Sefton Council video transcript and content description

Video description

Sight Loss Council Engagement Manager, Kelly Barton, is stood in front of a brown cabinet with glass doors with Sefton memorabilia inside, facing the camera. She is wearing a white Sight Loss Councils hoodie and has blonde hair, tied up into a ponytail. A blue Sight Loss Councils banner is partially in the shot to her right.

Mike Wright, a Sight Loss Council member and volunteer also speaks to the camera, standing in the same position as Kelly. Kelly is not seen during this. Mike is wearing a white Sight Loss Councils hoodie and has short, light grey hair. To Mike’s right is a Sight Loss Councils banner. The banner says ‘Sight Loss Councils (TM)’ and has a picture of three people on.

As Kelly and Mike speak to the camera, short clips are shown of Sefton Council staff sat around a meeting room trying on glasses that simulate different eye conditions, as well as shots of them walking around public streets in pairs. One person is wearing a pair of glasses while another is helping to lead them through the streets.

Video transcript

My name is Kelly Barton, I work for a national sight loss charity called Thomas Pocklington Trust.

In our engagement team, we have a brand called Sight Loss Councils. There’s about 20 Sight Loss Councils up and down the country, and they are all made up of blind and partially sighted volunteers who are working towards making positive change in their local areas. So, trying to make organisations and services more inclusive and accessible for people who have got sight loss.

So, we have been working with Sefton Council and we invite people to come in, and we talk to them about the challenges and the barriers that people who are blind and partially sighted face. We basically get them to put on simulation glasses which simulate different eye conditions. They then go in pairs, and they walk outside. We go on, sort of, an hours walk with them in the local area, so that they can understand the challenges that we face when we are out and about as people who have got sight loss. Things like uneven pavements, overhanging bushes, just the general difficulties on the streets. Things like pavement parking, when you have got cafes that come quite far out into the street with street furniture.

We have done three of these sessions. We’ve had people from the Highways team, Public Protection, people who are kind of involved with street design, just to help them have a better understanding of the challenges that we face, but also areas where it works well, streets where, actually, this is a good way for it to be. So, we try and bring the positive as well for people, so that we can highlight to them good practice as well as what could be done to be improved and what will help us as people who can’t see when we are trying to navigate the area using a long cane or a guide dog.
Mike: I got involved with the Sight Loss Council about 18 months ago. It gives me an opportunity to make a difference. So, attending meetings like today, getting involved with transport planning, and educating people and informing people as to how we want to be treated by society at large.

Last Tuesday I was walking up the South Road in Waterloo, and there was temporary fencing outside Iceland, if you know the area by Waterloo station. Because it has the rails near the crossing, it was just not possible to walk into the road and do anything. You have to do a massive detour and it means crossing a potentially dangerous road. Now I know work has to happen, but it can be frustrating. That is just one recent example.

Kelly: I think the fact that we have had over 60 people in these courses now, so I think that is really positive. In November, we are going to do a reflection session. Some people are going to come back and tell us what they have changed within their job roles because that is really important to us.

So, it is all very well delivering sessions like this but what we want to do is to see what impact that is having and how people are changing their practice within their job role to make it a better experience for people who are blind or partially sighted.