Publications Archive

New Beacon, December 1990, 74 (881)

Summary: leading monthly magazine on issues concerning people with sight problems

• The Feelings Associated with Visually impaired travel
• Reviews
• Letters
• Comment
• Obituary
• News
• Leisure for all
• Diary

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Editor: Ann Lee

The Royal National Institute for the Blind

The Feelings Associated with Visually impaired travel

1 - An exploratory study

Who are the experts on the mobility of blind and partially-sighted people, and the problems associated with it? In the first of two articles, W. D. Alan Beggs of the Blind Mobility Research Unit, University of Nottingham, reports on research based on the assumption that the people who know what mobility feels like are visually-impaired people themselves.

Introduction

It has been recognised for a long time by practitioners and researchers that the psychological factors which lie behind the practice of visually-impaired travel can prove difficult for clients to cope with (eg Welsh, 1980).

Classic long cane training tended to ignore this emotional context to travel. Based on a sensory substitution hypothesis, it was an “engineering” solution to the problem of visually-impaired travel. Recent Rehabilitation Worker courses have responded to this by offering students a much wider coverage of the psycho-social aspects of vision loss than was the case in the past. This is a great improvement on the earlier courses, which meant that the individual mobility officer had largely only his or her own resources to draw upon when faced .with a client with problems (eg Beggs, 1986a; Maychell and Smart, 1990). However, as far as is known, little of the content of current courses is concerned with giving trainee rehabilitation workers prescriptions for action when faced with a troubled client.

Unfortunately, description alone cannot guarantee that a practitioner will have a technique, other than counselling, available to help a client deal with his or her emotional problems. This situation, however, is almost inevitable, and is no reflection on the professionalism of the training agencies. In the absence of research which has addressed the precise problems of the visually-impaired traveller, or evaluated solutions to them, it is quite impossible for training to offer effective solutions to clients' emotional problems at the moment. This, hopefully, will change, as workers are calling for precisely this kind of research to be instigated (eg O'Donnell, 1988). The work reported here is an attempt to gain a clearer understanding of the psychological experience of visually-impaired mobility by cane users. It is based on the assumption that the people most likely to know about what mobility feels like are visually-impaired people themselves. Clients who are learning to become mobile are in the best position to describe what it feels like. When this knowledge is made public, it may ultimately lead to accurately targeted attempts to develop remedial measures.

The research was conducted over a period of time at the RNIB Employment Rehabilitation Centre at Manor House, Torquay. It started as a qualitative investigation, advanced into quantitative methodology, and has ended up producing a much clearer understanding of the emotional correlates of visually-impaired travel, some insights into the way assessments of the need for mobility training were conducted at that time, and useful pointers towards the sort of ways which practitioners might deal with under-motivated, anxious clients. It has thus been a very fruitful study, and will hopefully continue to inform further work in the area for a considerable time.

Initially, semi-structured depth interviews were conducted with a number of residents at Manor House. Semi-structured interviews are used where the area of interest is ill-defined, so that precise questions cannot be asked. Instead, broad areas of interest are mapped out, and discussed with each respondent, in a largely informal way. The technique has the advantage that the respondent has freedom to answer at length, from which the interviewer can gain greater insights than from yes/no answers. He can thus begin to see what are the crucial areas to probe. It is much used in clinical work and in qualitative market research.

Its disadvantage is that the data is highly objective and interpretive, and must therefore be treated with caution, and confirmed by objective data. Six reasonably competent travellers, identified as such by members of the then Mobility Team, provided the initial input into this research. Three important 'topics of conversation' seemed to recur--confidence, stress and strategy. Eventually, sufficient qualitative or subjective data was available to enable these concepts to be unpacked reasonably well. 'Confidence' looked as if it had several layers--confidence in one's own skills of both mobility and orientation, confidence in one's role as a visually-impaired person, and something like self-confidence. Stress seemed to have two components--emotional stress and the stressful mental effort associated with travel. By strategy, clients appeared to mean a deliberate decision to be either cautious or reckless, something which may be related to their individual coping style. These seven initial psychological dimensions formed the basis for the next development of the investigation.

This description of clients' reported experience is, I hope, a familiar one to practitioners. It is important to remember, however, that it was subjectively arrived at, with a very small sample of respondents. The next step was an attempt to define more precisely the nature of the “psychological space” which had been identified. The concern at this stage was to identify the most widely agreed-upon and understandable subset of feelings-related words, which would both define the space, and form an investigative questionnaire which later could be used with a large sample of clients. Using Roget's Thesaurus and other synonym-finders, an exhaustive list of eighty-nine words related to the seven qualitatively derived dimensions were compiled. This list was then read to three groups of ten residents at Manor House, with the request that they say which, if any, of the words described feelings which they had on mobility journeys. The results of this part of the study showed that the space is slightly different for totally blind and partially-sighted clients, but very different for guide dog owners. For them, several of the words chosen by cane users seemed to be irrelevant, such as 'feeling wary', 'feeling at risk' or 'being on your guard'. In addition, they were generally critical of the list of words, claiming that 'exhilaration' and the like were missing. Clearly, their emotional experiences on a journey are very different from those of cane users, and warrant further investigation. This study, however, was concerned primarily with cane users. Eventually, a set of twenty-one words which both totally blind and partially-sighted clients agreed upon were identified. It is important to note that these words had been selected by clients themselves as being descriptive of their own feelings during mobility. They should therefore be particularly valid--that is, they should relate closely to these feelings, not something else.

These words were then used to construct a questionnaire which could be used to measure the strength of each of the feelings. This was used in the final phase of the study, which was designed to address four questions. Primarily, it was an investigation of the structure of the psychological space which clients themselves had defined by their choice of feelings-related words. Second, it was an attempt to find out how these feelings related to their performance. Third, it tried to discover if visual status had anything to do with either their feelings or their mobility performance.

Fourth, it considered the relationship between clients' feelings and the priority ratings given of these clients by the then Intake Mobility Team at Manor House. The first of these will be reported in this paper. A subsequent paper will describe the remaining three areas of investigation. The structure of the feelings The actual experiment was simple. A total of seventy-one clients were asked to walk along a short cul-de-sac, fairly cluttered with trees, posts and other problems. Any residents who could

a) walk normally,

b) speak English were recruited.

They were at all Stages of mobility training, although some had never had formal training because their vision was adequate for travel. They were thus a very wide ranging sample of people in respect of both mobility skill and visual ability. During the walk along the test route, mobility performance was measured using the PPWS (Proportion of Preferred Walking Speed) Index developed by my colleagues (Clark-Carter, Heyes and Howarth, 1986). They noticed that visually-impaired clients walk at different speeds, which seem to vary from about 30 per cent of what they would like to achieve right up to 100 per cent of normal. As they suggested, this fall-off in walking speed (about which clients are generally not particularly happy) might well be related to psychological and/or visual factors.

The twenty-one-item feelings questionnaire was used at the end of the route to measure the former, and Manor House measurements of acuity and field as the latter.

Measuring PPWS involves timing the client walking unaided over a route, and then again using a sighted guide. However, in the sighted guide mode, the experimenter and client together walk at a speed which the client says feels like his 'natural' speed--as if he had perfect vision, or a perfect mobility aid. The experimenter is passive, and acts as this aid, simply matching his walking speed with the client's. Of course, it is necessary to be quite certain that the preferred speed is accurate, so a couple of runs are needed, as there may be some initial speeding up and slowing down until it stabilises. From the two times, actual and preferred, it is simple to calculate the PPWS Index as a single figure.

Two kinds of analysis were performed on these data. The first, which will be described in this paper, was a factor analysis--a way of discovering the “structure” of the complex data from the feelings questionnaire. It tells us which feelings cluster together, and how many of these clusters exist in the data. There turned out to be five clusters, which means that the questionnaire has five factors, or dimensions. Some of these factors were more important than others---this is measured by the amount of variance, or variability of the total scores each factor accounts for. Of course, there are forced to be some bits and pieces of the data left over after this five-dimensional 'model' is employed to describe it.

An estimate of the degree to which the analysis successfully describes the data is the total amount of the variance which it accounts for--the bits left over should be fairly small. In fact, over two-thirds of the variance was accounted for by this analysis. This is a reasonable figure.

A S reported in Beggs (1990), the largest factor was called 'self efficacy'. Nearly twenty per cent of the variance of the feelings measured by the questionnaire were concerned with this factor, which is well-known to psychologists (eg Bandura, 1977; 1982). Self efficacy has three separate cognitive and emotional components, each of which appear in this first factor. These relate to:

the client's sense of competence, or how successfully he or she feels they will cope with visually-impaired travel

the degree of perceived threat that travel poses for the client

the level of emotional arousal associated with these levels of expectation of success and threat.

The first component is sometimes referred to as sense of powerfulness or mastery, a feeling that an individual has the resources to meet the demands of the world.

This is obviously related to what people often call 'self-confidence'. A feeling of helplessness is the mirror image of a sense of powerfulness, or mastery. All of these are learnable. Many people will have heard about learned helplessness. Learned powerfulness, better known to psychologists as self-efficacy, however, is much more task-specific than learned helplessness. This can mean that it is easier to offer remedial help. Mobility and orientation skill training is precisely the kind of help that is needed to give the client a sense of mastery, powerfulness, or self-efficacy. It is therefore widely believed to help reduce his or her negative emotions about travel. However, it is known that many people cope with the negative emotional feelings associated with low perceived self-efficacy by avoiding situations in which they feel helpless, threatened, vulnerable, anxious, and so on. This, in many people's view, is what 'low motivation' is all about (eg Schunk, 1984; Dodds, 1989).

Unfortunately, skill training alone is sometimes insufficient to overcome a client's feeling of anxiety. Self efficacy theory suggests that the reason for anxiety may also lie in the client's perception of the threat of travel. It follows that one way to reduce emotional arousal, and increase motivation, is to change this perception.

Possible ways of achieving this are known to work in other contexts--their usefulness for visually-impaired travel, however, awaits investigation.

The second factor, which may be called “vigilance”, accounts for a further seventeen per cent of the variance of the questionnaire. This factor seems to be related to a “sense of danger”.

While real dangers certainly do exist for the visually-impaired traveller, largely imaginary catastrophes can often exist in many unskilled travellers' heads. To these, they adopt an alert posture, being concerned that at any moment something must be about to happen. This is another familiar psychological process, with quite well-worked-out remedies. Of course, one would not want to suggest that clients should not be alert to real dangers but the possibility certainly exists that at least some of the effort they put into mobility is wasted in unnecessary worry about fantasised disasters. These “catastrophising” thoughts can lead to very powerful fears which are, of Course, not related to the real world.

Helping clients recognise this, and giving them simple techniques to help them control and change their catastrophic thoughts, may be of very considerable benefit to them.

The third factor is related to the familiar problem of adjustment, always a topic of debate. Part of the adjustment process involves accepting one's new role as a visually-impaired traveller.

This factor has therefore been labelled “role acceptance”. It accounts for over eleven per cent of the variance of the data. It has recently been argued that the familiar concepts of the loss model are of negligible help to a practitioner trying to support a client adjusting to sight loss (eg Inde, 1988). In any case, it is seldom within the competence of practitioners to assess accurately a client's progress through the hypothetical stages of “grieving for sight loss”, or to offer effective counselling for the loss of vision. In contrast, by adopting a very different approach to role acceptance, many clients might be helped quite easily to deal with the negative feelings which this factor identifies. These are almost certainly related to stereotypical ideas about sight loss which most clients bring with them into their new condition, and to attention to inappropriate cues--they may be attending to themselves instead of the task in hand, something which also causes anxiety (eg Wine, 1971).

Remediation of this “spectator role” problem would thus consist of teaching a client to pay more attention to his or her mobility or orientation problems, rather than to images of how he or she imagines they look to others. Two smaller factors describe feelings associated with a sense of disorientation, and the need to be as alert as possible. They have therefore been called “disorientation” and “cognitive effort”. They account for eight and seven per cent of the variance of the data, respectively. Neither of these are pleasant feelings, particularly the first.

It may be that the one way to reduce these is to rely on the eventual automatisation of mobility and orientation skills. However, even experienced and very effective travellers speak of the fear of getting lost, and the “overload” associated with making unfamiliar journeys. While something might be done about reducing the fear of getting lost--which is another example of a catastrophising thought--independent visually-impaired travel will always remain an extremely demanding task.

The factor analysis which has been described shows that the original subjective ideas about the underlying dimensions of confidence, stress and strategy were more useful as a stimulus for further research than as a description of reality.

Nevertheless, the exercise of going from qualitative to quantitative data, and using residents as “experts” about their own feelings, seems to have been a useful one. It has clarified some of the likely sources of anxiety, and this, in turn, has suggested some well-tried ways in which clients might be helped. However, the extent to which the techniques which have been successfully used with other populations are applicable to visually-impaired people remains to be determined.

This question will be addressed in future research efforts. Part 2 will appear In the January issue.

References

Bandura, A. (1977): "Self-efficacy—Toward a unifying theory of behavioural change". Psychological Review, 84, 191-215.

Bandura, A. (1982): "Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency". American Psychologist, 37, 122-147.

Beggs, W. D. A. (1986a): "Mobility training today--Dealing with the real world". British

Journal of Visual Impairment, 4, 87-90.

Beggs, WDA (1990): "The emotional correlates of visually impaired travel". Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness (in submission).

Clark-Carter, DD, Heyes, AD & Howarth, C. I. (1986): "The efficiency and walking speed of visually impaired travellers".

Ergonomics, 29, 779-789.

Dodds, AG (1989): "Motivation reconsidered: The role of self-efficacy variables". British

Journal of Visual Impairment, 7, 11-15.

Inde, K. (1988): "Why low vision rehabilitation should be given higher priorities--The complexity of the problem". British Journal of Visual Impairment, 6, 15-17.

Maychell, K & Smart, D. (1990): Beyond vision: Training for work with visually impaired people. NFER-Nelson, Windsor, Berks.

O'Donnnell, BA (1988): "Stress and the mobility training process--A literature review".

Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 82, 143-147.

Schunk, D. H. (1984): "Self-efficacy perspective on achievement behaviour". Educational Psychologist, 19, 48-58.

Welsh, RL (1980): "Psychosocial dimensions".

In RL Welsh and BB Biasch (cds): Foundations of orientation and mobility. American Foundation for the Blind, New York.

Wine, J (1971): Investigations of an attentional interpretation of test anxiety. Unpublished PhD thesis.

Reviews

Take charge: A strategic guide for blind job seekers

This book published by the National Braille Press of the USA is described as “a practical self help guide based on the real life experiences of blind job seekers.”

Authors Rami Rabby (who is blind and an experienced consultant on employment of the disabled) and Diane Croft (marketing manager at National Braille Press) have explored the literature in this field, distilled it and tested it against the experience of successfully employed blind people. The book lists a sample of some 150 different occupations in which blind people are unemployed from assistant attorney general to gas station attendant, judge to radio announcer/producer store manager to woodworker.)

This manual is aimed primarily at the job seeker who is blind (whether unemployed or looking for a better job) but also at parents of blind children, teachers, rehabilitation counsellors and employers.

Chapter headings give an idea of the ground covered: Exploring the possibilities; assessing who you are and what you can be; your personal calling card; searching for the right job; what do employers think?; managing a successful interview; on the job success and upward mobility; Resources.

Strategies for dealing with each situation are itemised and a special feature is the verbatim interviews with employers which give us an insight into resistance in the job market.

The authors believe that “employment picture for disabled job seekers has never looked better. Four forces are now coming together to create a more favourable environment: changing employer needs, changing employer attitudes, the rapid pace of technological development and the attitudes of blind people themselves.” Though this is a statement about the UK. “Take charge” represents an attempt to recognise and capitalise on this trend.

The book is available in 5 formats – print, braille, cassette, IBM disk and Versabraille II + disk.

David Frogatt who is himself visually handicapped read the tape version of Take charge and writes this review:

These two cassette tapes designed to help the blind job hunter have a total playing time of some six hours. It should be noted that they have been recorded at half the standard 17/8 inches per second and can only be played on a special machine such as APH. Sound quality is variable – on my copy there was a good deal of print-through at the end of Tape 1 side 2, causing distortion and complete loss of cohesion at this point.

There is a single voice throughout and although the presentation is pleasant and skilful there would have been some benefit in having two or more people reading in order to provide variety and prevent monotony.

The style is typically American – brash, breezy and at times over ebullient – but the no nonsense get off your butt approach should be an incentive to those blind people who need encouragement in making a new career start.

That point made, it should be said that these tapes are more useful for the general advice given than for the specific information detailed. Most of this information is concerned with organisations and publications for the blind available mainly in the United States and much tape is taken up with publications details of the book from which the tapes are taken and with a long list of addresses and telephone numbers of American companies to which the blind person may turn for advice.

However many good points are made: that the blind person should adapt as much as possible to the sighted world and have a positive attitude towards his/her blindness and job prospects – an attitude that will impress a prospective employer.

Many of the hints on job-seeking are valuable—such as finding out the nearest library to have a Kurzweil reading machine and someone available to help in finding information on careers or training. The point is made that one's family and friends should be involved in the job-seeking process as well as local organisations for the blind. If one has the patience to listen, there is a good deal of sound advice amid much information which can be of little use to the British listener. One lasting impression these tapes do seem to make is that there are more facilities and positive legislation in the US to help blind people than are available here.

Take charge--A strategic guide for blind job-seekers (1989) is available in the following formats:

print, braille, cassette (2-track and 4-track), IBM disk (51A" and 31/z"), Versabraille II + disk (31/2"). Details from National Braille Press Inc, 88 St Stephen Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA--tel. (617) 266-6160.

Copies are also available in print, braille or on 4-track cassette from RNIB in the United Kingdom. Braille copies can be obtained on loan, and limited quantities of print, braille and cassette copies are also for sale (each £11.95). Please quote ref. no: Braille--TC20075; Tape--TC20073; Print--TC20072. Enquiries to Customer Services (Literature Team), RNIB, PO Box 173, Peterborough, PE2 0WS--tel. 0733-370777.

Letters

Ageing and visual disability

I read with interest the article on The ageing process and visual disability in the November 1990 issue of New Beacon and, whilst acknowledging that such an investigation is long overdue and most welcome, would like to make the following observations.

The authors state: "Many congenitally or early-blinded people do not appreciate how much they could contribute from their own experience and from the “coping” strategies they have developed over the course of their lives. If we could use this knowledge and these skills, we would surely be better able to assist those who become blind or partially sighted in later life." May I suggest that many blind people would be only too happy to pass on their knowledge and personal experiences to those who lose their sight later in life, but are--to a great extent--prevented from doing so by:

(a) the unwillingness of rehabilitation worker course organises to accept blind people on their courses;

(b) the reluctance of many local authorities to employ blind people with experience as opposed to, or in addition to, sighted people with qualifications but no experience;

(c) the need for Visually-handicapped adults to earn a living which often leaves little time and perhaps inclination to give their services voluntarily.

The authors also ask the questions:

"How do those who are successful manage .... ? What can they teach us that can then be used by the rehabilitation professionals?" To which I answer, why should blind people pass on their expertise freely to the 'professionals' when they could, if they were permitted, be the professionals?

If the value of long-term visually-handicapped people is recognised, why are they not given equal opportunity to train as rehabilitation workers, or credited with the fact that their expertise gained through trial and error and years of practice is at least equal to the theories and limited simulation exercises taught on a relatively short course. Mothers pass on their acquired skills automatically to their children; the same instinct could and should be utilised with regard to rehabilitation--ie suit-able blind people should be employed to impart their wealth of coping strategies to those who are trying to come to terms with a sight loss.

With regard to mobility training, it is my view that this should be individually planned, taking account of the individual client's age, physical condition, residual vision, self-confidence, spatial awareness and requirements for travel. However, I do not believe that this approach would lessen the load of the "hard-pressed mobility officer", but would allow for more appropriate training of clients. Whilst the elderly frail are unlikely to need training in the various techniques adopted for coping with a wide variety of situations, they may need lengthy and patient input to enable them to acquire sufficient self-confidence to get to the local shop. Similarly, people with poor spatial awareness are likely to require many repetitions of a given route and may only achieve sufficient confidence to travel familiar routes. This client group might need additional time to develop strategies for coping when, for example, a landmark is missed or an extra obstacle added to a familiar route, as this can cause major problems to those with poor perception. On the other hand, well-travelled clients who wish to learn and evaluate different mobility methods will need little more than technique tuition. Whilst I am sure that many in the latter category harness the goodwill of the general public from time to time, it is difficult to imagine how, other than by learning the sighted guide technique, the general public could help the other two groups whose needs are complex and very individual.

Finally, an essential prerequisite of successful rehabilitation is, in my view, careful counselling (preferably peer counselling from a fellow sufferer), consideration of the client's abilities and interests prior to visual loss, assessment of current level of skills together with the client's aspirations: This should facilitate the drawing up of a rehabilitation plan with realistic aims and goals' to enable the client to develop: maximum confidence, independence and motivation to return to as near normal a life, as possible.
Sue Nicholas, Birmingham

Braille from Peterborough

In endorsement of Anne Clarke's letter from New Zealand (March New Beacon), I would like to express my deep anxiety and disappointment at the policy of RNIB from the beginning of 1990 of discontinuing to loan books from the Students' Braille Library to overseas readers.

The procedure of channelling them through the local library is too cumbersome and, in some cases, might impossible to implement. My own local library, for example, is more than eight hundred miles from Karaehi, and it would be far easier for me to correspond with England--as I have been doing previously--than to write to Hatim Alvi Library in Karachi, whose staff never answer letters.

I wonder what the reason was for this seemingly strange decision of RNIB? Were the books being lost through the post, or was there too much delay on the part of the readers in sending books back? The latter could still be the case through the local libraries, and surely the former must have been a rare occurrence?

I am one of the undoubtedly many blind overseas readers who have benefited much for the last twenty years from the Students' Braille Library and from the National Library for the Blind. Though the latter does excellent work, and I am glad it is still open to overseas readers, the former was a specialist service which ought to have continued loaning books to overseas readers. This is all the more pertinent since the Student Tape/Cassette Library and the Talking Book Service are not available for overseas customers, to whom the Students' Braille Library was the only source of information and intellectual stimulation and a means of academic and mental improvement Lahore.
Buta Masih, Lahore, Pakistan

I did not personally accept the little lecture handed down by Roger Hinds in your October Letters. I greatly value RNIB services, particularly where standards are maintained, improved or expanded. But I suggest that, like many large organisations, RNIB is like a many-sided coin.

Good though it is that, like the sighted, we can access ephemeral fiction along with quality fiction and non-fiction, those seeking to remedy shortfall in areas of deterioration must have felt embarrassed at Mr Hinds' attempt to opt them out. Does this correspondent seriously believe that our magazine situation would by now be well on the road to recovery if many of us had not raised Cain in the recent past? I might add that in order to meet obligations in the 'real world', a place of which Mr Hinds appears to claim exclusive knowledge, I have had, on occasions, to make a tremendous fuss. Those obligations would not have been met had I sat back and said: "A pity about those goodies, but isn't it jolly about fiction?"

I would reiterate that, whilst valuing much of what RNIB does, since it is “blind” money which is spent on our behalf we are right to exert any appropriate pressure. Is it not heartening that, by giving customer/beneficiaries more say and increasing blind representation, the powers that be in Great Portland Street are surely acknowledging and willingly accepting our rights?
John Busbridge, Ripon, N Yorks

Let's not forget radio

I agree with Mr Driver (Letters, November) that the coverage of sport on Radio 2 has been magnificent. Although these sports commentaries are like pennies from heaven for the blind, they are, of course, intended for a much wider audience. Several of my seeing friends enjoy listening to Test Match Special, although others prefer their cricket on the box.

Although we do not yet know what cricket commentaries will be available next summer, I am confident that the BBC will again deliver the goods and that Brian Johnston and his merry men will be able to continue our education in this field.

Although Mr Driver mentions that he is able to follow the fortunes of Kettering Town through the good offices of a friend, and he must be pleased with his team's performance this season, he does not say what he thinks of the soccer reports on radio.

It seems to me that, because soccer is a fast game, the soccer reporters appear to think they must talk fast--they sometimes gabble. If only Stuart Hall, a witty man, could tell us just what happened at the match he has been watching instead of indulging in two minutes of breathless, incomprehensible rhetoric!

I wonder if Mr Driver follows snooker on radio or television as do some of my Harrogate friends. To me this game is a closed book.
R Brown, Harrogate

Wembley is alive and well

An item on RNIB's annual report in the October issue of the New Beacon may have led people to believe that RNIB Talking Books are now organised from Peterborough (see the first News report under the section headed “Services for all”).

May I stress to your readers that this is not the case. The Library is still run from Wembley, and it is from there that we continue to keep our 70,000 members supplied with an ever-increasing range of titles. Wembley's committed staff continue to issue over 12,000 cassettes per day, enroll hundreds of new members a week and generally keep the wheels of this huge operation turning smoothly.

The Talking Book Library has been in Wembley for almost forty years, and shows no signs of moving!
David Mann, Manager, RNIB Talking Book Service, Wembley

Underground Rottweilers

Editorial comment in another journal concerned with blind welfare encourages blind people, on the basis of an individual's experience, to use the automatic ticket gates on the London Underground and even to pass guide dogs through them, suggesting that obtaining assistance from the staff wastes their time. Sensibly the policy of London Underground is different, and in fact there are notices on the gates saying that no dogs should be passed through the gates, which I, like many others, call Rottweiler gates because of what I have experienced, seen, read about, and heard of what they can do to passengers--including, in one instance, the infliction of injuries from which it took a fortnight to recover.

Even though one guide dog owner is evidently willing to risk putting his dog out of action for weeks I know that many are not. And are people in charge of children under five (also forbidden by the notices) to be encouraged to risk having them Rottwelled and perhaps frightened for life?

I hope publicity given to this matter in your columns will help to undo the harm resulting from the irresponsible and dangerous nonsense I have described.
Kenneth R Whitton, London W1

Nice exchange

The English class of AVH (Associaation Valentin Haiiy) in Nice, France, is interested in an exchange programme for our members--either by correspondence or by organised trips.

If this interests you, or if you know of any other organisations or group which might be interested, please write to Mme la Pr6sidente M. Le-Bas, AVH, 4 avenue H. Barbusse, 06100, Nice, France.
AVH English Class, Nice, France

Labelling methods - Information wanted

Some of your readers may remember my articles, talks and demonstrations on the subject of labelling methods for visually-impaired people.

Over the years I have had many enquiries on this subject. My husband and I are now preparing to bring together all our information on labelling for publication in braille and print and on tape.

Before we do this, we would like to appeal to as many people as possible to describe all or some of their labelling methods and send their descriptions to us in braille or print or on tape. We want to hear from both blind people and sighted professionals and others working with blind people. We are very grateful to those who have already done this, as we learn something new from each person--whether it be techniques or problems. We are interested in such details as which machine, frame or other device you make the labels with, what materials you use and where you get them from, and exactly where and how you fix the labels on to the item. Labelling is an area where people can learn so much from one another. A compilation of all the best practices using large print and braille, Moon or other tactile methods could save so many people a lot of frustration and wasted time and effort, as individuals could quickly and easily choose from it the best methods for solving their own problems.

Apart from a general survey of methods used in the kitchen, linen cupboard, garden or office etc, we are particularly interested in methods for labelling cassettes, cassette boxes, computer discs, letters and documents, items in freezers, bottles, medicines, household and office machinery and any techniques for dealing with particular problems. We would welcome remarks on the use of labels supplied by the RNIB.

The use of efficient labelling, chosen for its appropriateness for the individual, can make all the difference to the independence, safety and enjoyment of many aspects of life.

Please help us to pass on your good ideas, and send descriptions as soon as you can to Mrs J. M. Finch, 68 Holbrook Road, Cambridge, CB1 4ST.

If time allows, we are Willing to comment on your replies if asked to do so.
Jessica Finch

Comment

Environmental damage

Not so many years ago to have described a person as "green" would have implied a degree of naivety or gullibility. Today, by contrast, to be thought of as “green” is fashionable and desirable in the eyes of many. People of power and influence compete to be the greenest of the green, professing to be bosom friends of the environment and advocating measures to protect it. We hear a lot about the destruction of rain forests and erosion of the ozone layer. Humankind must stop damaging the environment, it is claimed, and the environment must be protected and conserved if we are to survive.

I have no wish to take issue with environmentalists and, indeed, I subscribe to many of their arguments. However, I would like to take a few moments to examine the other side of the coin. Man, in the generic sense of the word, is certainly a danger to the environment. On the other hand, the environment is often a danger to man. I do not refer to the natural, physical environment, but to the social environment--the environment created by man, supposedly for the benefit of man. To illustrate my argument, let me focus on some of the threats and dangers faced by one particular group of people, people who are blind or whose vision is impaired.

The social environment is truly hazardous for us (I come within that group). Potential sources of damage include poorly maintained pavements, inadequately protected pavement and road workings, vehicles parked on pavements and over-hanging hedges and bushes. For people who are blind or visually impaired every journey on foot is something of a dangerous mission. Two particular types of hazard cause me most frustration, and occasional pain.

First, there is pavement furniture, as the untidy clutter outside so many shops is euphemistically called. In some cases one can find more outside the shop than inside it. I wonder if shopkeepers have legal ownership of the pavement outside their shops? So many of them apparently think they have. I have had a number of close encounters with pavement furniture and one or two actual confrontations. At one time I was haunted by vivid memories of getting involved with a display of fruit and vegetables Outside a shop in Manchester. Rush-hour congestion had forced me in the direction of the shop and, with a deft sidestep. I engaged with a box of tomatoes. It was no contest.

The box capitulated instantly and its liberated contents cascaded amid the feet of the passing throng.

For many years I considered myself to blame for that incident and would take detours to avoid having to pass the shop concerned. How wrong I was to feel that way. I have come to recognise that I, like everybody else, have the right to walk unimpeded and in safety along the pavement and that we must all be prepared to press for that right. In fact, I now believe that I was striking a blow for freedom when I felled that box of tomatoes.

My second pet hate is a more recent phenomenon, the concrete post located on the pavement. These posts are intended to prevent pavement parking, and it is ironical that a measure to eliminate one environmental hazard has created yet another one. These posts must be fast breeders. They proliferate almost daily, even raising their solid heads on pavements rarely if ever visited by motor vehicles.

They tend to be of a colour which blends in with their surroundings, so are extremely difficult to see if you have impaired vision. They are also constructed to a height which poses a threat to the dynasty-founding ambitions of any male who impacts with them. These pillars of emasculation are painfully solid--I can personally vouch for that!

Why is it that in an increasingly environmentally conscious society Britain's blind and visually-impaired population continues to face hazards and dangers in everyday life? One reason could be that politicians are more concerned with the macro, global level than the micro, individual one. Publicity, campaigns and policies invariably focus on macro issues, eg air and water pollution, lead-free petrol, nuclear power, etc.

The specific needs of individuals and minorities are frequently overlooked at governmental level. Organisations such as the National Federation of the Blind and the London Association for the Blind are involved in campaigns to improve the social environment for blind and visually-impaired people.

Their efforts are to be applauded and encouraged, but they will achieve only limited success if the cause is not actively embraced by policy-makers, legislators and law enforcement agencies. Some of the dangers in our everyday environment. Could be removed now if existing legislation were to be implemented. Parking on the pavement is an offence, for instance, as is causing an obstruction on the pavement. Legislation and enforcement of legislation would surely help, but so also would proper consultation, consideration and sensitivity. If we are to have posts on the pavement, for example, could not more thought be given to location and colour?

As already mentioned, I believe that there is a need to regulate man's activities in order to prevent further environmental damage. In working towards that goal, we must not lose sight of the parallel need to restrain some men, generically speaking, from creating a social environment which is potentially damaging to those of us who are blind or visually impaired. Let us hope that one day environmental damage--to it and from it --will be a thing of the past.
Alan Kearsley

Alan Kearsley is a senior social worker with Essex County Council.

Obituary

Helen Morgan

Helen Morgan, the children's author and poet, has died at the age of 69.

Helen Axford was born in Ilford, Essex, in 1921 and educated at Barking Abbey Grammar School. She later studied at the Royal National College for the Blind (then in London). In 1954 she married Tudor Meredydd Morgan, by whom she had three daughters.

Helen Morgan's works of juvenile fiction began to appear in the early Sixties - notably the “Mary Kate” series and the “Two” books (recounting the adventures of twins Stevie Dan and Nancy Meg). Her work captured the universal experiences of childhood - birthdays, bonfires, starting school--and she also created highly original (and much acclaimed) fairytales, such as Mother Farthing’s luck (1971).

Her young readers were probably unaware of the author's visual handicap, which was not apparent in her highly evocative prose--nor in her short, lapidary poems, which from the Seventies began to appear from time to time in this magazine (for which she used the name Helen Tudor Morgan). These usually presented a single, simple idea in a thought-provoking manner, which had a way of lingering in the mind - as in the following example:

In quiet country places days seem slow. And there is time for looking, time to see. The year repeating in the ancient tree. Its perfect pattern - time enough to go. The long way round, to listen and to know a neighbour's needs and be assured that he will not neglect you in adversity.

The nights are dark with sleep and calm as snow And there is solitude and room to grow,

Pleasure in simple things and privacy And beauty still, as beauty used to be ....

But will our children's children find it so?

John Gordon Makin

Dennis J. Mace writes:

John, or Jack Makin as he liked to be known, died on 10 October 1990 aged 80. His full-time work in the field of blind Welfare extended over a period of forty-five years, sixteen in various capacities at Henshaw's Institution for the Blind, Manchester, four as Superintendent of the Wigan, Leigh and District Society for the Blind, two as Superintendent of the Bolton Workshops for the Blind, and twenty-three as Secretary of the Walsall Society for the Blind until his retirement in 1975. In conjunction with the office of Secretary he had other responsibilities as Secretary to the Joint Management Committee for the Walsall Institution and Workshops for the Blind, Manager of the Walsall Workshops for the Blind, and Blind Welfare Officer for the Walsall Council. On his retirement he was appointed a Vice-President of the Walsall Society for the Blind. In 1948 he became a member of the Executive Committee of the National Association of Workshop for the Blind, and held the office of Chairman in 1958. During his life-time he was a keen cyclist, youth hosteller and caravaner, a Freemason of some standing, and a Rotarian.

John Makin came to Walsau in 1952 with a wealth of experience in matters relating to the welfare of the blind, and this wide experience, coupled with a deep understanding of the problems of the blind, was of the utmost value to the Walsall Society in the continuing development of its work. The Society, in serving the blind and partially-sighted people of Walsall, owes much to him for his caring and conscientious endeavours over a long period of dedicated service, and which have enabled the Society to move forward in strength to the present day.

Jack Makin will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Dennis Mace is Secretary of the Walsall Society for the Blind.

News

Federation Conference

Careen Bradbury writes:

The National Federation of the Blind's Annual Delegate Conference was held at Eastbourne's well-equipped Conference Centre in the Winter Gardens, Devonshire Park (generously offered to the Federation without charge by the local authority). This year there was ample space for all delegates to spread their papers and for the many guide dogs to lie in comfort. The dogs were grateful for the ministrations of the two young ladies who attended Conference from the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, who had also come to learn about the National Federation.

The horseshoe layout of delegations meant that the microphone stewards were able to move quickly to a delegate invited to speak by the Chairman. The public address system too was efficient and under the control Donna McGrath--winner of NFB's Grimshaw Award of the Conference Secretary, Ken England of London Branch. The South-East England branches were this year's Conference hosts, and had raised over £5,000 towards the costs.

Councillor Aubrey Vickers, the Mayor of Eastbourne, gave a speech of welcome, although it became clear that he knew little of the campaigning work undertaken by the National Federation of the Blind. In his speech of thanks the President, Bill Poole, warmly invited him to stay to hear motions debated.

All except one of NFB's branches sent full delegations. Two were attending Conference for the first time - Grampian and Southend. Grampian, which has gained the largest number of new members in the past twelve months, was the winner of the Block and Gavel awarded for recruitment. Norfolk Brarich sent its apologies, and the most recently founded branch, Basildon, attended as an observer.

The purpose of this report is to stimulate the interest of many more visually-handicapped people to join the Federation, at a time when its numbers are increasing and when even greater resources and manpower will make its campaigning for a better quality of life for all the blind people of this country more effective. I shall accordingly only highlight the important issues debated during the two days of Conference, and demonstrate the good sense it showed in rejecting one or two motions on the agenda.

Bill Poole, in his President's address, explained that it had not yet been possible to appoint an Administrative and Development Officer. Candidates interviewed last summer had not demonstrated that they had all the required abilities. However, in the mean time the Executive Council had set up a Development Committee to address such issues as recruitment and fundraising, it would be pursuing the question of appointing an ADO in accordance with the resolution passed at the February Special Delegate Conference. Once the ADO was in post, the Development Committee would be disbanded.

The President noted with concern the reduction by £50,000 of the Embossed Literature Grant paid to the RNIB and the National Library for the Blind by the Government, announced in June, and this was later embodied in a resolution passed by Conference. He hoped that the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, when fundraising, would make the public aware of the diversification of its services, eg in the provision of hotel and leisure pursuits.

The debate was almost always good-humoured, and one of the criticisms of NFB as being too much concerned with its own internal affairs was firmly disproved when a motion to set in train an in-depth review of its work, policies, etc. was rejected. As one delegate put it"

"NFB should not spend its time navel-gazing, but consolidate its resources and press on with its campaigning work."

Resolutions passed included calls for:

• differently shaped eye drop bottles to denote different strength and dosage
• a standard code of specifications for lift manufacturers, with lift controls distinguishable by touch
• and some appropriate means to make clear to dean blind people the floor at which the lift has arrived
• more clearly printed cooking instructions on packed foods
• NFB to make adequate and suitable provision for the deaf/blind and other multiply-handicapped visually-impaired people to participate fully in branch meetings (but Conference rejected waiving subscriptions for such people).

Among other resolutions, NFB agreed to redouble its efforts to clear the ever-increasing clutter on pavements and pedestrianised areas by more strenuous moves to promote public awareness of the hazard this is to visually-handicapped people. Conference also accepted a motion to seek to have a low-cost, sound-only portable television made available for the blind. It passed an emergency motion deploring the withdrawal of the ambulance service for patients attending routine hospital appointments by some authorities. Other resolutions related to the decrease in employment opportunities for visually-handicapped people in workshops now accepting people with other disabilities, the contraction in piano-tuning work in schools due to local management schemes, and contracts for the reader working on the personal reader service scheme. Perhaps the most stimulating debate related to a motion to reinstate the specific abbreviations formerly used in the Braille Radio Times. The motion was adopted by the casting vote of the Chair. It was apt, I feel, in this Year of International Literacy, that Conference passed several resolutions which, when implemented, will make far more materials in printed form accessible to visually-handicapped people.

NFB's Grimshaw Award was given this year to Miss Donna McGrath, the winner of Radio 4's Best of British Youth Award in 1989. Despite multiple handicap, Miss McGrath has achieved much and conquered serious illness. She claimed in her speech of thanks to be proud to receive the award from NFB. NFB, too, is proud of the achievement of this young lady, for she was educated in mainstream schools, one of the campaigning issues addressed by the Federation. Donna has delighted the Federation by becoming a member and promising to seek to establish a branch in her native town of Wolverhampton.

The Conference was well organised, and delegates had a comfortable stay at the Haddon Hall Hotel, Eastbourne. All are grateful for the courteous and considerate manner of the hotel management and staff.

Further information concerning the National Federation of the Blind of the UK can be obtained from NFBUK, Unity House, Smyth Street, Westgate, Wakefield, WF1 1ER--tel. 0924-291313.

Leisure for all

The International Braille Chess Association comes of age

A “World Cup” is taking place this month in Segovia, Spain. Earlier this year, with the winds of change blowing round about them, visually-impaired chess players took part in an individual world championship held in the heart of Europe.

Hans Cohn, President of the International Braille Chess Association, describes this major event and gives a briefing on the chess scene. For new players, there are some notes on getting started (see p 462).

Make no mistake--the title does not refer to number of years. The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) will, in fact, be forty years old next year. Rather it refers to the record of twenty-one live (over the board) events held in that time--eight world team championships (Olympiads), seven individual world championships for men and two for women, and four memorial tournaments, including one for R. W. Bonham, English originator and first President of the Association.

Besides being the only international organisation for blind chess players recognised by FIDE (the international body controlling over-the-board chess) and the International Correspondence Chess Federation, the IBCA is without doubt the oldest international organisation for competitive activities of any kind for visually-impaired people. In 19"/7, because of its experience in staging such activities, it was asked to join the Sports Commission of the then World Council for the Welfare of the Blind, and was thus instrumental in the formation of the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) in 1982.

Why two organisations for competitive sports among blind people? The answer to that question lies in the fact that in many countries chess is not recognised as a sport but seen as an exercise of the mental faculties. Even among blind people, with their more limited perspective of leisure activities, chess is a comparatively ratified pastime in competition with the many forms of physical sports now available. Thus, with the IBSA having reached a worldwide membership within a few years of its foundation, and with the IBCA still mainly restricted to a European membership but with a fixed schedule of events - Olympiad (team championship), individual world championship, women's world championship and youth world championship--in a recurring cycle of four years, each organisation is intent on jealously guarding its own territory.

The other question that is often asked is: if integration is the name of the game, and if (as is the case) blind players can compete with sighted without basic changes to the rules, why do blind players need to compete amongst themselves at all? The answer is, quite simply, that things are not equal between a blind and a sighted player facing one another on opposite sides of a chessboard under strict match or tournament conditions. It takes longer to survey the position on the board by touch than by sight. It also takes longer for the blind player to record the moves of the game and to activate and read his chess clock--both requirements of organised competitive chess.

The difference may only be one of a few seconds per move, but with a schedule of one-and-a-half to three hours for from thirty to sixty moves for each player (now the national and international norm), the few seconds can add up to minutes at the arrival of the time control, when all players are liable to be more or less short of time.

Another factor is that, in the course of a game lasting several hours, a player needs and wants to be able to move about in the tournament room to seek relief from the tension of his own game by watching the progress of others. This facility is largely denied to the blind player, with the result that he may grow markedly more tired before the end of the game than his sighted opponent.

Finally, there is the matter of the very considerable and ever-growing body of chess literature, only a fraction of which is available in braille or on tape.

National blind chess organisations, therefore, exist in order to hold over the-board competitions for their members, to identify the best players to represent them in international matches and tournaments, to hold tournaments by correspondence in braille or on tape and to provide as much of the chess literature as is feasible.

By far the largest of these national blind chess organisations, apart from that in the Soviet Union, where chess is as popular among blind people as among sighted, has been that of the Federal Republic of Germany, hosts earlier this year of the seventh individual world championship. The membership of over 400 is likely to swell by half as many again now they are being joined by their East German brethren. Their funding is impressive, compared with that of similar organisations in other countries (based as it is on the political consensus which informs their social security policy of a substantial blindness allowance). It is three-tier: federal government pays for “Leistungsport”, ie the sums needed to hold international competitions at home and participate in them abroad, in order to enable players to win medals; state government contributes towards the running costs of regional associations; local government to those of blind chess clubs in its area. On top of this, private sponsors contribute liberally to events in their locality.

Before returning to the subject of the world championship, the dispassionate observer has to note the reverse side of the coin by comparing the services of the German association with those of its British counterpart, the Braille Chess Association. With less than half the membership and far less secure funding:

1. We run our postal tournaments on tape as well as in braille as against the Germans braille only, thereby providing opportunities for players who cannot use braille;

2. We have Braille Chess Magazine, appearing four times a year, which benefits from the size of the English-speaking market and has about 400 subscribers. (The German equivalent died some ten years ago because its readership did not reach three figures and because in Germany books, magazines and articles for the blind generally have to be sold at cost price or even above.)

3. We have an extensive tape service of chess magazines and books, fed by a devoted body of volunteer readers because the principle of voluntary service is far more firmly established in this country than elsewhere.

Thus, while we may lack strength in depth on the achievement ladder of chess compared with Germany, we are always more likely to produce the one top player.

The world championship was held in the little country town of Wunsiedel. Politically it belongs to the state of Bavaria--not the Bavaria of Garmiseh and Oberammergau, but lower Bavaria of the Fichtel mountains.

Spiritually and culturally this is part of Franeonia, the heartland of German Christendom, whence five hundred years ago the Franks sallied forth under Clovis to conquer Gaul, in the wake of the declining Roman Empire, eventually to establish the empire of Charlemagne and christianise Germany. Later, the Lutheran reformation took root here early, and today at least half its people are Protestant as against the rest of Bavaria which is predominantly Catholic.

I have no reason to love the Germans for what they did to me and my family--and I do not need to stress my allegiance to the country which provided me with a secure existence when remaining in my native country would have meant certain death - but one has to be fair: the German genius for organisation left absolutely nothing to be desired.

Preparations started last year with a massive “awareness experience” involving the staff of the two hotels—one for competitors and guides, the other for officials, shopkeepers in the vicinity of the hotels, members of the local chess club which provided twenty volunteers throughout the tournament and relatives and friends of the Federation's officers. In the hotels menus were read out aloud at the start of meals, drink waiters led people's right hand to glass or cup on serving, other staff led people to the foot of staircases when emerging from public rooms. All this was done so unobtrusively and naturally that one never felt cosseted. The tournament office was permanently staffed by people who knew all the answers.

There was a comprehensive interpreter service, and all helpers were identifiable by their red jackets. There were thirty competitors from twenty-five countries, all European apart from Columbia and Israel.

Countries with one participant each were represented by their national blind champion, including one woman, Meeke Maekelberg of Belgium. The USSR, FRG and Yugoslavia were allowed one additional player each because they occupied the first three places in the previous Olympiad, and the USSR and FRG a third player each because the reigning world champion is expected to defend his title and the host country may enter an extra player (which helps fundraising).

The British champion, Graham Lilley of St Helens, set the early pace by winning his first four games, his scalps including the world champion, Vladimir Berlinsky (USSR) and tile recent youth champion, Jorg Magnusson (Sweden). After a peaceful draw against Ludwig Zier, a local resident whose participation quite naturally heightened the interest of the inhabitants, he was a full point clear of the field, and the British contingent began to entertain visions of a surprise result. But after sitting on this lead over the first rest day, he lost three games in a row, putting himself out of the running for the title if not the medals. The champion and another of the Russians, Sukrhob Khamdamov from Tadjikistan, took the lead in harness, increasing it relentlessly round after round. However, he fell at “Beecher's Brook”, allowing the rest of the field to close up. At the start of the last (eleventh) round, there were still six players in contention for the gold medal, an unheard-of event in this championship. But he had enough wind left to get the draw and half point necessary to head the rest at the end.

So Khamdamov was first, the former champion, Berlinsky, second, and Avram from Yugoslavia third. Our player finished eighth, which is still respectable in a field of thirty. The player from Eire, Michael Meaney, had no points at all - but participating is always more important than winning, and had it not been for him there would have been nobody for everybody else to beat. Moreover, if he is not a master of chess he is certainly one of understanding, for he entertained the rest of the assembly with Irish music by voice and/or instrument for one whole evening.

A remarkable statistic, speaking both for the quality of the organisation and the spirit prevailing among the players, is that this was the first IBCA tournament where the Appeals Committee (the instrument which settles disputes between players when one of them refuses to accept the decision of the referee) never had to convene throughout the tournament.

Competitors were assisted in their preparations for each game by receiving the tournament bulletin in braille or large print of all the games of the previous round well before the start of play for the next. During play three CCTV monitors relayed the games of the leading players move by move to an adjoining “analysis room”, where well-known chess masters from at home and abroad were on hand, elucidating the strategy and tactics of each contestant. “On the fringe”, visitors were given the opportunity to match their chess skills against computers, the firms Novotic and Baum exhibited their reading machines and other typhlotechnology, there were skittles and card evenings and the town arranged a concert specially for the visitors.

On the first of the two rest days we were taken to Bayreuth. This is where Richard Wagner lived and worked for the last dozen years of his life, where he is "buried and where, above all, he had the Festspielhaus built to his own specifications. Completed in 1876, it is still the envy of acoustic specialists for quality of sound and the Mecca of all devotees of his music, which is performed every year during August by a hand-picked band of solo singers, choristers and orchestral players, all performing without a fee just for the honour of being asked and the kudos that springs there from. Ticket prices compare favourably with those of other prestigious music festivals if you can get them, that is! Since the post-war assimilation of Japanese culture to Western music, this has become harder than ever. You have to be able to pull strings to get in. We were not allowed inside, perhaps because rehearsals for this year's rehearsal had not yet started, and we were left to beleaguer the family residence, now occupied by Wagner's grandson Wolf gang.

What drew Wagner to this sleepy little country town off the main European highways was the tradition created by the ruling family of the principality. A hundred or so years earlier, the Margravine Wilhelmine of Hohenzollern, sister of Frederick the Great, and sharing his artistic if not his bellicose propensities, had a theatre-cum-opera built which, apart from Drottningholme in Sweden, is said to be the only Baroque theatre still open to regular performances.

This we were permitted to luxuriate in, and we admired the stage, wide and deep enough to allow the princely Chess: getting started I f you are already a competent player by the time you lose your sight you should certainly be able to carry on as before. Many blind players participate in the programmes of their local chess clubs, which include internal competitions and matches against other clubs. Tournament organisers throughout the country also make special provisions for blind players, should these be needed.

The only rules that have been adapted by the international body controlling competitive chess to accommodate visually-handicapped players are that blind players may touch the pieces during the game, but "that a piece shall be deemed to be moved, when it is removed from its securing aperture on the board". There is a range of specially adapted chess sets available from RNIB Customer Services at Peterborough and on display at resource centres. If you expect to play competitive international chess you must buy a set conforming to the “Staunton Pattern” as prescribed by the International Braille Chess Association.

If you are a beginner there are a number of braille and tape publications to get you started (a basic list is given below). You should join your nearest chess club at the earliest opportunity to get experienee. The Braille Chess Association organises competitions, both over-the-board and by post (moves are exchange in braille and on tape) for players of all strengths throughout the year, and keeps an extensive library of chess literature in braille and on tape. For further information, write to the Secretary, Mr S. E. Lovell, 7 Coldwell Square, Crossgates, Leeds, LS15 7HB, tel. 0532-600013.

Essential reading

The following are available in braille from RNIB (Customer Services), PO Box 173, Peterborough, PE2 0WS--tel. 0733-370777.

Tattersall: Rules of chess. Cat. no. 25139.

The ABC of chess. Cat. no. 28192.

Alexander & Beach: Learn chess - A new way for all. Cat. no. 29230 and 29485-6.

Braille Chess Magazine. A quarterly magazine, 96 pages per issue, covering all aspects of chess for players and followers of all strengths. £2.60 a year (discount price).

For other books in braille, consult RNIB catalogue. If any of the above items are temporarily out of stock they can be borrowed from the National Library for the Blind in Stockport.

patron to be driven right into the midst of the theatre in her coach-and-horses! The town of Wunsiedel was the object of attraction on the second rest day, except for those - not a few - who preferred to visit a brewery – of spirits, not beer. It takes its name from the “Burgrave” of a castle at a point where roads into Germany and Switzerland, Austria and Bohemia crossed, and was built in 1163. Today it is famous for its schools, not only for youngsters but for various kinds of arts and craft, and for being the birth-place of Jean Paul (a prolific writer much admired by Goethe and Schiller, from whose novels Schumann took the names for his more fantastic musical creations, such as Kreisler, Florestan and Eusebius), and for its schnapps, distilled here and named Sechsamter, to mark the importance of Wunsiedel as the administrative seat of the six surrounding country districts. Needless to add, those who missed the brewery did not entirely forego the delights of Bacchus!

The congress of delegates of the member countries met to fill vacancies caused by the untimely death of its last president, Dr Aren Bestman (Netherlands). The writer of these lines, elected to succeed him, pledged to continue the work of his predecessor, and to extend it to include not just those who earned the privilege of representing their countries but all blind chess players the world over.

Future events will include a “World Cup” for the twelve best teams from the last Olympiad (including England), to take place this month in Segovia. The 9th Olympiad, in 1992, will also be held in Spain.

The fresh wind of freedom which as been blowing across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe did not leave the world championship untouched: Rumania was welcomed back into the fold after a ten-year absence. Naturally enough, much of the talk was about German re-unification. The economic problems are for the Germans themselves to work out, as are the social ones. The geo political implications--above all, the maintenance of peace and security in Europe--they are aware of and agree that this can only be achieved by a framework of international obligations in which an extended European Economic Community must play a key role.

In this new alignment, the role of the German Blind Chess Federation - like that of Germany herself in her situation at the centre of Europe—is socially crucial. In the talks with their East German sister organisation, a major problem has already arisen: the

East Germans recognise the World Blind Union definition of legal blindness (10%), whereas West Germany is bound by the more restrictive definition of 4%. Simple adoption of the more liberal definition would clearly jeopardise the very generous West German blindness allowance by greatly extending the number of those who qualify for it. The Chess Federation, when arranging contests between cities, regions and states, has looked mainly west and north; it will now have to start looking east and south-east as well, to make sure that the blind people who have been largely cut off from contacts outside because of the rigour and the straitened economic circumstances of their regimes are now included.

Diary

Families with visually impaired children

"The youngest of my daughters was born blind. It was an overwhelming experience, as I'm sure it is for any family who has a handicapped child." - New Beacon, September 1988.

From time to time our Letters column has contained individual pleas from parents of visually-handicapped children anxious to contact others with experience of the many problems they face. Occasionally, too; we have reported on the activities of groups of parents formed in various parts of the country to share their experience of bringing up a visually-handicapped child.

A characteristic of such groups until now, however, is that they have remained isolated and, often, temporary. Not until the past year has a concerted attempt been made to ensure that the wheel does not have to be reinvented each time that a group is formed in a new area, or a new generation of parents confronts the same problems as its predecessors.

The initiative in question, launched by the Welsh parents support group VICTA, resulted earlier this year in a decision to form a national federation of families with visually impaired children. With the working title Look, the federation is now steadily moving towards its formal foundation next May. The highly successful meeting of parents and other interested parties at Birmingham University in April (with the assistance of the Research Centre for the Education of the Visually Handicapped) established some of the areas of greatest need and the difficulties regularly faced by parents: including the lack of any kind of support at the point of diagnosis, of any help towards counselling or sources of information. Parents commented on the apparent assumption of the health services that they would be picked up by Social Services or Education--but with patchy services and limited resources this is not something that can ever be taken for granted.

The Birmingham meeting showed that such problems were universal, and confirmed the need for a national umbrella group which would provide support to existing parents groups, encourage new ones to be formed and act as a national voice for families of visually impaired children. A steering group was duly formed consisting of representatives of parents groups throughout the United Kingdom together with two professionals – a teacher of the visually impaired, Julie Sweeting, and Neil Anderson of RNIB's Education Department. The group has been holding regular meetings at Queen Alexandra College in Birmingham and has now set out the alms and objectives of the Federation, which include:

an information service to parents and organisations concerned with visually impaired children

encouragement and support for local and regional parent support groups

the establishment of a central register of information, to include the resources and support available to parents

provision of a constantly updated service of ideas, knowledge and information relating to the education and care of children with impaired vision.

The immediate future will see the furtherance of these objectives through a series of regional meetings. These have already been held in Edinburgh, Cardiff and North Wales, and possible future venues include Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge, London, Exeter, Winchester or Southampton, London derry and Belfast--and any others as the need is established. At each of these conferences (and for its work in general) the Federation will be looking for input from existing support groups and from any interested parents of visually-impaired children.

Meanwhile, as might be expected, the association is busy raising funds and recruiting patrons. Flautist James Galway, himself partially sighted, has agreed to act' as president. The Federation's first major conference, scheduled for May 1991, will also be its public “launch”. We shall be keeping readers informed, as far as possible, of the Federation's future activities and its regional meetings. Those avid for more information will also find regular reports in Integration Bulletin (published by RNIB Education Dept), and the Federation is, hoping to produce its own newsletter in due course.

And information can also be obtained from one of the Federation's moving spirits (and source of details for the foregoing article), Mrs Jennifer Bowen of VICTA, Wales.

Write to her at Look, c/o Cardiff Institute for the Blind, Shand House, Newport Road, Cardiff, CF2 1YB.

Television first

Last month saw a television event which we believe to be a “first”—a report produced by a visually-handicapped person.

The report in question, on November 8, was by Raina Haig, and formed part of BBC TV's One in Four programme on disability, which she has recently joined. It explored the possibility of making TV programmes fully accessible to blind and partially-sighted people through audio description.

There may be some way to go before audio description becomes a reality, but meanwhile One in Four is making itself more accessible to visually-handicapped people by providing its factsheets in braille and tape as well as print. These are available from One in Four, BBC TV, London W12 7RJ. The programme itself is broadcast once a month on Thursday evenings around 5, and repeated on Sunday mornings.

Choice and Challenge

In last month's News we included an item about Choice and Challenge, the first national conference on continuing education for adults with a visual impairment, held in Bristol in September.

Tapes of the papers given at the conference are now available for those with an interest in the wide variety of subjects discussed. Employers trying to recruit people with disabilities are often uncertain about the issues involved. But demographic changes and increasing skills shortages mean they can no longer afford to ignore the abilities and experience disabled people have to offer.

This is the motivation behind a range of disability issues courses (customised to the needs of individual fields of employment) which are offered by Outset, the organisation which promotes employment of people with disabilities.

Included in its current range of courses is a one-day seminar designed to assist those involved in personnel policy/decision making, management and training. The seminar is practical and participative in approach, involving presentations, videos, case studies and discussion groups.

For more information, contact Elaine Wallis, Training & Resources Officer, Outset, Employment Development Unit, Drake House, 18 Creekside, London SE8 3DZ--tel. 081-692 7141; fax 081-469 2532.

Content author: ann.lee@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 20/11/2008 11:13