NCBI Marks World Sight Day Busting Myths About Sightloss.

Friday, 8 October 2021 11:33

Image: NCBI helpline banner/1850 33 43 53

Around 55,000 people in Ireland are blind or visually impaired.

The National Council for the Blind is aiming to dismiss myths about people who are living with sight loss, as part of World Sight Day.

The 2016 census shows almost 55,000 people are blind or vision impaired.

Today is #worldsightday to mark it we are busting myths about people with sight loss, like: 1. Not all of them use a cane or guide dogs. Since there are varying degrees of visual impairment and blindness, some people use white canes others use guide dogs & some use their vision. pic.twitter.com/R4MBkZVwuG
— Vision Ireland (@Vision_Irl) October 8, 2021

NCBI is appealing to members of the public to use normal, everyday language when assisting someone with sight loss.

June Tinsley, Head of Advocacy at NCBI, says some people can feel awkward when speaking or describing something to someone who's vision is impaired:

June Tinsley says people living with sight loss have varying needs

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