Appendix 4 User Impairment: Risks and Difficulties1
A4.1. Visual impairments
There are 207,000 registered blind or severely visually impaired people in France (of which 61,000 are completely blind) (DREES 2005).
These disabilities increase with age. Nearly one in two visually impaired people indicate a severe lack of capacity to do household chores and management (performing common household tasks, preparing meals, filling out simple forms). This low use of technical aids is primarily due to the fact that they must be trained to use special equipment, which can be time-consuming or expensive, which explains why people who become visually impaired over the course of their life, and sometimes late in life, may not have access to them.
Half of visually impaired people require the assistance of a third party to perform everyday actions or for mobility2.
A4.2. Hearing impairments
In France, 303,000 people suffer from serious or profound hearing impairment. For example, among people from 60 to 74 years old, just over one in five have a hearing impairment. In people over 75, this figure is approximately two out of every five people3,4.
These severe disabilities mainly affect mobility, travel, activities that require flexibility and dexterity, household tasks and responding to events in their everyday lives, which makes it safe to assume that, as with visually impaired people, they are exposed to a high risk of accidents in their everyday lives.
Out of those with severe disabilities, ...