Visually impaired need more help accessing services

COS 2012, 6 July - People who are visually impaired need more help learning about - and accessing - services provided by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). This is one of the messages from the CNIB Client Survey for 2012.

The survey was done as follow up to a similar study the CNIB conducted in 2005, titled An Unequal Playing Field. Results were presented at the COS conference by Deborah Gold, PhD, director of research at CNIB.

Rationale

The study goal was to track the demographics, needs and experiences of people who are blind or visually impaired in Canada. While respondents consisted of CNIB clients, some of the challenges and issues raised may mirror what visually impaired people who are not clients experience, Gold said. The information is needed so that services from the CNIB can be better tailored to meet client needs. A secondary goal was to increase general knowledge about visual impairment and blindness and what people in this population need.

Study design

The survey was carried out from March to August 2011. Participants were randomly selected from the CNIB database, from all regions of Canada. A total of 577 people (18-97 years of age) completed the survey.

Most respondents participated via telephone interview, with a few completing the 45-minute survey online. The survey had 169 questions.

Gender was fairly well balanced: 43% of respondents were male, 57% female. A total 53% of survey participants reported having additional disabilities. In reporting the results, researchers made some comparisons to the general population through either Statistics Canada information or data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS).

Findings

Researchers found that 50% of clients had an annual income of $20,000 or less. This compares with 37% of the general population, as reported by Statistics Canada. Clients with higher education levels tended to have higher incomes than those with high school education or less. The greater their age when they registered with CNIB, the more likely it was that clients' incomes would be higher. People with additional disabilities had lower incomes, as did those whose vision impairment was more severe.

Among clients whose vision problems began before they were 15 years old, 65% had high school or higher-level education, 12% had an undergraduate degree and 12% had a college education. Nobody who had onset of problems at 15-19 years went to university. Statistics Canada reports that at least 81% of Canadians have completed high school, and 20% have at least an undergraduate degree.

About 32% of CNIB clients had some level of employment, but just half were employed full time while in the general population this figure is 67%.

The CNIB survey participants also reported feeling isolated. Of older adults, 12% reported no socializing, while 79% said they socialized five hours or less per week. This compares to 5% of Canadians (reporting through the CCHS) that they never socialize, and 50% saying they socialize once a week.

Ten per cent of respondents said CNIB services did not meet their needs. Reasons cited included difficulty getting to centres, not knowing what the CNIB does and not having their needs understood.

Some respondents said there were services they needed but couldn't get.

Almost half (48%) first heard about the agency through their ophthalmologist. Other sources included family doctors, friends, family members, optometrists and others.

Conclusions

The study shows a need for more public and client education and better publicity about CNIB services. Gold noted that ophthalmologists could be referring patients earlier in the course of visual decline.