitation programmes are correspondingly
reduced. The ability of blind and partially-sighted people to live inclusive
lives in their communities is also diminished.
2.7 Blind and partially-sighted people also need equipment to overcome the
communication, information, daily living and travel difficulties they
experience. Governments have a responsibility to ensure that rehabilitation
services provide such equipment at an affordable cost. Particular attention
should be placed on IT provision for people with sight loss. There is a wide
range of IT equipment available which can help people to access information on
the internet, magnify text of letters, household bills etc. This equipment is
often expensive and seldom provided to blind or partially sighted people when
assessed for social care. The availability of such equipment can greatly
increase the independence of a person with sight loss and reduce the isolation
felt by blind or partially-sighted people, which can lead to depression and
ill-health.
2.8 The approach to habilitation and rehabilitation for blind and for
partially-sighted people is fundamentally different. The spectrum of visual loss
encapsulates high levels of visual ability and total blindness. Some
individuals' visual status enables them to function effectively in all aspects
of daily life by utilising their residual vision. This is achieved by the use of
low vision aids, controlling ambient and task lighting and learning to optimise
the use of residual eyesight. However, people with little or no vision have to
learn to utilise hearing, tactual and other senses. Their habilitation and
rehabilitation must include instruction in Braille or other tactile scripts, in
daily living skills that apply touch and kinaesthetic senses, as well as in
travel skills, utilising a white cane or guide dog. Some people's habilitation
and rehabilitation will require the application of a combination of these two
distinct approaches.
2.9 Sometimes visual loss occurs over a period of many years and this requires
continual adjustment. As individuals’ eyesight deteriorates, new skills and
coping strategies have to be acquired to maintain functional effectiveness in
study, employment and daily life. This requires corresponding continuing access
to rehabilitation services that are sensitive to academic, vocational, family,
leisure, community and other interests, roles and requirements.
3 Important Aspects of Convention Text
3.1 Convention text - R1 Peer support.
3.2 Requirement - A compatible blind or partially-sighted person who has
participated in a rehabilitation programme should be selected.
3.3 Convention text - R2 Attain and maintain maximum independence, full
physical, mental, social and vocational ability, and full inclusion and
participation in all aspects of life.
3.4 Requirement - Equipment and instruction is required to acquire and maintain
levels of reading, daily living and travel skills, using appropriate formats and
techniques, including access technology, which must take account of the level of
visual disability, visual prognosis, and present and future educational,
employment, life status and goals.
3.5 Convention text - R3 Shall organise, strengthen and extend comprehensive
habilitation and rehabilitation services and programmes, particularly in the
areas of health, employment, education and social services.
3.6 Requirement - Rehabilitation services that are specifically designed for
blind and partially-sighted people should be organised and delivered locally,
involve the family, be provided either in people's own homes or at centres where
groups of blind and/or partially-sighted people with similar habilitation or
rehabilitation needs receive individual and group instruction and can provide
mutual support. Centres should have recourse to a comprehensive range of
rehabilitation assessment and tuition expertise .
3.7 Convention text - R4 Based on the multidisciplinary assessment of individual
needs and strengths.
3.8 Requirement - The assessment team is to include professional staff qualified
to determine rehabilitation needs from the perspective of the impact of visual
loss on all aspects of an individual's life and well being. The assessment is to
establish the extent to which instruction in communication, daily living and
mobility skills should be based on the concepts of vision substitution, vision
enhancement, or a combination of both.
3.9 Convention text - R5 Support participation and inclusion in the community
and all aspects of society.
3.10 Requirement - Rehabilitation programmes and services should assist
individuals to address the barriers to full participation and inclusion that
blind and partially-sighted people face when making the transition from
habilitation and rehabilitation to education and/or work and life in the
community.
3.11 Convention text - R6 Promote the development of initial and continuing
training for professionals and staff working in habilitation and rehabilitation
services.
3.12 Requirement - Those employed to assist blind and partially-sighted people
to adjust to visual disabilities must receive training that addresses the issues
identified in Section 2 above. It is especially important that they have the
ability to:
• Appreciate the relationship between blind or partially-sighted people and
their environments;
• understand what action is required to remove the barriers to full inclusion
and participation in the community;
• assist blind and partially-sighted people to adjust emotionally and
psychologically to visual loss;
• provide instruction in the skills required by blind and partially-sighted
people to overcome communication, information, daily living and travel
difficulties that are an inevitable consequence of visual loss.
3.13 Requirement – Provision to enable those blind and partially-sighted people
who can, through their own experiences and achievements, make a substantial
professional contribution to the habilitation and rehabilitation of other blind
and partially-sighted people.
TA
18/12/07