The Covid 19 precautionary measures became a challenge for the blind people.

Thembisile Mbethe
Empumelelweni
Emalahleni
2020/06/16

I spoke to a blind lady in my area, asking her that how is she coping in this lock down period and with all the pandemic challenges so far. She said that….” I’m not coping well as a blind person due to the challenges that I’m facing in my life on daily basis. It feels like everything had changed and that I’m living in a different world where I have to adapt a new living style. As a blind person I use furniture and walls to walk around in the house so now the DoH is saying that we could contact the virus by touching anything that is not being disinfected or sanitized as the virus could be anywhere.

As I don’t have the relevant materials to fumigate or disinfect the whole house before I touch anything…how would I be able to live without touching anything , because touching is part of my life as a blind person, even if i need to go outside for refreshing hence I can’t stay in the house the whole time. So I touch the outside walls.

And when it comes to going out of the yard I need someone to assist me by leading the way for me, so it becomes very difficult because I can’t maintain the social distancing as the person who is assisting me need to be close to me always so I can hear him/her when speaks to me. Another thing is that we should cover our mouth with the inside part of the elbow whenever we are sneezing and coughing for the germs not to spread. Now that becomes a challenge to me because I also use someone’s elbow to hold on to… for me to be assisted/ leaded.