COVID-19 Online Resource Library

Across the world, we are confronted with the Coronavirus and the consequences that this entails. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten the health and wellbeing of our communities, as national measures are taken by governments to curb the spread of the virus. Social distancing measures are having an impact on all our lives, and people with disabilities, people with visual impairments including those with additional disabilities and the elderly are particularly at risk of isolation. Remote learning and socializing during this COVID-19 period have become increasingly challenging for the visually impaired.

The COVID-19 crisis has particularly difficult consequences for people with visual impairments. Schools closed, meaning blind and partially sighted people have to stay at home, and sometimes, they lost their job. Furthermore, many businesses and public spaces have implemented new layout adjustments and/or restrictions in the effort to curb the spread of the virus, making it more challenging for the visually impaired to navigate these spaces. These consequences may cause visually impaired individuals to experience feelings of isolation and may have a negative impact on their mental health. At the same time, this has also affected the ease in which the education, training, rehabilitation and mobility services and support are delivered to the visually impaired.

As a response to the challenging conditions brought forth by the COVID-19 crisis, ICEVI-Europe has developed a COVID-19 Online Resource Library, a special dedicated page on our website about the effects that the pandemic is having on the services for the visually impaired.

This is a great opportunity for all of our individual and organization members, including our National Representatives, to enrich our Resource Library with their valuable contributions and to benefit from learning from one another. We encourage you to send us any best practices, learning resources, and other practical information that may be useful in describing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on facilitating equal access to appropriate education and rehabilitation opportunities for people with visual impairments, which we will embed onto our Resource Library page. Please send your contributions to mgyftakos@yahoo.com. Our COVID-19 Online Resource Library page will be regularly updated for the benefit of our members and visitors, so please continue to share your experiences and information.

We hope you find this Resource Library useful and we wish you and your families and friends continued well-being and safety during these unprecedented, critical times.