• The twilight world ?iervyn Harris

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The scene is a London tube sta o t lon. Among the passengers wait

ing on the platform is a young an of about twenty-three. He is standing near the electric board Which denotes the destination of I incoming trains. His eyes are screwed up as he peers intently up ; at the board. He shifts his position, ,casting nervous glances up at the 00ard, the tunnel from where the train will come, and the passengers.

, A train roars in, people rush Intward, the doors open, close, and the train roars out. He glances ari at the board. It is blurred. There is an expression of despair c) Of his face. The railway guard is • landing a few paces from him. ;ef#he young man hesitates, then gc'es up to him. / Young man: Excuse me. Can You tell me if the next train's a Circle Line?

.„Guard: Can't you see, mate? 'nere's a board over there.

f The next train comes in and a ew seconds later the guard signals for it to pull out. The man is rt standing on the platform. He ,esitates, glances at the board ,.ggain, and then approaches the 64ard.

Young man (falteringly): I've ,!,:),_t very poor sight. I can't read

• nat's on the board.

stsGuard: Oh, I'm sorry. You r!ould have told me. Did you say 'Ir,cle Line?

'clung man: Yes.

h Guard: It's the next one. Stay eLe. I'll help you.

train comes in. The guard Oles the man by the elbow and hers him forward.

, usGuard: Excuse us here. Excuse th• (People make way.). Careful e-rr,e's a step here. klue young man is on the train. h:uPle stare at him. He feels ernii7rrassed. The doors close and the ' ln, begins to move out. pri ne embarrassment, bordering I s anxiety, felt by this young man

quite common among the many -........._ thousands of partially sighted persons in this country. All such partially sighted people are in an ambivalent position. The public tend to query why they do not wear spectacles, although some do as a means of disguising their handicap rather than enabling them to enlarge their vision. And unlike the blind they have no 'status' or symbol such as a white stick.

Seeing and yet not being able to distinguish things clearly, the partially sighted can appear withdrawn, uncertain or excruciatingly shy. As a middle-aged woman, who has been on the register of partially sighted persons for several years, put it:

"At social functions I feel hesitant and have qualms about helping myself to cake or biscuits in case I knock over something. People say, 'Why don't you help yourself?' but I find it embarrassing to explain. They say you should not be embarrassed but you are."

Vision is much more than just merely seeing things. It gives a sense of identity. For how a person feels and experiences his body goes, with the way in which he sees others. To have sight is to be involved with things in a way different from hearing, for example, because people are not so "geared in" to hearing as they are to seeing. There is something passive about hearing and rather active about seeing. The concept of partial sight is difficult to define and can vary from person to person. It can be like looking through the wrong end of a telescope, objects being misty and blurred, or like looking at a jigsaw. The partially sighted are on a continuum with the blind who have residual vision. In fact, most of the people who are registered blind in Great Britain have a varying degree of residual vision. Only about 17 per cent are totally, or practically totally blind for mobility purposes. i Yet the assistance a person s able to get depends on the category in which he or she is placed. The Ministry of Health has advised that a person who is not blind within the meaning of the National Assistance Act, 1948, but who is, nevertheless, substantially and permanently handicapped by congenitally defective vision or in

whose case illness or injury has caused defective vision of a subs tantial and permanently han dicapping character, is within the scope of the welfare services which the local authority are empowered to provide for blind persons.

This does not, however, apply to benefits specially enjoyed by the blind. These include supplementary benefit or tax concession where eligible, entitlement to a free radio and reduction in television licence. In this respect, the partially sighted are the Cinderellas of the handicapped. But they can be given understanding.

It is much easier to rehabilitate a person who is totally blind than one who is partially blind and is likely to be flitting between the two worlds. For defective vision can be, above all, a constant source of frustration. Travelling, as the experience of the young man at the tube station illustrated, can be more hazardous for the partially sighted than for the blind who have their 'badge' of the white stick to attract help without explanation. The difficulties include seeing bus numbers, signposts and notice boards. It is like the experience of the person who has lost his spectacles and can see very little without them.

Socially defective vision can breed isolation and withdrawal to avoid embarrassing or awkward situations, like not being able to see when your leg is being pulled. Partially sighted persons may thrust themselves bodily in front of a person to whom they are speaking or may butt into a conversation thinking they are being spoken to when this is not so. They may not be able to recognise acquaintances or friends at a distance of a few feet and thus may be thought of as unsociable.

A great deal of social intercourse depends for its meaning on the nuance of gesture, the nod, the raised eyebrow, the look of recognition. Consider, for example, the problems involved in dating and making contact with the opposite sex for a partially sighted person in these days when long hair is common to both men and women. The handicap may be disguised or habits acquired or 'tricks' to help overcome these hurdles but they are there and have to be lived with most of the time.

How different partially sighted persons are from those with 'normal' vision applies with particular cogency to younger people. There were suggestions in the Vernon Report that normal classes should be equipped to deal with handicapped pupils. But education is also a matter of 'matching' the child's expectations with those of his parents and his relations to his peers. Recognition of the special assistance required should include his need to feel familiar and at home in his environment. For the elderly the fear connected with defective vision is part of the more general pattern of senescence. Seeing is said to be believing, and once having seen you go on hoping. Miss Jones has been blind since the age of six, went on to read for a degree at university and is now seventy-three. She said: "If you are not born blind, you keep on hoping that something will happen, a discovery in science or faith healing, which will restore your sight. I am old now but I still keep hoping that something will happen and I will then see again."

Mervyn Harris, author of The Dilly Boys (about male prostitution) is a South African writer currently investigating various aspects of British society