A Portobello woman who has been visually impaired since childhood is backing a nationwide campaign by charity RNIB to challenge outdated perceptions and give a voice to some of the hopes and frustrations of blind and partially sighted people.
Sue Marshall (78) was partially sighted in childhood due to the condition Keritecious and became totally blind at 17.
“The strangest thing I’ve found is that when you tell sighted people that can’t see at all they still think you must be able to see something,” she says. “And friends have told me a similar stories. One even took her glass-eyes out and said right, do you understand now!
“I think, in general though, the public are very helpful and kind to the visually impaired. Where I think things haven’t improved is in the workplace. If you’re higher up the chain it seems to be okay, but getting on the first rung of the employment ladder is still difficult.”
RNIB’s ‘See the Person, Not the Sight Loss’ campaign is being launched on World Sight Day today with an emotive short film about Ava, a fictional teenage girl who is coming to terms with losing her sight.
We see the impact this has on many areas of her life, from education to relationships. Most crucially, the film demonstrates how sight loss can impact on mental as well as physical health. With the help of RNIB, Ava’s friends, family and teachers offer their support, while a RNIB Eye Care Liaison Officer counsels her post-diagnosis. Ava starts to find her feet again, accepting her condition and regaining confidence.
David Aldwinckle, director of insight that will run in cinemas, television and online customer voice at RNIB, said: “As someone who’s lived with sight loss for forty years, these findings really resonated with me emotionally.
“When people are diagnosed with sight loss, we know that they often experience a range of emotions including shock, anger and anxiety, and that these can be particularly acute for a young person.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’ve made it a core part of our mission to improve understanding of sight loss. At RNIB, blind and partially sighted people often tell us that they wish other people had a better understanding of what it means to be living with a vision impairment, and we know that by making sometimes small changes to their behaviour, people can help to create a more equitable world for anyone affected by sight loss.
“I’m excited by the launch of our important campaign and with the authenticity of our film, which captures the range of feelings that people go through – the fear, the sense of anxiety, the anger and denial. But really importantly it captures the fact that we also have desire, passion, ambition, skills, abilities, to live full lives and contribute to the world around us just like everybody else.”
In portraying the character of Ava, lead actor Eli London drew upon personal experiences of sight loss, having had retinoblastoma in childhood resulting in monocular vision.
Eli said: “This short film is going to have a tangible, deep impact for a lot of people. Following a young woman, a student, a gamer, through a sight loss journey is overtly a different approach to media that has covered this story before, but it’s important, and necessary. We exist, and it’s been a pleasure to bring her story to screen, to give someone out there their truest representation.”
The two-minute ‘See the Person, Not the Sight Loss’ film is online and in cinemas, along with a 60-second version which has aired on prime-time television, with a 30-second version running throughout the rest of the four-week campaign period. The full three-and-a-half-minute film is available to view online also.
During tomorrow night’s episode of ‘Gogglebox’ on Channel 4 the cast will watch the campaign film, opening up the conversation about sight loss to the whole nation.
The campaign has been supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery through the Postcode Care Trust and other partners.
You can watch the full film here and the 60 second version here.
For more information visit www.rnib.org.uk/our-campaigns/see-the-person
Being asked whether their guide-dog can read bus-numbers, how they look after their children, know whether their house is clean and tidy, or even when they have their period, are some of the questions blind and partially sighted people have put to them.
RNIB asked what they wished sighted people would stop doing:
- Asking ‘How many fingers am I are holding up?’
- Assuming that because I can’t see properly, I can’t hear either.
- Making hurtful comments such as ‘I couldn’t cope if I was in your shoes’.
- Leaving a room or meeting without saying goodbye.
- Directing questions to my guide dog, family or friend instead of me.
- Asking ‘Would you rather be deaf or blind?’
- Assuming I need help without asking.
- Assuming I would only date or marry another blind person.
- Parking cars on pavements.
What do you wish sighted people knew about sight loss?
- That sight loss is a spectrum, and everyone’s experience is individual.
- It’s tiring! The level of fatigue you feel from the extra concentration you are using all the time.
- It is deeply offensive to say, ‘I don’t look blind’.
- The fact that I’m blind, doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it just means it takes me a little bit longer or I do it a bit differently.
- How nerve-wracking it can be to cope in public environments that are low or brightly lit, cluttered, noisy or busy.
- How much flippant and disrespectful comments can hurt.