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as their handicap allows, by assisting them in overcoming the effects of their disabilities.
The Home Teachers visit all blind and partially-sighted persons in their own homes, hospitals
and residential homes, advise on all problems relating to their welfare and keep them in touch
with available social services. Instruction is given in Braille and Moon systems of raised type,
in handcrafts and where appropriate, in the Deaf-Blind manual alphabet. A handcraft class
is held fortnightly at the King's Hall Methodist Church, South Road, Southall.
Close co-operation is maintained between the County Council and Voluntary Organisations
including the Social Club for the Blind, which holds fortnightly meetings 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 individual
necessitous blind people.
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 are provided by the County Council either directly or through a registered
agency and these 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.
There are resident in the Borough 112 blind and 11 partially-sighted persons. One
blind person is training, and 11 are in full-time employment. Of these two are in Workshops
for the Blind, and one is working as a Home Worker. Those employed in Workshops or as
Home Workers have their earnings augmented by the County Council.
The majority of blind persons are not available for, or not capable of, training and
employment owing to age or some other reason.
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 and a Home
Work Organiser for persons in the Area (which includes the Borough) who are suffering
from substantial and permanent handicaps. They work under the direction of the Area
Welfare Officer. The Welfare Visitor visits handicapped 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, result in
adaptations to make accommodation more suitable for the handicapped occupier, 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.
The Home Work Organiser endeavours to procure from Industry appropriate assembly
work and arranges for this to be carried out by handicapped persons where this is considered
to be suitable and of assistance to the individuals concerned.
Residents of the Borough needing any of the County Welfare Services briefly referred
to in this Report should apply to the Area Welfare Officer, at the Local County Offices,
Great West Road, Brentford.
Residents of the Borough needing any of the County Welfare Services briefly referred
to in this Report should apply to the Area Welfare Officer, at the Local County Offices,
Great West Road, Brentford.
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