AQW 4952/10

Mrs Naomi Long
Alliance Party
East Belfast

Tabled Date: 18/02/2010
Answered On Date: 05/03/2010
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, given that the Insight Trust for the Blind has been dissolved, if he has any plans to provide non-means tested funding to assist economically inactive blind people and blind people who are not in education with the purchase of stand alone scanners.

Answer:

There are no such plans. Health and Social Care Trust Sensory Support Services provide specific services and support for people on the basis of assessed need, which may include access to aids and equipment. In addition, charitable organisations, such as the Royal National Institute for the Blind, the Belfast Association for the Blind, and Gardner’s Trust for the Blind, can also assist people with a visual impairment to secure stand alone scanners. Health and Social Care Trusts provide advice and support to service users in making applications for such financial assistance. Furthermore, work is already underway to establish the range of sensory equipment available across the HSC sector to help inform the development of a regional equipment policy.