World Sight Day highlights the difficulties that people may face if they have a visual impairment. Do you know someone who has difficulty with their sight? Well, if you saw me walking with a Cain, with my guide dog, or asking for directions when out and about or assistance to get to a chair, then you would presume I had no sight, or very little (actually I have no sight at all).

Considering Different Sight Impairments

There are many people that have a sight impairment that is not thought about, or obvious to detect, here are a few:

  • Someone with one eye and the other a glass one, would you know? Did you know that someone with only one eye can still drive? Although they would have to take a field eye test first. 
  • What about someone with either peripheral, or tunnel vision, you may find them looking at you from the side, or straight at you then moving their head slightly to talk to someone alongside you.
  • And what about colour blindness? An invisible disability but one that can be really troublesome if you use colour to convey meaning, for example, lights on devices are sometimes red for off and green for on. Do you know that there are snooker players that are colour blind and a cricketer who has trouble distinguishing the red ball from the green grass; although in Wales a young cricketer has been given glasses to help with this condition.
  • Someone wearing glasses that has the screen magnified. Or at work struggling to read the screen, perhaps they may need assistance in having text in a larger font or magnifying the screen.

Perhaps you may find that one of these people with a sight impairment is you.

Ensuring Website Functions and Features are Accessible to People with Visual Impairments

Here at Accessibility Services, our assessors make sure that any website they are working on covers all aspects of navigation, to allow everyone to be able to read the information and activate the features. If the website does not perform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), then the client has to change it for us to accredit them.

Resources for the Visually Imparied

There are a lot of people that have a sight impairment, that struggle with reading information, whether on paper or online. They may not even talk about it, and instead, they try to struggle on with things as they are. However, there is a lot of help and adaptations that can make it easier for you (or them). to read the information without getting frustrated, or stressed. Most companies will now send correspondence in a larger font if requested, and there are now many great apps on phones that will either read the text or enlarge it for you to read. 

In addition, for help to make your digital device suit your sight condition, please visit our Blindness/visual impairment, did you know page. If you have had any problems with a website due to your vision, please let Accessibility Services know by emailing: Accessibility-Services@Shaw-Trust.org.uk