Tips & Resources for staff working with people who are blind or partially sighted

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Our Healthier You teams had the opportunity to attend some blind awareness training delivered by Dave from the Royal National Institute of Blind people (RNIB). The Healthier You Diabetes Prevention services will be running tailored programmes for people who are blind or partially sighted.

We are aware that many of our service teams adapt the resources and delivery style to welcome people with sight impairment onto our programmes. So here are a few resources that we thought might be useful for you.

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RNIB resources on the website. In addition to the RNIB's website, we have some informative videos, which you can see below:

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How I see, the spectrum of sight loss video:

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How to guide a blind or partially sighted person:

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Tips for engaging blind or partially sighted clients:

• Ask what format they would like to receive information from us in.
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• Accessible information might use magnification, making our resources accessible for screen readers, or using specialist apps.

• Ask what their preferred communication method is. Most people who are blind or partially sighted use screen readers which means they can read emails, texts, and content on our websites.
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• When speaking, use the same language you would use for everyone else, but describe the visual elements. So, practice your descriptive skills!
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• Encourage a team culture where accessibility is the norm and the expectation, not the exception.

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Further useful resources:

App to see vision from different types of eye diseases: AIRA vision sim.

Link to the Braillist foundation website, designed to be accessible for people who are blind. The website has lots of useful information such as events, projects, and resources.

Employment & Equality Information to raise awareness of what could help support you or your clients at work.