Continuing on from my last post on mobility, I’m taking another look at the replacement for the Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

The second area where the current proposals on PIP disadvantage blind people is in that of communication. This is one of the activities under the broad heading of ‘daily living’.

If you’re reading this piece you are undoubtedly using some form of computer, whether it’s a PC, mobile phone or PDA. You’re probably looking at the screen reading the text that I’m currently typing. At my end of this process I’m typing with a little voice speaking into my ear. This is my screen reader. This is the software that allows me to access written words on a computer screen. It costs over £600.

When you receive post you can go straight to your doormat, pick it up, have a quick sort through, discarding the reams of junk mail and concentrating on the important stuff, probably a bill. If I want to sort through my post I have to try and guess based on the feel of the envelope whether it needs dealing with immediately or whether it can be safely left for a later time. Then I have to take it to my scanner and use another expensive piece of software to scan and recognise the text of the letter so that I can use speech on my computer to read it.

I wanted to give these two very basic examples because they are ilustrative of the situation faced by a blind person when it comes to something as normal as reading. So we have to have expensive software and technology in order to do something as basic as reading a letter or writing a blog. Even with the technology, it doesn’t always provide access and on many occasions you have to use sighted assistance. This is most obvious when you have a form to fill in. Reading is such a basic part of everyone’s lives that if you can’t read in the usual way you may be severely disadvantaged.

But it isn’t just about reading. Its called communication activity because its designed to encapsulate the issues faced by a person with disabilities in all forms of communications. This is where I get into an area where it is hard to describe the issues involved. I am unable to read facial expressions and body language. How important is that as part of communication? Obviously, because it is not something I’m aware of, it is not something I can easily judge. So I ask you to consider how much you rely on your ability to judge a situation based on what you see from the other people involved.

A related point, which I can judge more easily, is my inability to look at a social situation with lots of people and determine how they all relate to each other. So, if you go into a large room you can see at a glance how the people in that room have split themselves up, you can see if there’s anyone you know and you can judge where you should position yourself in relation to everyone else. When I go into a large room of people I am bombarded by a wall of sound from which I might be able to tell roughly how busy the room is, but I won’t be able to tell if there’s anyone in there that I might know. I dislike large social gatherings because I often feel more lonely in a room full of people, where communication is difficult, than when I’m sitting at home on my own.

Okay, so that may say more about me and it is something that money doesn’t really help with, apart from allowing me to pay for someone to come with me to these sorts of environments. But, it is one of the issues around communication that the current proposals don’t account for.

And so we come full circle to reading again. I read for pleasure by listening to audiobooks. Many come from the RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) Talking Book Library. It has the largest collection of unabridged talking books in the country. I also use Braille, but, for me, Braille is more useful for reading recipes and dealing with bills. Since less than %5 of all books make it into an accessible format, blind people have to have access to all forms of audio production including Audible to give them access to as wide a choice as possible. That, of course, is a subscription service and costs.

How many points does a blind person get under the proposals? Four. Does that truly recognise the difficulties?

* Yusuf Osman has been blind since the age of four. He is an expert in Middle Eastern history and is working towards a PhD at the School of of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.