Blind And Deaf, But Still Cheerful At “Fernwood”

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30815, 29 July 1965, Page 6

Blind And Deaf, But Still Cheerful At “Fernwood”

When the loss of sight is compounded by deafness the two most effective faculties for perception are eliminated. Only touch and speech remain, leaving the sufferer entirely dependent on others.

This is the case with Miss E. Goodchild, one of the 48 residents at “Fernwood,” the New Zealand Foundation for the Blind’s hostel in St. Albans. She has been totally blind for 11 years and stone deaf for the last six years. Without sight or hearing, Miss Goodchild would be completely unaware of her surroundings, were it not for two things. One means of communication is her ability to “read” letters “written” on her back with the finger. Another is a little two-way typewriter called a Tellatouch. The machine has a conventional keyboard supplemented with Braille keys on one side. On the other is a slot big enough to accommodate Miss Goodchild’s fingers. A sighted or a blind person can type to her on one side and she can feel the Braille dots as they

come up beneath her fingers on the other. Practice has made Miss Goodchild quick at recognising words as they are typed. In many cases only the first two letters are enough and she is repeating the words and completing sentences before they have been spelled out to her. Typewriter The foundation has also provided Miss Goodchild with a typewriter for her correspondence. A buzzer sounds when she reaches the end of each line. She cannot hear it, but she feels the vibration of it in a gadget on the floor under her foot. Like the other residents at “Femwood,” Miss Goodchild seems unfailingly cheerful. Visitors to the hostel can see why this should be. It is designed and run not as a hospital but as a home, where everyone has a private room, the best of care and comfort, and every facility for a contented, yet interesting, life. To start with, all the residents have breakfast in bed. Most of them are elderly. The youngest is 58 and the eldest 100. The average age is 79. There is a spacious lounge at the sunny end of each of the two wings, and each morning and evening a volunteer from a 300-strong auxiliary arrives to read the newspapers to the residents. Outings Off the lounge is a kitchenette where anyone can prepare a snack for himself or his guests. The residents come and go as they please, either with friends or with volunteers from the auxilary. They delight in bus trips around the countryside, many of them go to race meetings, and frequent socials at the hostel are attended by other blind persons living in Christchurch. Doctors visit the hostel three days a week, while qualified nurses live at the hostel to eare for the health of residents with the help of a small, well-equipped sickbay.

Designed to be as convenient as possible for the blind, the hostel has finger rails along the corridor walls, embossed room numbers, identification panels on strategic doors, and a “soft change” in the corridor floor coverings so that a blind person can tell when he has reached the entrance to the toilet. There is even a television set in the lounge. The residents claim that they get more enjoyment by listening to a television programme than from the radio. It seems more “alive,” and they provide their own imagined background to the sound. Outside, a special garden in the well-tended grounds has railed paths so that the blind can walk around it with complete confidence. In the neighbouring Abberley Park the Christchurch City Council has built a scented garden to be shared by the blind and the sighted citizens of the city. Flower beds are behind waist-high waits, and the flowers and shrubs will be identified by nameplates in Braille and lettering. Auxilaries The auxilary members of the foundation come in regularly to read to the residents, write letters for them, sew for them, and take them shopping. They also help with the socials, and provide 24 cars each week to take other blind persons to and from the hostel for therapy. Not all the residents are completely blind. Some have useful sight, others can distinguish only between light and dark, but all of them have a degree of sight which is below a prescribed level. Residents pay £3 5s 6d a week to the foundation of their £5 a week pension, but to keep the hostel going it costs the foundation another £8 a week for each resident. Plans have been made to add a third wing to the hostel. This will be filled as soon as it is built as there is a waiting list of nearly 70 names.