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Welfare of the Blind and Partially Sighted:
The County Council is responsible under the National Assistance Act, 1948, for the
provision of welfare services for the blind and partially-sighted.
There are resident in the Borough 101 blind and 15 partially-sighted persons. One
blind person is training, and 13 are in full-time employment. Of these, 2 are in Workshops
for the Blind, and 1 is working as a Home Worker under the scheme of the National Library
for the Blind, all 3 also receiving augmentation of earnings from the County Council.
The majority of blind people are not available for, or not capable of, training and employment,
owing to age or infirmity or for some other reason.
The County Council provides a Home Teaching service for the visitation of blind and
partially-sighted people in their own homes. The duties of the Home Teachers are to
advise blind and partially-sighted persons in all problems relating to their welfare, and of
all the available social services to assist them in overcoming the effects of their disabilities,
to give instruction in Braille and Moon systems of raised type, in communication by means
of the deaf-blind manual alphabet, and in handcrafts. A handcrafts class is held fortnightly
at the King's Hall Methodist Church, South Road, Southall.
The object of the Home Teaching service is to enable blind people to lead as full and
active lives as their severe handicap allows.
The County Council works in close co-operation with Voluntary Organisations, including
the Social Club for the Blind which meets fortnightly at the Labour Hall, The
Broadway, Southall, and the Middlesex Association for the Blind, who maintain a holiday
Home at Littlehampton, two Residential Homes for the Blind, and assist financially and by
way of gifts individual necessitous blind persons.
Blind persons are eligible for the loan of a wireless receiver through the British Wireless
for the Blind Fund, and the County Council has a scheme for assisting blind and partiallysighted
persons with the maintenance of wireless sets.
Other services provided directly by the County Council, or through a registered agency,
include facilities for the placement of blind persons in employment, courses of residential
rehabilitation, training courses for mothers with blind babies, the supply of embossed
literature, special equipment and handcraft materials, assistance in the disposal of handcrafts
and assisted holidays for those in need.
Welfare of Handicapped Persons other than Blind:
Schemes for the welfare of handicapped persons other than blind and partially-sighted
are operated by the County Council's Welfare Department under the National Assistance
Act, 1948; these cover the deaf and dumb and hard of hearing, and other persons who are
substantially and permanently handicapped by crippling diseases or congenital deformity.
Services to the deaf and dumb and the hard of hearing are provided by appropriate
voluntary organisations, to whom the County Council makes grants in aid.
The County Council's Welfare Department has provided a Welfare Visitor for persons
in the Borough who are suffering from substantial and permanent handicaps other than those
already mentioned, and she works under the direction of the Area Welfare Officer. She
visits such persons in their own homes, with a view to assisting them to obtain from statutory
or voluntary sources (or both) facilities, appliances, etc., which may benefit them. The
help afforded may, for example, enable the disabled person to take part in social activities,
attend handcraft classes, obtain a needed holiday, or, by provision of ramps for mechanical
chairs, handrails, and the like, give a previously non-existent measure of mobility to a person
who was chair-bound or house-bound. Advice and guidance regarding personal problems
is given, and membership of a voluntary organisation catering for a particular handicap is
facilitated.
Residents of the Borough needing any of the County Welfare Services briefly referred
to in this Report should apply to the Area Welfare Officer, Mr. H. S. Wright, at the Local
County Offices, Great West Road, Brentford.
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