Barbadians are being urged to be more vigilant and respectful of visually impaired people using white canes, as the National United Society of the Blind (NUSB) marked White Cane Day with an awareness walk through Speightstown, St Peter, yesterday evening.
NUSB president Ralbert Ashton said the aim was to educate the public on the purpose and benefits of the cane.
“We need persons to be more alert, to pay more attention to when you see people with the cane,” he said.
He recalled a recent trip through Bridgetown when a woman walked into him and asked if he was blind.
“I had to say, ‘Yes I am, are you too’? There are so many challenges that we have to face. So that’s why we have to continue to advocate and communicate and educate, because other than that, people will continue to forget and take it for granted,” he stated.
Public attitudes, he added, were a major concern. “You need to wear the shoe to know or feel what the person is going through, so we just want to raise that awareness so the person can understand.”
Transportation is another pressing issue. The Barbados Council for the Disabled has lent the group its bus, but demand across the island means it is often unavailable.
“More times than not, we cannot always rely on that,” Ashton said. “We would have to be paying persons to transport us back and forth, which is very, very hard on the pockets.”
On the pace of change for people with disabilities, he estimated that between 70 and 75 cent of the work remains to be done. He said Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Adrian Forde has shown keen interest and has been doing a lot, but cautioned that progress takes time. “Rome was not built in a day,” he said.
What the community wants most, Ashton stressed, is empowerment. “We don’t want a handout. We want a ‘hand up’. We would like a person that can help us to help ourselves, but not that every single time we want somebody to help us all the time.”
The walk, held under the theme Love Your Eyes, Respect The Cane, Celebrate Independence, started at the Speightstown Esplanade. Blind and visually-impaired participants, guided by canes and visual aids, headed south along Queen Street before turning at the roundabout and travelling along the KNR Husbands Highway, to the Speightstown bus terminal and past District ‘E’ Police Station and returning to the Esplanade. Police officers were present along the route.
Also at the walk was Alicia Hartman, president of the newly-revived Barbados Optometry Association, which represents 23 optometrists. She said the association’s first step was to connect with the community and learn how optometrists can play a bigger role in rehabilitation, education and support.
“Not because you’re either partially sighted or blind that life stops after that,” she said, adding they hope to see more private sector optometrists involved in community care, with a more peoplecentred approach. (DDS)