Session at Aniridia Network UK Conference 2014

By: Rick Allbrook

Rick Allbrook from Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (GDBA) discussed their role as a mobility charity and how they support people with sight loss to get out and about independently.

The services that GDBA offers are expanding and whilst guide dogs will always be their core service and account for 70-80% of what they do, GDBA now offers mobility to children, young people, and adults. They also have a strong campaigning profile around dog attacks, Streets Ahead and talking buses.

They developed a new service called MyGuide. This is a nationally accredited programme of training sighted guiding so that more people with sight loss can be offered assistance in the correct way. It is very important that all visually impaired people know themselves how to be guided correctly, so that more people with sight loss can set their own standards on how they want to be guided when offered assistance by members of the public.