Annette Peters and Morgan

Annette Peters who, since the age of four and a half has been blind, delivered a most interesting and enlightening talk about the changes and advances made during the last 50 years to aid the everyday life of a blind or partially sighted person.  In the fifties a blind person would carry a white stick, this moved on to a symbol stick and eventually a long white cane was developed enabling any obstacles to be felt before contact was made.

Annette has a guide dog named Morgan, a crossbred Labrador/retriever who lay contently beneath the table whilst Annette spoke.  Morgan, without his harness is at rest and could be anybody’s pet but once his harness is attached he is immediately in work mode ensuring Annette’s safety when out and about.  She first had a guide dog in 1978.

Morgan

Although blind, this did not prevent Annette from obtaining her O and A levels examinations enabling her to attend University where she trained to be a physiotherapist, much of her education was obtained whilst at boarding school although she returned to Pembrokeshire to sit her A levels.  Annette described her experiences as “character building”.

To hear Annette explain how she copes with her life as a blind person and the extraordinary technology that is now available was inspirational.

Penny Thomas

6th October 2016

Links:

Guidedogs.org.uk/

RNIB