FOR the past year, with help from The Big Lottery’s Investing In Ideas, The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety, a charity based in the former Barony St. John hall building in Princes Street, Ardrossan, has been developing a personal safety course specifically for the blind and visually impaired.

The course involves giving personal safety advice and tips on a variety of situations including when socialising, when walking during the day or night and when going to and from your house; but the course also covers the law regarding when and how you can defend yourself, reasonable use of force, improvised weapons and even practical self defence techniques to allow a person with low or no vision to escape an attacker.

The Ardrossan course is free of charge, runs every Thursday from 11am until 12.30pm and is taught by registered blind instructor Michael McAllister assisted by the charity’s Executive Manager, Alan Bell.

Michael commented: “Six months ago, prior to my first meeting with Alan Bell and his staff, I was an entirely different person. Frightened to walk alone at night and jumping at any perceived threat or raised voice, I walked with a hunched posture, eyes to the ground and listening for any sign of threat. On a social level, I felt limited and emasculated by my disability.

“Now, six months on, I find myself standing tall as a qualified instructor, surrounded by colleagues who helped build me up to be the confident person I am today. When I am in public spaces, I move with confidence, safe in the knowledge that were I to be confronted by an aggressor, my training would kick in and I would know when and how to defend myself.”

Registered blind participant, Norma Bailey runs PriortiEyes, a North Ayrshire business that provides specialist rehabilitation and support for people throughout the UK who have low or no vision and she stated; “PrioritEyes fully supports the fantastic training Alan and The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety has developed and we believe that every visually impaired person should be given the opportunity to benefit from the safety techniques and confidence building effects that this training offers.”

If you are interested in finding out more, readers can contact The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety via their website www.ScotCPS.orgt.uk or their Facebook page www.facebook.com/ScotCPS