RNIB educates MPs on accessibility

Marsha de Cordova MP talking to Matt Stringer and Keith Valentine

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has hosted a training session in parliament for MPs to help them learn how to make their services more accessible for people with sight loss. 

More than 100 MPs attended the event in Portcullis House where they received expert advice from the RNIB on topics including legal rights and eye health. Staff and volunteers from the charity’s Technology for Life team, which offers support and training relating to technology and digital services, were also present.

The RNIB’s social media team was on hand to show attendees how to make their social media more accessible.

MPs were taught the basics of guiding, by taking part in a blindfold walk with RNIB staff who are guide dog users. A mock surgery was set up to show how activities like form filling can be inaccessible for people with sight loss. The training concluded with a quiz based on statistics around sight loss and inclusion.

RNIB CEO, Matt Stringer, said: “We were delighted that so many MPs took time out to attend this training session to learn how to better support their constituents with sight loss. RNIB strives to break down barriers and make the world more inclusive for blind and partially sighted people so we hope that the MPs found this training session useful and will put what they learned into practice.”