Today is World Sight Day, and the aim of the campaign is to highlight the road safety problems faced by those with sight impairments every day.
Peter Tabb, Vice Chairman of the Panel said that more than 2000 Islanders have issues with their sight:
“The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness and encourage the general public to take the needs of our disabled fellow islanders into account when we are travelling, whether we are driving a car, motorcycling, cycling or even just walking and take another hard look and make allowances for them.”
Road Safety banners are being displayed, whilst posters and leaflets will be distributed by members of EYECAN who will be in St Helier and Les Quennevais to raise awareness of the work of the charity, and highlight clients’ road safety concerns.
Chris Frost from EYECAN commented:
“World Sight Day is the perfect opportunity to launch this campaign to highlight some of the difficulties EYECAN members’ face when out in the community.
“Each different eye condition presents its own challenges when a person is trying to negotiate a road crossing or walk down a busy pavement and a person with a sight impairment may not always have a white cane or guide dog.
“With this in mind we urge people to Take Another Hard Look and be considerate to all other islanders using the roads and pavements”.
A web page has been created with the assistance of EYECAN which features three video interviews with sight impaired islanders who talk about the problems they face on a day to day basis. The site also includes information about some of the most prevalent sight problems experienced by islanders, how these affect them when using roads and precincts. The site be viewed here
