‘It is not my medical condition which makes me visually disabled but the (non) behaviour of the council by its failure to enable me to read its documents’

• BACK in pre Covid days, I discovered at a routine eye test, that I had macular degeneration and was thus in danger of going blind, fortunately in one eye for the present.

The treatment is for regular injections into the affected eyeball at Moorfields and regular monitoring of my “good eye”. I am about to have my 23rd injection and now classified as “low vision”. I have already had to stop driving and cannot read newspapers.

Hopefully the treatment will at best slow the vision deterioration but there is still a risk, according to the hospital, of blindness.

I contacted a council officer to enquire what “reasonable adjustments” the council were making for people with low vision and mentioned that there was a possibility I would lose my sight. The officer told me that I would not go blind! Obviously more medically qualified that my consultant.

My current problem is to obtain large-print copies of council documents. I have had considerable difficulty in getting copies of documents on developments in my locality.

Surely large-print documents should be standard. I have raised this matter repeatedly with the relevant councillor but have been unable to get any information on progress or, indeed, replies to emails.

It is not my medical condition which makes me visually disabled but the (non) behaviour of the council by its failure to enable me to read its documents. There are many other relatively low-cost adjustments the council could make for the visually impaired but it fails to do so.

Fortunately we have the council’s disability oversight panel which is widely attended by those of us with a range of disabilities. Hopefully it will hold to task by exposing those council departments which ignore us and ensue the relevant councillors who are “disability champions” fulfil their roles.

MICK FARRANT, NW5