Newport East

Jessica Steps into the Shoes of a Visually Impaired Person 17 October 2011

Jessica accepted an invitation from Guide Dogs UK to walk around Newport City centre while blindfolded and carrying a cane to support their campaign "Walk a mile my shoes".

 

Guide Dogs wanted to show Jessica the difficulties visually impaired people suffer from just walking around the city, trying to do ordinary, daily tasks. They highlighted how a city’s design layout could be changed to ease their plight, as daily tasks are made unnecessarily difficult.

Jessica said “Walking around blindfolded really demonstrates to me the things visually impaired people put up with. Small things like uneven surfaces make their walk actually quite dangerous. This experience really does exemplify the changes that could be made to help visually impaired people. I would like to thank all Guide Dog’s staff, visually impaired constituents who attended on the day and the guide dogs themselves for this valuable experience.”