Personal assistance for visually impaired persons

On the occasion of the Second European Congress on Independent Living, to be held next October in Valencia, a group of people linked to visual functional diversity, we believe it is necessary to reflect on the current state of this group in relation to personal assistance, a fundamental tool for the independent life of all people. Our intervention, prepared by Mertxe Sánchez, Lucia Melchor, Soledad Mochales and Marichu Moreno will be presented by Mertxe Sánchez on 26 October.

Therefore, we will review the reasons, both historical and theoretical, that have kept us out of the model of independent living, and, always from our personal experience and the foundations of ILM, we will define the framework within which, in our opinion, personal assistance should be included, which together with other resources or interventions, also constitutes for blind and low vision people a guarantee of social inclusion and participation on an equal footing in the life of the community.

We will illustrate our presentation with examples of situations that demonstrate the need for personal assistance for the development of a person with visual functional diversity and, at the same time, we will describe the peculiarities that would characterize such personal assistance and will raise certain relevant questions aimed at its implementation.

Finally, we are sure that this Congress will be the right and fertile place to learn by sharing experiences and taking a further step on the road to full citizenship.