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Dubai: Have you ever wondered how you would cope if you went blind? A group of journalists found out exactly what it would feel like on Tuesday, at a cane training session at Moorfields Eye Hospital.
Hala Bana, Director of the Kalba Centre for Special Needs Children in Sharjah, led the session and showed the visitors how to both guide a blind/partially sighted person and how to use a white cane properly.
With blindfolds donned, the reporters attempted to use the stick to navigate around the room, facing obstacles such as chairs and tables.
It takes around six months to train a person to use a cane, which is also known as the Hoover cane after Dr Richard Hoover, who helped develop the device.
Katy Newitt, chairwoman for Foresight (a non-profit organisation working to fund eye disease research) is losing her sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, and has learnt to use a cane.
Although she is not completely blind, the degenerative disease gives her severe tunnel vision, and she has lost all peripheral vision.
"It's a very difficult transition to make when you're losing your sight gradually to take up the cane, but now I love it - it's really a fantastic thing," she said.
"The training really made me realise how useful it would be. People in Dubai are wonderful, and often ask if I need assistance when they see me on my own using the stick. It's really given me more confidence," she said.
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