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Attendance Allowance & Disability Living Allowance are Social Security benefits that have been set up to help disabled people retain their independence. These benefits are not Means Tested, which means that your income and savings are not taken into account when you apply. These benefits can help afford a taxi instead of struggling to get to the bus stop, read bus numbers or timetables, or being able to afford more specialist equipment to make day-to-day life a bit easier.
Sight Concern Bedfordshire appreciates that the prospect of filling in a twenty-page form when you have failing sight can be daunting if not impossible. We are happy to visit you in your home or arrange an appointment for you to come into one of our resource centres, in order to assist you with completing your application and having the highest chance of a successful claim.
If you have any queries about your eligibility for either of these benefits, please feel free to contact either of our offices, where our team can advise you of the next step. Starting at £37.00 per week, the extra money will undoubtedly be worth the call.
Only 4% of people who are registered blind, see absolutely nothing. The remaining 96% do have varying degrees of useful vision and this is where effective colour contrasting can be extremely helpful. Colour contrasting can be taken into consideration when redecorating, writing a letter to a partially sighted or blind person and when equipping a kitchen. For example, if you are thinking of redecorating, try not to go for dark wall colours, as this will restrict the natural light in the room. However it is also best to avoid stark white as this can cause glare. Try to opt instead for a soft, light colour, such as magnolia, cream or pastel, light shades of other colours. Once you have picked your basic wall colour, to liven the overall look up, why not select a mid-wall border, in a darker colour or pattern which will act as a sort of guide around the room for a visually impaired person?
It is also important to be able to find your way out of a room, so try to ensure that the door colour contrasts with the wall colour, enabling easy recognition of where the exit is.
If you are writing to someone who you know to be visually impaired, the best format to use is big, bold, clear, plain type, such as ‘Arial’, in a font size of around 14 or 16. If you use a rich yellow sheet of paper, the black print will stand out in the best way possible. Remember, white can cause glare.
Both of our resource centres are well equipped where you can see the effect of contrasting items and rooms. Why not pop in to see for yourself, it really can make all the difference.
Due to the nature of our charity, Sight Concern feels that it is important to be able to provide, both in written and verbal form, easy to understand information relating to many specific eye conditions. We have detailed leaflets on the more common complaints such as, Cataracts, Diabetic Retinopathy, Glaucoma, Macular Degeneration and Nystagmus, as well as lesser known conditions such as Sticklers Syndrome and Optic Atrophy.
Many people have found that when they are told they have a severe sight condition, that they are in too much of a state of shock to properly absorb the medical information they are given. Therefore we are always willing to sit down with you and go through the whys and wherefores of your condition. Who knows, you may even get a cup of tea or coffee in the process!
Sight Concern has details of companies and organisations, who’s hotels cater specifically for the Vision Impaired, their families and carers. If you would like to be put in touch with any of these organisations, please contact us and we will pass you details of an organisation in the area you would like to take your holiday.
Reading small print is something that many of us find difficult. Imagine therefore, how difficult, if not impossible it can be for blind and partially sighted people when they are faced with a newspaper or utility bill, printed in tiny letters?
Sight Concern dispatches thousands of items of correspondence each month. The format they are produced in ranges from Large Print and Braille, through to Tape Cassettes and Floppy Discs. We recognise that levels of vision differ dramatically from person to person so we make a concerted effort to provide all of our information in a format to suit individual need.
Aside from the many tapes we send out each month for our members, free of charge, we also provide a taping and brailling service for companies who have visually impaired employees, we provide audio versions of various publications, minutes of meetings, policy documents and we have to say…at very reasonable rates!
If you would like to know more about what Sight Concern is doing for Blind and Partially Sighted people in Luton and Bedfordshire, why not contact us and ask for a free copy of our quarterly newsletter? This is also a free publication, which can be provided in Large Print, Tape, Braille or on Disc. The newsletter is an informative document that keeps you up to date with new Government legislation, new products, events, exhibitions, holidays and much more. Alternatively, if you have any information which you think would be useful or interesting to other vision impaired people, then please let us know so that we can include it in our next publication.
This section is designed to give you a bit more information about what it means, the benefits of, and the procedure of becoming registered as blind or partially sighted. Many people leave the Eye Clinic with unanswered questions and full of misunderstood information. We hope that this section can answer some of your queries.
Around 96% of people registered as blind, still have some useful vision, albeit of varying degrees. So, try not to place too much importance on the word itself, as it rarely refers to complete loss of vision.
The word ‘Blind’ is simply the name given to represent a certain level of low vision. It is not telling you that if you are registered blind, that you will go blind. Certainly, if you have severe vision loss, there will be things that are difficult, if not impossible, to begin with. However, it is like anything, a learning process, where mistakes will be made at first but then, over time and with assistance from friends and family, life does get easier and you can always contact Sight Concern who will be happy to assist you in any way. So, it is probably a good idea to put your registration as ‘Blind’, down to a technicality, which opens a few doors for various concessions and benefits.
These are the broad definitions:Your consultant also follows more detailed clinical guidelines in deciding which category is appropriate.
Your consultant will now send the certificate known as BD8 which will have
been signed by you, to Social Services. Your name is entered on the Council's
Register, with your permission, and shortly one of their expert staff will
contact you, and send a more comprehensive booklet called 'Useful Information
for Visually Impaired People'. This is also available on cassette tape free of
charge.
If you have not heard within three weeks please contact them so they can check
if your form has been sent from the hospital.
Obviously, these definitions are broad and there are other clinical factors that your consultant will take into account when he is assessing you for registration. If you are unclear about any part of the procedure, ask!
Once your consultant is satisfied that you qualify for registration, he or she will send a BD8 certificate, which will have been signed by you, to Social Services. Your name is then entered on the local Council Register, with your permission.
Shortly after this, a trained member of the registration department will contact you and provide you with a booklet (or audio cassette) that tells you more about registration and some of the benefits of being registered. One example of this is that you will be entitled to a blue badge for your car, or the car of the person who drives you. If you have not been contacted within three weeks of seeing your consultant, please contact the Council to ensure that they have received your form.
After this step, a member of the Visual Impairment Team from Social Services will contact you to arrange a home visit. The visit concentrates on assessing your needs and includes the following topics:
This meeting is not the only chance you will have to get help from the Visual Impairment Team. If your circumstances change or you have a question that arises after some time, you are welcome to call them and put your mind at rest.
Social Services Visual Impairment teams can be contacted on:
Luton – 01582 470940
Dunstable & Leighton Buzzard – 01582 665861
Bedford & Mid Beds – 01234 228240On a weekly basis, staff and volunteers at our Luton office, produce The Talking Newspaper. This is an audio version of the local newspapers, covering Luton, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard. The sole aim of this publication is to ensure that partially sighted or blind people have access to local news and events information just the same as normally sighted people do. It is a very popular publication and readings are taken from The Luton News, The Dunstable Gazette and The Leighton Buzzard Observer.
This is a free service available to anyone who has a visual impairment. If you would like to receive a copy of any of the aforementioned newspapers, or if you know anyone who would benefit from this service, please contact Teresa, Rachel or Mandy at the Luton office.
Sight Concern Bedfordshire is one of the first charities to have received a Sightline Computer from TNAUK. This computer has a large screen with the facility to provide magnification of letters up to two inches high and the ability to read print out loud, for those who are unable to read any size of print at all. You can access today’s National Newspapers in different formats, which enables people with sight difficulties to keep on the ball with world events. Please contact our Luton office for more information and/ or a demonstration.
If you are unemployed or you have to think about the effects of your sight at work, you should contact the PACT team via your local job centre. You or your employer will can be loaned some of the special equipment you may need and you will be given advice on what is available to help you, including expert assessments and training.
The idea of this section is to give you an insight into some of the services and information that Sight Concern provide. We have an even wider range of resources inside both offices, which our team would be more than happy to tell you about and / or demonstrate. If you have any further queries, please contact either of the resource centres.