On Friday, I took a blindfolded walk with The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association to find out more about the challenges faced by local people with sight loss.
I walked along busy streets in Droitwich, with a trainee guide dog called Nushka, accompanied by staff from Guide Dogs. During my walk, I faced obstacles and challenges people with sight loss deal with every day as they walk around our town centres, like navigating around poorly parked cars and wheelie bins blocking the pavement.
97% of blind and partially sighted people have identified street clutter, such as wheelie bins, as a problem. Guide Dogs is campaigning for clearer high streets and a standardised law on pavement parking, which ensures that parking on the pavement is only allowed in specifically designated areas.
Eleanor Stephens, Guide Dogs Engagement Officer, said: “We’re extremely grateful to Nigel Huddleston MP for taking part in this event and we hope he found the experience useful in understanding how difficult it can be to get around if you are visually impaired.”
Walking around blindfolded with Nushka was a very memorable experience. It gave me greater appreciation for the challenges faced by people with sight loss and, in particular, the need to remove pavement clutter and avoid pavement parking which can cause inconvenience or injury to people with sight impairment. I also now appreciate the huge amount of investment and training required for a guide dog to assist their owners to go about their daily life.
