A society for all, also for partially-sighted people
In a 'Society for All', every citizen has the right to equal opportunities and to participate fully in society without being discriminated on grounds of race, gender, religion or disability. In most parts of Europe, this society does not exist for partially-sighted people.
A person is considered partially-sighted when he or she cannot, after eye correction, read, travel and communicate normally. The partially-sighted need optical and electronic low vision aids. When such aids are not sufficient, they have to rely on tactile and auditory information. Since these compensations are not completely sufficient, partially-sighted people often face a permanent loss of their capacity to participate fully in society and suffer emotional reaction related to this loss.
Partial sight is generally related to a loss of central retinal functions caused by diseases such as diabetes, glaucoma and macular degeneration. As a consequence, partially-sighted people are not able to see details, and may be called 'detail blind'. Those with detail blindness are still able to move around in a familiar environment without a white cane. Most partially-sighted people are elderly and thus have major problems in coping with their new situation. They find it often difficult to use low vision aids and tactile and auditory information to compensate for their visual impairment. Finally, sight loss often coincides in elderly people with other disabilities ; even a mild sight impairment may lead to a severe handicap as the elderly have little compensation capacity.
In Europe the situation for partially-sighted people is far from ideal. Today, our society is becoming increasingly vision-oriented, and the partially-sighted do not have the means to cope with this development. Measures aimed at blind people are often not accessible for the partially-sighted or are not adapted to their wish to solve their problems in a visual way. As a result, most partially-sighted don't find their way to rehabilitation programmes usually developed for blind and young severely partially-sighted people, and they do not join blind unions. These are some of the conclusions that have been drawn from recent epidemiological studies about the participation of partially-sighted people in The Netherlands, the UK and Finland.
The European Blind Union claims to represent the interests of both blind and partially-sighted people. How can EBU and its member organizations promote, at all levels, a 'Society for All' that is also open to partially-sighted people ? The answer is not easy : there are different opinions all over Europe as to how people should cope with their handicap and how they could be helped in doing so. In addition, financial resources are limited in some countries, which restrains the level of support granted to disabled people. There are major differences from one European country to the other in the way partially-sighted people are cared for. Differences may also be found within one same country. In Italy and Spain, for example, support income is only open to those who manage to fall in the "blindness and severe partial-sight" category, which excludes most partially-sighted people.
No doubt the situation of the partially-sighted needs to be improved. EBU has a prominent role to play in this, in particular through its standing Commission on Activities of Partially-sighted People (the Commission). We, as members of the Commission, must think about the best way to take part in the activities of EBU, its member organizations and organizations outside EBU involved in the promotion of the interests of partially-sighted people. We must be aware that we all come from different parts of Europe with different welfare systems for the disabled, and that it would be dangerous to force solutions prevailing in one geographical area upon other areas. In some countries - Italy and Spain have already been mentioned - measures to meet the needs of blind people are, in our eyes, very good. However these cannot be applied to the partially-sighted, as limited resources would have to be spread too thinly over the much larger group of those with partial sight. We need some theorizing about the situation before coming up with a solution.
In the past, special measures for the visually disabled were mainly geared at meeting individual needs (e.g. specialised medical services, training in the use of technical aids), and at providing economic support in particular to those who cannot access the labour market. These measures that have been developed until now originate from the traditional view that a disability is an observable physical, mental, sensory or psychological deviation from normality caused by disease, trauma or another health condition. According to these medically based assumptions, people with disabilities experience functional limitations, some of which can be prevented by medical interventions or compensated for by way of aids or rehabilitation, while others result in permanent restrictions of life activity.
However, many people reject a causal relationship between individual impairment and disability, as propagated in the 'medical models'. They see disability as a consequence of the failure of the physical and social environments to take into account the needs of particular individuals or groups. The disadvantages many disabled persons experience are therefore perceived as a form of injustice, which requires a legal and political response. This view is reflected in the definitions of disability as advocated by the international disability movement. A Disabled Person is an individual in his/her own right, placed in a disabling situation by environmental, economic and social barriers which he/she cannot overcome in the same way as other persons because of his/her impairment(s). These barriers are all too often compounded by the marginalizing attitudes of society. It is up to society to eliminate, reduce, or compensate for, these barriers in order to allow each individual to enjoy full citizenship. In the light of this 'social model' of disability, new collective measures have been developed to prevent people with impairments from becoming disabled. One example is the 'Design for All' principle for designing the public environment. Such environments have no physical barriers, which makes them accessible to as many categories of impaired people as possible.
What does this theorizing mean for the partially-sighted ? Most measures for visually impaired people are usually granted to blind and severely partially-sighted people, and many of them are not appropriate for those with partial sight. As an example, the partially-sighted emphasize the need for the "Design for All" concept to be applied to the public environment and information to make them more accessible. However, this example does not imply that there is no need for individual measures. Many partially-sighted people require optical and electronic low vision aids, and special training to learn to use these aids.
EBU must make sure that the needs of partially-sighted people are taken on board when non-discrimination legislation is discussed at European Disability Forum and EU level ; in turn, its member organizations must see to it that EU non-discrimination legislation is translated into concrete national, regional and local measures that will improve the daily lives of partially-sighted people and their participation in society.
Berry den Brinker and Harry Geyskens
Members, EBU Commission on Activities of Partially-sighted People
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