Supporting blind and visually impaired people

Players of People’s Postcode Lottery have raised more than £2.8 million for RNIB, one of the UK's leading sight loss charities and the largest community of blind and partially sighted people.

There are two million blind and partially sighted in the UK who may be feeling isolated, anxious and forgotten about in this crisis. RNIB is ensuring their needs are considered, and that they have the advice and support to help them through this challenging time.

In this public health emergency, making sure blind and partially sighted people can access quick-changing health information and advice is critical. While information is being pulled together under pressure, it is not always going through the usual accessibility checks leading to issues such as not being accessible to screen reader users.

In response to this issue RNIB has produced a tailored guide with the key points to remind communications teams how to make sure everyone can access what they share, and continue to monitor information to check that this advice is being utilised.

As the challenges of food shopping have increased, supermarkets across the country have been implementing new procedures for the safety of shoppers. RNIB have also been providing resources to blind and partially sighted people to help them navigate these new situations and point them in the direction of any assistance they can benefit from.

RNIB’s Connect community, which is supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, has become more important than ever. The charity has quickly adapted to respond to people’s needs and through Connect, the team are reaching out to people through wellbeing calls with over 40,000 people being contacted by telephone.

Jamie Dormandy, head of advice and customer service at RNIB, said: "During this unprecedented situation, RNIB staff are working hard to ensure that advice and support for blind and partially sighted people is available.

"Our Sight Loss Advice Service, which includes telephone and digital support, is constantly being updated and reviewed in line with the latest Government and NHS guidance and advisors are actively signposting callers to relevant information and local support if needed."

In these unprecedented times, it is essential that people with sight loss are not alone.

For more on RNIB's support services visit www.rnib.org.uk/coronavirus