I’m forwarding the following which was sent by John Rose from another listserv regarding services in Norway. Norway By Linn Martinussen Karen@TheBlindPerspective.com<mailto:karen@theblindperspective.com> A bit about Norway: Norway is a country situated in Northern Europe and is part of Scandinavia. It’s large in size, but has a small population of about five million people. Norway is extremely wealthy due to the discovery of crude oil in 1969 and ranks top on the UN’s list of countries with the best standard of living. Blind Schools: Schools for the blind were phased out during the 1980s. As someone who started school in 1992, I was among the first batch of blind students to be integrated into the public school system. I don’t know why the schools were phased out, but I can imagine that with such a small population, the schools weren’t exactly over populated. Besides, sending children away to reside in a school far away from their families at the age of seven was seen as quite cruel. Braille & Mobility: After the closure of all residential schools for the blind, what had previously been schools, turned in to resource centres which provided Braille and mobility lessons to teachers in mainstream schools, as well as directly to blind students. For example, my mainstream teacher, I had a separate one from the class, but was still in class for most of the time, taught me Braille and mobility, but I also had visits from the resource centres. These centres also held annual courses for blind students to make sure we had all the skills we needed and didn’t lag behind our classmates. Sports & Recreation: There are sports clubs for blind people and for people with other disabilities, but blind people usually have their own. For example, there are running clubs with volunteer guide runners. There used to be a Goalball team, but it has dissolved. The Norwegian Association for the blind, especially its youth organization, arrange a lot of sports activities however on weekends away at holiday and activity centres for the blind around the country. These are quite varied from Yoga and pilates to skiing. University: Blind people are encouraged to get a higher education. Higher education in Norway is free, and blind students get braille displays, unlimited hours to employ a reader or secretary, doing all the visual aspects of uniwork. So in principle education should be a breeze. Especially since the Norwegian Library for the blind (NLB) now provide ebooks which are fast to produce. However, it’s not always possible for students to read and research as easily as their sighted counterparts, but I personally believe that the solution to making university easier for a blind person, is to have better guidelines about what to read so it is easier to do well with a smaller number of books. Job Training: Unfortunately, getting a job is not very easy in Norway due to bad attitudes, or little knowledge of blind people by employers. In a survey conducted in 2008, employers were asked who they’d rather employ. A convicted Somali, a lesbian woman, a gay man, a wheelchair user and so on and ranking bottom was a blind woman without a guide dog. Unfortunately not much has changed since then. I was forced to move back to Norway from the UK because of family stuff. Having worked a few years in the BBC and with a master’s degree under my belt, I thought I wouldn’t be unemployed for long. However, three years later and I have now decided to leave Norway because I’m getting nowhere. Although blind people are encouraged to get educated, they’re also encouraged to get straight onto benefits once they’re finished. This trend is slowly changing, but the change is very slow and there are problems with blind ghetto cultures and alcoholism among blind individuals who could hold at least part time work. Accessibility Transportation: For people who are more disabled, there are special taxis. For the blind, there is not, but we do get taxi cards and use public transport on familiar routes. With cabs, there is a fixed fare for a ride, though there are some variations on this around the country. In most counties you can only use your taxi card inside that county. So if I travel to another town, I can’t get reduced fares. Public buses are very inaccessible because you have to press a touch button to open the doors. However, the electronic announcements are quite good now and Ruter, the traffic company for the Eastern part of Norway, is working on an accessible travel app that will guide you at bus and metro stops and tell you what bus or metro are coming. Metros are a lot easier to use as you can feel the button for opening the doors, however it’s still quite stressful to actually locate the door, so I wish they would just open. Trams are like buses, quite hard to use, but doable. What really annoys me about the Norwegian transport system, especially in Oslo, is that unlike in the UK, you can’t get help to travel around the city. So there’s no assistance at the most buzzling metro stops and no way to book it. Only if you travel by railway, can you actually book assistance, but this has to be done 24 hours in advance which is ridiculous since you can’t always know when you’re travelling. I personally only use the over ground railway to travel between cities, so I think more local assistance like they have in London on the underground and buses would be a huge relief for many blind people. If I lived in a more rural area, my problems would be a lot bigger as the buses have no announcements and they are less frequent, so living in the towns and cities is something most blind people tend to choose when they grow up. Getting around: We have curb cuts and tactile strips. There are audible signals at most intersections. In train and metro stations there are tactile dots or lines to mark the beginning and end of stairs and platforms. And in smaller towns there are audible signals to say you’re approaching a station on foot. There are no Braille signs anywhere except numbers in lifts. Braille: Braille can only be found in lifts and on medication. Some restaurant chains have Braille menus, but that’s rare. I also can’t receive Braille correspondence from banks and other public instances. Luckily though, Norway is far more digitized than many other countries, so I can receive e-mails and most menus these days are online. I do like a Braille menu though and miss this from living in the UK. Guide Dogs: There are three guide dog schools in Norway. Guide dogs are very popular. They do have access to public buildings in theory, however discrimination occur a lot. Benefits: Most blind individuals receive benefits. I fall into a rare category of blind people who have no benefit rights because I didn’t have my education plan approved by those who are responsible for benefits. Good benefits is really a big curse since it demotivates blind people from seeking employment and encourage the system to keep blind people on the benefits. Accessible Equipment: This is where Norway is great. You can get everything you need due to your blindness funded by the government regardless of whether you receive benefits. For example, your computer won’t be funded, because most people would naturally have a computer these days. However, Braille displays and screenreader licenses do get funded because you wouldn’t have them if you didn’t have to. Canes, GPS and other practical aids you can prove you need for the sole reason of being blind, are also always funded. Reading service: You can get Braille and audiobooks through the Norwegian Library of the blind (NLB) for free. Audiobooks can be provided on daisy or downloaded via an app. Braille books are printed on demand and sent in the post. It’s also possible to become a member of other countries reading services through the NLB, such as Bookshare. Blind Organizations: In Norway we have a national organization Norges Blindeforbund, or the Norwegian Association of the blind. They help with everything concerning blindness from rehabilitating people who lose their sight, to arranging activities and holidays. There is also a Christian organization for the blind that in some ways rival the national association for the blind by providing many of the same services. However, many people are members of both organizations and they never tend to arrange activities over the same weekends. Final Thoughts: All in all, Norway really isn’t a bad country in which to be a blind person. I get everything I need in terms of equipment and I can live comfortably thanks to the wealth of the place. However, I do think a lot can be improved when it comes to accessibility, work and opportunities. Attitudes needs changing and Norway needs to become more liberal in its thinking when it comes to solutions and trying new things. The anti-discrimination law is not as strong as it ought to be and I think some of the problem is that the population is so small that finding new opportunities are hard when you’re blind. I often say that if Norway had the wealth it has paired with the forward thinking of the UK, where accessibility is better, it would be a paradise for blind people. London is the place in the world I considered the best place for blind people to live. I’m glad I’ve been born blind in Norway and experienced such a great superficial standard of living. Because my dream is to use my experiences good and bad, to work to better the lives of blind people in other countries around the world.