Input from EBU Commissions :
Commission on mobility and guide dogs
As part of initiatives to observe the Year, some EBU Commissions have focused on issues concerning the elderly blind.
The Commission on Mobility and Guide Dogs identified two problems affecting the lives of the elderly visually impaired.
A high proportion of elderly blind people, many with additional disabilities, are house bound because their real needs of mobility and transport are not being met. In many cases local and national governments are not even aware of the problem. Mobility training is hardly available, and very few financial benefits are given to them to cover their cost of transport, which in most cases is a taxi.
It is a well-known fact that, when not cracked and broken, pavements are cluttered with parked vehicles and other obstacles, and now more and more used by cyclists. This has led to many accidents affecting pedestrians, in particular those elderly blind people that can go out alone.
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