RNIB takes Cane Street to party conferences
RNIB has been at the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative party conferences in the last few weeks to drive home to decision makers how vital having access to timely vision rehabilitation is for blind and partially sighted people. We’ve spoken to hundreds of decision makers, including the Deputy Prime Minister, the Lib Dem leader and two of the Conservative leadership contenders.
In total 112 MPs engaged with our stand across all three conferences, bringing the total number of MPs who have signed up to champion issues impacting people with sight loss in parliament to 182.
Among other visitors to our exhibition stand were councillors, party staff, members and the Mayor of West Yorkshire, and they were all interested and engaged in what we had to say. We shared the findings from our #OutOfSight campaign and demonstrated the life-changing impact that vision rehabilitation can have.
At our stand, we gave visitors the opportunity to take a walk down ‘Cane Street’, our immersive walkway complete with the pavement obstructions people with sight loss encounter every day, to show how important timely mobility training is as part of vision rehab in supporting people to get around safely and independently. We also took the opportunity to discuss with council members in particular the importance of inclusive street design in ensuring that our streets are accessible for all.
Visitors to our stand included Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray MP and Lord David Blunkett. At Liberal Democrats, we were the first stand Leader Ed Davey visited, and Deputy Leader Daisy Cooperalso popped by. At the Conservative conference we’ve had two leadership contenders walk through Cane Street - James Cleverly MP and Tom Tugendhat MP.
Away from the exhibition, the team had chats with Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care. We will be really pressing upon both the importance of vision rehabilitation services as a critical area of social care policy as the parliamentary term progresses.
There’s more – we also hosted two packed out fringe events at the Liberal Democrats and Labour conferences, getting over 40 attendees at both. The events were hosted by Health Principle Private Secretary, Zubir Ahmed MP, at Labour and Steve Darling MP at Lib Dems, spokesperson for Work and Pensions. The fringe event was a pub quiz, which intended to change people’s behaviours and attitudes towards sight loss, with rounds on alt text and sight loss knowledge.
We are now in the process of following up with everyone who visited our stand over the course of the three conferences, to build on what was in many cases an introduction after the turnover in key decision makers there has been this year. Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out our simple online form to ask your MP to come and see us, several referenced being asked by a constituent when they dropped by the stand.
Sign the #OutOfSight petition
Thousands of people with sight loss are not receiving the vision rehabilitation they are legally entitled to. Life changes after sight loss, sometimes overnight, often in dramatic ways. Done well, vision rehabilitation equips people with new ways to stay independent: to get around, adapt their work, do the weekly shop and enjoy hobbies.
Sign the #OutOfSight petitionand call on all UK political parties to commit to ensuring blind and partially sighted people get the support they need, when they need it.
