| Description | Tracks 1-4: Charles Parker interviews a group of people during a social meeting for older people with visual impairments. A woman talks about cooking utensils and a braille game called the 'beetle game'. A man talks about the popularity of 'beetle drives' for blind and partially sighted people, the recreation activities he takes part in, and his working life for a glass manufacturer in different cities and towns in England. He talks about the facilities that are available to older blind people in the area, in comparison with other places he has lived. He discusses the tendency to treat older people and blind people like children, his pleasure in talking books, and his feelings and thoughts about blindness before he lost his sight. He talks about the importance of accepting his disability, and another man joins the conversation to talk about his experience of losing his sight during the war and trying to return to work at his old firm
Tracks 5-6: Mr Edwards, from Dundee, talks to Charles Parker about his job in the merchant navy, losing his sight in an accident at sea as a young man and not being accepted by St Dunstans for training because the accident took place during peacetime
Tracks 7-9: group sing various songs including 'I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside' with piano accompaniment
Tracks 10-13: interview with a woman, possibly Mrs Lewtas about losing her sight due to diabetes. She talks to Charles Parker and Philip Donnellan about the extent of her vision and the unpredictability of her condition, her previous job as a dressmaker and her enjoyment of talking books. She discusses previous efforts to learn braille and being advised by her doctor not to continue. She explains that she had to have her leg amputated because of her diabetes, and goes on to talk about how she copes with her disability and the help with shopping and cooking that she gets from neighbours. She describes the help she has received from the blind welfare services, particularly from her welfare worker, Mrs Hughes and talks about listening to the radio and televions, and spending her time knitting, although she cannot sew anymore. She goes on to talk about the changes she has made to her home, the help she has received from the 'Blind Society' and the difference it has made to have visits from Mrs Hughes. She thinks that her needs are largely met by sighted society but understands that some people with visual impairments will have more difficulties, especially if they do not have their own home. She talks about her childhood and adolescence which she spent looking after her mother, who was often ill
Total: 35.08 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF549C0071480 |