Cameron Scott
Equinox Staff
Being visually impaired has its pros and cons but there are many advancements in society that have assisted people with disabilities, including my own.
One example of this is braille on elevators and other places. This makes it accessible for people who are fully blind, and they also have large text so anyone can see the numbers.
Another advancement is that there are options at eating establishments to have a large print menu such as Olive Garden. These advancements are great and all but, there are so many more opportunities to implement systems into place to make life as a visually impaired person easier. From personal experience I have come into tons of instances where something was not accessible for the visually impaired.
One example is shopping in most major supermarkets. Most of the time, finding the item I want is extremely hard if I cannot see the isle numbers. Most people can locate things easily since they can see the labeling on the isle. An easy way to make it easier for visually impaired people is to put the isle signs at eye level so anyone can walk up to it.
Another way to make society more accessible for visually impaired people is for street signs to be at eye level because, like the isle signs, I just can’t see it when it is above eye level. These signs are too high up to look closer at them. Having lower street signs would be a huge help. There should be two street signs since drivers need to see it as well.
One thing that would help most visually impaired people is to have lights associated with the color of what gender the bathroom is. I can’t even count how many times I had to walk up to the wrong bathroom just to find that I was about to walk into the wrong gendered bathroom. The signs are usually so small, so I must walk up close to it just to see it. Having a blue light associated with the men’s bathroom and a pink light associated with the women’s bathroom would help a lot of people. These lights should always be on. Lights can be seen from afar which would fix this issue visually impaired people have to face.
Another thing that would help most visually impaired people is to make ride services such as Uber or Lyft discounted for the visually impaired. Ride services like these are a luxury since getting a license for the visually imaged is impossible. Reducing the cost for the services like this would help a tremendous amount. Most people who are visually impaired have to rely on friends, family or public transportation to get where they need to go. Sometimes these options are not available. Setting up this system is not hard at all. These services only need to have a section where you upload a certificate of Blindness and it could be that easy.
Overall, the world, as it is now, is very accessible for multiple types of disabilities, but there is always room for improvement. These improvements would help make society filled with more productive people and allow for everyone to be included.
Cameron Scott can be contacted at:
cscott@kscequinox.com
