Coronavirus: Observing social distancing gets challenging for visually impaired

As authorities drum home the need for people to observe social distancing with threatened sanctions, there are some groups of persons who might have to defy these rules for no fault of theirs.

One such class of persons is the visually impaired who will need to hold onto a guide to commute from one place to the other even in the COVID-19 scare.

Demonstrating the mode of mobility to Ultimate News, Mr. Alfred Tebi blind in both eyes described how a visually impaired person wields his white cane in one hand and holds onto a guide with the other hand.

Mr. Tebi who is Ashanti Region president of the Federation for Disability Organizations admitted it will be an extremely perilous option should people like him, decide to give social distancing a chance.

“That’s a problem now because any visually impaired person no matter his or her situation if using a white cane will also have a guide leading the person. If anything unfortunate happens, it will be trouble for both of them,” he averred.

Mr. Tebi painted a more daunting scenario about the possibility of enforcing social distancing protocols in schools for the blind should schools reopen.

He described, “If I take Akropong School for the blind for instance, we don’t have guides. All the students move together so one has to assist his or her colleague to the classroom or to the dormitory and social distancing will be difficult to observe,”

He advised that the blind and visually impaired rather remain at home if they have nothing pressing and urgent to do in town.