PEOPLE in Worcestershire with sight issues face unprecedented challenges during the coronavirus crisis, a sight charity says.

Sight Concern says issues including social distancing and losing confidence are among the main difficulties being thrown out by the crisis.

Elizabeth Baio, who is a trustee of sight concern and is completely blind, said her confidence, and that of many people with sight loss in Worcester had been seriously affected by the coronavirus lockdown.

She said: “There are so many areas of life which have been affected, but for me there are two key areas. Social distancing and the ability to touch things. Social distancing is massive as you have to hope other people will socially distance if you do go out, but I know a lot of visually impaired people who simply haven’t gone out at all. Early on, when we were all in lockdown, not many struggled but now we can all begin to go outside again, it is much more difficult.”

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Mrs Baio, who has been involved with the charity for more than 20 years, said not being able to touch things had made life much more difficult for blind and partially sighted people. She added: “I get a lot of my information through touch, when shaking hands with people or feeling things in the shop, and obviously not too many people are touching things now, so it is almost like lacking two senses.The sense of touch is very underestimated, even by people with all their senses.”

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Another of the difficulties comes with using a guide dog. Mrs Baio explained how a guide dog views a queue as an obstacle to go around, meaning using public transport and queueing made social distancing almost impossible. Sight Concern chief executive Jenny Gage said the charity had continued to support people suffering with sight loss during the pandemic, though it had been a serious challenge.

She said: “We expect there will be a serious loss of confidence from people who have been in the house for such a long time, even those who live quite independently. There is no end to the challenges people are facing. Even things like doing the shopping and having it delivered is a real challenge. We decided to be proactive with offering support, phoning everyone on our database to make sure they were okay and sending letters to people. We have also got more than 70 volunteers helping with out befriending service and calling each other to offer support.”