WORK OF N.Z. FOUNDATION FOR BLIND

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32667, 24 July 1971, Page 12

WORK OF N.Z. FOUNDATION FOR BLIND

['By

FELICITY PRICE

Beginning tomorrow afternoon with the official opening by the Prime Minister (Sir Keith Holyoake) and ending on July 31 with a public appeal for funds, Braille Week will concentrate on bringing the aims, services, preventive work and needs of the Foundation for the Blind into the public eye.

During Braille Week, officers of the foundation will visit schools and other groups to inform people on the value and protection of their sight, the work of the foundation and how best to help those afflicted with blindness.

In Christchurch next Saturday, about 2000 collectors will take part in the annual house-to-house appeal for funds, while throughout the rest of New Zealand more than 28,000 other people will also take part in the appeal work.

Last year Braille Week donations and all special gifts totalled $453,987, but to maintain the present standard of services, the foundation will have to increase this amount by at least 20 per cent as costs have risen by $BO,OOO. ‘‘Most of the money needed will go towards geriatric work at Femwood Hostel in Christchurch and the new Tawa Hostel near Wellington,” said the foundation’s director (Mr E. W. Christiansen). Five hostels At present there are five hostels for blind people and a further hostel will be opened in about three months at Tawa. Four of the existing five are in close proximity to the foundation’s headquarters in Auckland. Bledisloe House accommodates 28 elderly blind men in divided dormitories and Hutchinson Home accommodates 41 elderly blind women in individual rooms. Both provide a peaceful friendly atmosphere, encourage interests in sport or handcraft, and have voluntary readers every morning to read them the newspaper.

Pearson House, for working blind men, and McCoy House for working blind women, both encourage their residents to take up outside activities and recreation. Femwood Hostel, in St Albans, Christchurch, is the South Island hostel for the aged blind, and will work in complement to Tawa when the latter is completed. Femw’ood can accommodate up to 80 blind people and is fortunate to be situated next to Abberley Park, which has a scented garden created especially for the blind. Another such garden exists in Auckland near the headquarters. Mrs L. Dalziel, who is the supervising matron for all these hostels, said that she still found it hard to become accustomed to finding blind people reading braille, knitting or working in the dark.

Library service The library of the Foundation for the Blind is a national service with three avenues of reading for the blind—Braille, Moon and talking books. Of these, 90 per cent are talking books, which are recorded at the library’s own studio.

Braille, a system of reading raised dots on paper, is used widely in schools, but because of the facility of transcribing, distributing and “reading” a talking book, the books are more popular. Moon, which is a form of raised print, is the least widely used as it can only be read, not written, and it is taught mainly to older people because it is easier to learn.

In the talking book recording studio a master tape of a reading of the book is obtained and then multiple copies are made on highspeed copying machines where up to 12 copies can be made at a time at six times the natural speed of speech. The foundation produces about 100 of its own books each year with the aid of voluntary radio and television readers. The average book takes about 16 hours to record.

During the last year, 58,000 cassettes were distributed to blind people in New Zealand and 2800 new cassettes were added to the library. Recently a more modem type of cassette, weighing about one-tenth as much as the older one, has been adopted, and these are sent free of charge by the Post Office anywhere in New Zealand. Of the 16 full-time staff at the library, 11 are blind or partially blind, which is the greatest ratio of blind library staff in the world. Mr Cyril White, the manager of the library, is himself blind. They find their way around the library by a combination of familiarity, trial, and sensing the changes in floor covering, which warns them of a coming step, door, ramp, comer or wall. Workshop sales “With increased competition from cane workers in other fields and from industrial competition we have had to consider a greater degree of automation recently, which has meant increased production in departments like wireworking, and as a result a certain amount of retraining has been necessary,” said the workshop manager (Mr Arnold Roberts). Although sales were better than the previous year’s the economic feasibility of the workshop, where blind people work, was decreasing yearly, he said.

“The whole object of blind welfare is to integrate people into society and therefore the foundation tries to place them in the outside world," Mr Roberts said.

Newly blinded adults are encouraged, wherever possible, to retain their old jobs after a period of rehabilitation. At present positions held by blind persons include computer pro-

grammers, physiotherapists, dictaphone typists, dark room technicians, welfare workers, and possibly soon a university lecturer. However, because they are not suitable or cannot be trained for outside employment, there are still 70 blind workers at the foundation’s workshop. Of these, several suffer from some other disability as well as blindness. The object of the workshop is not to make a profit, but rather to provide congenial employment with monetary reward, sufficient together with a pension (the invalid’s benefit is available to all those with 3/60ths sight or less) to ensure economic security and self respect for the worker. As there is no reliable way of predetermining what type of mobility aid will be best for any particular person, mobility training requires expert help. New Zealanders have shown a preference for the white cane, which is used as an extension of the arm to explore obstacles in the way in unfamiliar territory. Also coming into common use is the long white cane, which gives added mobility. Sonar aids Guide dogs, for which the blind person is sent to Australia, trained with his dog, and then rehabilitated at home at a total cost to the foundation of $l6OO are not very popular, as the person must be very active and like animals. Many do not like guide dogs as they take away a feeling of independence. There are 13 guide dogs in New Zealand, which represents three per cent of the blind population. Professor L. Kay, of the electronics department of the University of Canterbury, has developed two aids for the blind—the sonic binaural spectacles and the sonic torch. Both of these are based on sensing electronic signals and interpreting them with relation to obstacles and both require fairly intensive training before they can be used, and then they are generally used in conjunction with a cane.

A further development is that of the Mowat sonar cane, which transmits the signal by vibration through the handle of the cane, and is not as complicated as with the spectacles. As a result, blind people are becoming increasingly mobile and independent from the helping arm of others, and can negotiate their way round a busy city relatively unaided.

One of the most important functions of the foundation is the prevention of blindness, as years of research have shown that more than half of all blindness in the world could have been prevented by full use of knowledge.

It is indicated that one out of every four school children may need eye care, and every child reaching the age of three should have his eyes examined. Adults too should have a check-up by an eye specialist, especially after the age of 40. Equally important are good eye habits, such as the proper use of lighting and correct posture while reading or writing and the avoidance of all contact between unclean objects and the eyes. Eye accidents Accidents to eyes have occurred in school laboratories in all parts of New Zealand, and pamphlets are distributed to schools warning of this. Another pamphlet issued is one by Dr J. C. Parr, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Otago, which informs both teachers and pupils how best to save and protect their eyesight.

Air guns, bows and arrows and fireworks are the three things which eye doctors are stated to oppose most strongly for children. They do not feel they are necessary for the full development of any child, yet they cause so many accidents. Full blindness as the result of an accident, however, is not common, as it is usually only sight in one eye that is lost. “New Zealand is very short of ophthalmologists. The whole of the West Coast and Blenheim area does not possess the services of an ophthalmologist and patients must often rely on ordinaiy medical attention, which is not usually as good as specialist treatment,” said the foundation’s director (Mr Christiansen). Four bursaries for overseas study in ophthalmology are available every year from the foundation, provided the recipients return to New Zealand and work in a hospital for at least two years. In Christchurch Hospital, an electro retinograph for diagnostic ophthalmology has been installed by the foundation to enable Dr H. J. Wales to carry out research on special types of eye problems. This unit, which has only been in operation a few short weeks, has already proved its worth. Attitudes to blind Helen Keller, a deaf-blind mute, whose life example is an inspiration to many blind people, once said, “Not blindness, but the attitude of the seeing to the blind, is sometimes hardest to bear.”

And in spite of a much more widely informed and educated public today, our attitudes to blind people when we are with them can be just as ignorant as in the past. For example, we should let him take our arm if we are walking with him. without. trying to push or urge him along; we do not have to find substitutes for the words “look,” “see” or “blind,” because they are in his vocabulary too; we do not need to raise our voices, because he is not deaf; we should always introduce ourselves when entering a room; and we should always remember that it is consideration he wants, not pity, and that he does not have a sixth sense but rather he has to develop his remaining senses more fully.

The services of the New Zealand Foundation for the Blind cover an extremely wide area, including welfare and counselling and practical help, education, trade training and employment, maintenance of hostels for the blind, running a library service, training in mobility and job placement, as well as general administration.