Mim, who is twelve, suffers from low vision and uses magnifiers to help her read in class © Sightsavers

Tools and Technology

In order for people who are blind to live life to the full as equal and participating members of society, they may need access to certain tools to help them do so. Providing these is an important part of our work.

White canes

Such a simple piece of equipment, foldable light-weight white canes can play such an important role in helping someone who is blind to circumnavigate their environment and move around freely. Used correctly it should be deployed in a wide sweeping motion, to gauge the surrounding area and detect whether the path ahead is clear.

Braille

Devised in 1821 by Louis Braille, this is a method used by blind people to read and write. Each Braille character is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two columns of three dots each.

You read Braille by running your fingers over the dots, and it can be written by hand (by punching the dots) or using a machine called a Perkins Brailler.

Sightsavers often supports schools by helping provide educational materials in Braille to cater for blind students. There are also a number of devices available to make life easier for people who have some vision, but who are not completely blind.

Achievements

 

Rehabilitation statistics

Working with partners in 2010 we helped to:

• Train 2,623 teachers to support with visually impaired children in the classroom
•  Provide basic daily living skills training to over 4,577 blind people
•  Train 3,513 rehabilitation workers