In­ter­na­tion­al Men’s Day, cel­e­brat­ed on No­vem­ber 19, high­lights the pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tions of men in so­ci­ety while al­so draw­ing at­ten­tion to the spe­cif­ic chal­lenges we face. This year, we have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to raise aware­ness about the strug­gles and suc­cess­es of men who are blind, vi­su­al­ly im­paired, or low vi­sion in par­tic­u­lar.

As a na­tion, T&T is renowned for our vi­brant cul­ture and di­ver­si­ty; we can there­fore take ac­tive steps to pro­mote the rights and op­por­tu­ni­ties of men who are blind, vi­su­al­ly im­paired, or low vi­sion, thus build­ing a so­ci­ety that is di­verse, eq­ui­table, and in­clu­sive. Men who are blind in T&T face a unique set of chal­lenges in ar­eas such as em­ploy­ment, ed­u­ca­tion, ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty, and so­cial in­clu­sion.

Ad­dress­ing these is­sues re­quires a col­lec­tive ef­fort from Gov­ern­ment, com­mu­ni­ties, and in­di­vid­u­als to cre­ate a sup­port­ive en­vi­ron­ment where we can strive. Ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty is one of the biggest hur­dles for men who are blind in T&T. This in­cludes both phys­i­cal and dig­i­tal ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty. The coun­try can start by im­prov­ing in­fra­struc­ture to make pub­lic spaces more nav­i­ga­ble for those of us with vi­su­al im­pair­ments.

Braille sig­nage in pub­lic build­ings, ac­ces­si­ble pedes­tri­an cross­ings with au­di­ble sig­nals, and the use of tac­tile paving are ex­am­ples of in­fra­struc­tur­al mod­i­fi­ca­tions that will help us nav­i­gate our en­vi­ron­ment safe­ly. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Gov­ern­ment should pri­ori­tise ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty fea­tures in pub­lic trans­porta­tion. Spe­cialised ser­vices like those that guide in­di­vid­u­als from the bus ter­mi­nal to their des­ti­na­tion can be in­valu­able to those of us who use pub­lic trans­porta­tion. By en­hanc­ing the mo­bil­i­ty of men who are blind, it en­cour­ages our in­de­pen­dence and par­tic­i­pa­tion in every­day so­cial and eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ties.

Em­ploy­ment is an area in which many men who are blind face dis­crim­i­na­tion or lack of op­por­tu­ni­ties. Mis­con­cep­tions about our abil­i­ties pre­vent em­ploy­ers from recog­nis­ing the skills and tal­ents we bring to the work­place. Work­place di­ver­si­ty and in­clu­sion must be en­cour­aged and sup­port­ed. Tax in­cen­tives for com­pa­nies that hire per­sons with vi­su­al im­pair­ments, as well as pro­vid­ing these em­ploy­ees with as­sis­tive tech­nol­o­gy such as screen read­ers and mag­ni­fi­ca­tion soft­ware, is one of the ways to en­cour­age such in­clu­siv­i­ty in the work­place.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Gov­ern­ment and civ­il so­ci­ety must col­lab­o­rate to cre­ate men­tor­ing pro­grammes aimed at build­ing skills and con­fi­dence in men who are blind, vi­su­al­ly im­paired, or low vi­sion. By pair­ing men who are blind with men­tors in sim­i­lar ca­reer fields, valu­able in­sights and friend­ship net­work­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties that could lead to long-term em­ploy­ment are pos­si­ble. Fur­ther­more, by pro­mot­ing suc­cess sto­ries of men who are blind in the work­place, so­ci­etal at­ti­tudes can be shift­ed and demon­strate that blind­ness in no way lim­its some­one’s ca­pac­i­ty to con­tribute mean­ing­ful­ly in the work­place.

Ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion is cru­cial for the per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth of men who are blind. T&T’s ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem should fo­cus on pro­vid­ing ad­e­quate re­sources and sup­port for vi­su­al­ly im­paired stu­dents from an ear­ly age. This in­cludes ac­cess to braille text­books, screen read­ing soft­ware, and oth­er as­sis­tive tech­nolo­gies in schools and uni­ver­si­ties. Train­ing teach­ers to bet­ter sup­port stu­dents with vi­su­al im­pair­ments will al­so make a big dif­fer­ence in the qual­i­ty of ed­u­ca­tion these stu­dents re­ceive.

High­er ed­u­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions should al­so con­sid­er im­ple­ment­ing schol­ar­ship pro­grammes specif­i­cal­ly for stu­dents’ vi­su­al im­pair­ments, help­ing to re­duce the fi­nan­cial bur­den and open doors for fur­ther ed­u­ca­tion. When men who are blind are giv­en equal ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion, they are more like­ly to reach their full po­ten­tial, achieve in­de­pen­dence, and con­tribute pos­i­tive­ly to so­ci­ety. Men who are blind of­ten ex­pe­ri­ence unique men­tal and phys­i­cal health chal­lenges due to iso­la­tion, so­ci­etal stig­ma, and mo­bil­i­ty con­straints.

Our na­tion­al health­care sys­tem can play a role in sup­port­ing the well-be­ing of these men by of­fer­ing ac­ces­si­ble men­tal health ser­vices, peer sup­port pro­grammes and coun­selling tai­lored to the vi­su­al­ly im­paired. When com­mu­ni­ties ac­tive­ly em­brace in­di­vid­u­als who are blind, they cre­ate a so­ci­ety where all men can strive re­gard­less of their abil­i­ties. Build­ing aware­ness around the men­tal health needs of men who are blind can help break down stig­mas and pro­vide es­sen­tial sup­port. Health ser­vices that are sen­si­tive to the needs of in­di­vid­u­als, such as ac­ces­si­ble med­ical fa­cil­i­ties, could al­so en­sure that men who are blind re­ceive eq­ui­table care.

In ad­di­tion, pub­lic aware­ness cam­paigns can ed­u­cate the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion about vi­su­al im­pair­ments, help­ing to fos­ter em­pa­thy and un­der­stand­ing, which con­tributes to a more in­clu­sive so­ci­ety. So­cial in­clu­sion is fun­da­men­tal for the well-be­ing and dig­ni­ty of men who are blind. Too of­ten, in­di­vid­u­als with vi­su­al im­pair­ments are iso­lat­ed due to a lack of un­der­stand­ing and em­pa­thy from the pub­lic.

T&T can pro­mote in­clu­sion by launch­ing pub­lic aware­ness cam­paigns that ed­u­cate cit­i­zens about blind­ness and the im­por­tance of in­clu­siv­i­ty. In­ter­na­tion­al Men’s Day is an ide­al oc­ca­sion to high­light the achieve­ments and re­silience of men who are blind, in­spir­ing oth­ers and com­bat­ing stereo­types. Com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions, NGOs and ad­vo­ca­cy groups can al­so fa­cil­i­tate work­shops and events that bring to­geth­er both sight­ed and vi­su­al­ly im­paired in­di­vid­u­als. These events can help to fos­ter mu­tu­al un­der­stand­ing and re­spect, cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for all. Pro­mot­ing the rights of men who are blind al­so re­quires le­gal pro­tec­tions.

T&T must, as a mat­ter of ur­gency, pass “dis­abil­i­ty rights” leg­is­la­tion to en­sure that men who are blind are pro­tect­ed from dis­crim­i­na­tion in ed­u­ca­tion, em­ploy­ment, and pub­lic ac­com­mo­da­tions. Ad­vo­cat­ing for rat­i­fi­ca­tion and full im­ple­men­ta­tion of all in­ter­na­tion­al treaties will al­so demon­strate our coun­try’s com­mit­ment to up­hold­ing hu­man rights for all peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties.

More­over, the Gov­ern­ment must con­tin­ue its sup­port for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion in our work since we play a cru­cial role in rep­re­sent­ing the in­ter­ests of our com­mu­ni­ty, lob­by­ing for nec­es­sary pol­i­cy changes, and pro­vid­ing re­sources and sup­port to in­di­vid­u­als and their fam­i­lies.

This year, as we cel­e­brate “In­ter­na­tion­al Men’s Day,” let us re­new our com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing the rights of men who are blind, vi­su­al­ly im­paired, or low vi­sion by im­prov­ing ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty, en­hanc­ing em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties, sup­port­ing ed­u­ca­tion, pro­mot­ing health, fos­ter­ing so­cial in­clu­sion, and strength­en­ing ad­vo­ca­cy. We can build a more di­verse, eq­ui­table, and in­clu­sive T&T where all men have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to suc­ceed. As we cel­e­brate all men’s achieve­ments and con­tri­bu­tions, let us al­so recog­nise those of us who are blind, vi­su­al­ly im­paired, or low vi­sion so that we may be val­ued, re­spect­ed, and em­pow­ered to lead ful­fill­ing lives. Hap­py In­ter­na­tion­al Men’s Day.

This col­umn is sup­plied in con­junc­tion with the T&T Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion Head­quar­ters: 118 Duke Street, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Email: ttb­wa1914@gmail.com; Phone: (868) 624-4675; What­sApp: (868) 395-3086.