I believe this covers one of my ‘things’ but more importantly I would be really interested to hear if anyone can add to the document I am currently teaching a new ringer with sight problems and really want to support her.
Introduction
It might be a hobby/sport/pastime that doesn’t automatically come to mind if you have poor eyesight or indeed no sight at all. However, there are many people who do ring with reduced vision and even some who ring who are registered blind. Some of these ringers have even progressed to be advanced ringers and able to call changes and methods. It is possible to learn to ring a bell when you are partially sighted but also to learn if you have already lost your sight completely.
Teaching
If you are teaching a ringer with these requirements there are no different teaching methods but you might find it useful to understand what the learner might be seeing and how you can adapt things in the tower to suit needs and improve their ringing experience. Several factors could affect a learner depending on their particular visual ability.
Seeing and Feeling The Sally/Rope
It might be useful to have a coloured ribbon around the arm of the ringer who is being followed. Also, a ribbon or something of a different texture could be used to feel the position where the ringer needs to catch the sally.
Light
In some situations, a bright light or sunshine at the ringer’s eye level can cause difficulties so it might be necessary to allow the ringer to ring on a different bell away from the light or if possible turn a light off. Even for a ringer with a cataract the light will scatter and cause a white out. It is not always direct light onto the ringer but reflected light from other objects which can cause difficulties. In a really bright tower it might be possible to wear sunglasses but these would be too dark in a darker tower so the ringer wouldn’t be able to see much at all. Sometimes a ringer can become disorientated if the rope comes down too close or too far away and they can’t tell how close it is. If the day has been particularly bright then the ringer might find it more difficult to adapt to the lighting in the tower on that day.
Depth of Vision
In some cases, depth of vision can prevent a ringer from distinguishing between 2 or 3 bells being rung across the ringing chamber – again positioning the ringer on a suitable bell might make a difference.
Reduced Vertical Vision
It may be that the ringer has reduced vertical vision so where a ringer with good vision can just raise their eyes to see the sally, someone with reduced vertical vision may need to raise their head which might appear to other ringers that they are looking at the rope above the sally.
Listening Skills
Listening to the bells and learning to distinguish your own bell is vital to progress as a bell ringer but doesn’t always come naturally to start with. However, this will become more necessary for those with visual difficulties so it is a good skill to learn at an early stage. There are many DVD’s and websites which help to develop listening skills and indeed your local Guild might even be running courses so do check for one of these. 2
Boxes
If a ringer needs to stand on a box to reach the rope it might be necessary to put a coloured tape around the box so the ringer can more easily see the edge of the box and gives more confidence.
Visiting Other Towers
One of the great things that ringers do is to visit other towers and get the experience ringing on different bells and meet the local friendly band. Just remember that it might give a ringer with sight difficulties more confidence if they have visited the tower to get used to any steps or trip hazards before the hubbub of the rest of the band appearing.
Confidence
A ringer might lose confidence at different times during their sight loss but find ways using the information given in this document to overcome these difficulties as it is possible to continue ringing and to become experienced even with complete sight loss.
More Information
I have put this information together as I am teaching a ringer who has reduced vision and may eventually lose her sight completely. So far, I have not really changed my teaching methods but I felt it was important to try to understand what she was feeling and seeing in case there are any modifications to my teaching that I could make. I have not had any luck so far in finding any information or help other than hearing that we do have some experienced blind ringers. If you have had experience with anyone in this situation it would be useful to add any other help to this document. Please email bellringing@smlm.co.uk for me to update this document.
Free Website Tutorial
DVD from SmART Ringer