BCVI Offers Rehabilitation Services, Including How to Use a Cane

The B.C.V.I.’s rehabilitation services offer these blind patients help where necessary and possible, Ayres-Musa explained.

Carla Ayres-Musa, Executive Director, BCVI

Carla Ayres-Musa

“What our officers do is reach out to people who have been diagnosed with blindness and find out what they need from us and that could be in terms of counseling, in terms of support, in terms of adaptive aids, so someone who is newly blind will need a cane. They will need to be taught how to move around their homes and their neighbourhoods and their communities independently and that’s where the COVID aspect really comes in. And this is a global effect for all people who are blind throughout the world. When you are learning how to use a cane, you need to have someone guiding you, physically touching you and guiding you and teaching you how to hold the cane, how to move the cane, how to sweep the cane. If you’re learning how to move around a new environment, you also need a sighted person to help you do that. So imagine now that we’re all being told to maintain physical distancing, don’t get too close to anybody, that creates a huge, huge problem for people who are blind trying to live as independently as possible. While these services are available, there is a direct impact that COVID is having on people wanting to or feeling comfortable enough to access the service.”