B P L den Brinker¹, H H L Geyskens²
¹Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; ²Belgium Confederation for Blind and Partially Sighted People, Head Central Office, Brussels, Belgium
The background of the study is the need of the European Blind Union (EBU) to improve her policy in representing the interests of partially sighted people (PSP). Today, PSP comprise, according to the definition of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the overwhelming majority of visually impaired people (VIP) in Europe. The present policy is confined to the interests of blind and severely partially sighted people for whom another type of measures are necessary than for the majority of PSP. The study was performed in the context of the work of the EBU commission on the Activities of Partially sighted People.
The method used is to define two kinds of measures to support independent living of VIP's: collective and individual measures. Collective measures have to do with the view about the nature of disabilities and impairments. A disabled person is an individual placed in a disabling situation, brought about by environmental and social barriers that the individual cannot overcome in the same way as other persons because of their impairment(s) It is up to society to eliminate, reduce or compensate for these barriers in order to allow each individual to enjoy full citizenship.
As a result of a long discussion within the EBU PSP-commission, the EBU will support, more than before, collective measures to prevent PSP to become disabled. A good example of a collective measure is the 'Design for All' principle for designing the information and public indoor and outdoor environments. One of the present activities in the EBU is the development of guidelines for the accessibility of buildings for PSP.
It is concluded that individual measures need only be enforced in so far collective measures are not sufficient. In the future, a combination of collective and individual measures may result in a better society for PSP.
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