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Healthcare For The Blind

  • Writer: Polelo Mawela
    Polelo Mawela
  • Jan 28, 2023
  • 3 min read


The 4th of January is World Braille Day; this day is in celebration of Louis Braille who invented Braille (WHO, 2023). Braille is a form of written language for blind people, in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with the fingertips (Oxford dictionary). There is an estimated 253 million people with visual impairment worldwide. Of these, 36 million people were blind (WHO, 2023). As people live longer across various societies, it is expected that visual impairment and thus blindness will increase (Ackland, Resnikoff and Bourne, 2017).



In South Africa, the prevalence of vision impairment is the highest of all disabilities at 32%. The top three causes of blindness worldwide are cataracts which accounts for 39.1% of global blindness, uncorrected refractive errors which accounts for 18.2% of global blindness, and glaucoma which accounts for 10.1% of global blindness (Life healthcare, 2018).

In relation to health care, the major issues confronting people who are blind are access to information and access to premises and services (Blind Citizens Australia). For those who live with blindness, braille reading, counselling and home skills training, mobility training with white canes and digital assistive technologies can ensure free, independent and safe mobility (WHO, 2023). These skills are the answer to the major issue confronting blind people in health care. Upon gaining access to healthcare facilities, the manner in which blind people are treated can sometimes be another hurdle that they have to overcome. Stereotypic assumptions about people with disabilities particularly blind people affect their healthcare treatment and exacerbate health disparities they face (Heydarian, Morera & Franskowski, 2020).

Typically, blind people have to contend with the assumption that they are impaired cognitively as well

(Nario‐Redmond, 2010). Healthcare professionals tend to pity them thus over treat them (through overmedication or institutionalisation) or disregard their input as far as their healthcare is concerned. Typically, because they are viewed as incompetent, healthcare professionals may ask that a non-disabled family member or friend be present to facilitate the healthcare visit (Heydarian, Morera & Franskowski, 2020) thus compromising patient-doctor confidentiality in cases of adult patients. When patients experience this stereotypical behaviour from their health care professional, it erodes trust and satisfaction in healthcare that is fundamental to promoting healthy behaviours (Dovidio & Fiske, 2012). Experiencing a healthcare setting adversely affects health-seeking behaviours. Individuals who have had negative experiences in healthcare facilities are unlikely to visit these facilities voluntary (Khajeh et al., 2019).

The stereotypical approach that health professionals sometimes hold and enact towards blind patients is informed by their knowledge of the lack of information available for blind people as it relates to healthcare. This behaviour is informed by the caring profession that they are operating in where they try to meet a patient at their level of understanding. Braille is the answer to the information gap that exists. Through braille, healthcare professionals will be able to teach blind patients more effectively about a given health issue and they will also know that the patient is informed or can be informed through the provision of health information printed in braille. Thus the infantilization of blind patients where they are spoken down to or asked to bring a non-disabled person with in the consultation room will cease. Between the patient and health care professional, braille will offer a bridge wherein the healthcare professional can trust the patient’s ability to comprehend what they are saying and the patient can trust that the healthcare professional views them as competent.


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Reference

  1. Ackland, P., Resnikoff, S., & Bourne, R. (2017). World blindness and visual impairment: despite many successes, the problem is growing. Community eye health, 30, 71.

  2. Blind Citizens Australia. Access to health services for people who are blind or vision impaired. www.bca.org.au

  3. Dovidio, J. F., & Fiske, S. T. (2012). Under the radar: how unexamined biases in decision-making processes in clinical interactions can contribute to health care disparities. American journal of public health, 102, 945-952.

  4. Heydarian, N., Morera, O., & Frankowski, S. (2020). Developing a measure of blind patients’ interactions with their healthcare providers. Disability and health journal, 13, 100906.

  5. Khajeh, A., Vardanjani, H. M., Salehi, A., Rahmani, N., & Delavari, S. (2019). Healthcare-seeking behavior and its relating factors in South of Iran. Journal of education and health promotion, 8.

  6. Life Healthcare. (2018). Life Healthcare tackles biggest disability in the country. www.lifehealthcare.co.za

  7. Nario‐Redmond, M. R. (2010). Cultural stereotypes of disabled and non‐disabled men and women: Consensus for global category representations and diagnostic domains. British journal of social psychology, 49, 471-488. www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com www.who.int/health-topics/blindness-and-vision-loss



 
 
 

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