Robert Williams adjusts his shirt pocket while being registered by past president of the Lions Club of St Andrew, Vincent Patterson, at a mass registration of the visually impaired. The registration is part of the census of the visually impaired conducted by the Lions and Leo clubs in Jamaica at the Salvation Army School for the Blind in St Andrew. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

A national census to tally visually impaired Jamaicans is failing to capture affected children, a stakeholder has said.

Only 45 visually impaired children were registered yesterday at The Salvation Army School for the Blind. The centre had hoped to net at least 130 registered blind children. The school is the only institution of its kind in the country.

Captain Edward Lyons, administrator of the school, told The Gleaner that the number of children registered at the school was disproportionate to the number of blind or visually impaired children in Jamaica.

"A lot of the blind children in Jamaica need a school and this is where they come," Lyons said.

"But there are a lot of blind children who need to be here and are not. Most of the children here are referred by their doctors or parents who are also blind."

The aim of the census is to create a database of the estimated 23,000 visually impaired Jamaicans in order to better facilitate their needs.

Info on needs of blind

Lions Club member, Major Desmon Brown, the project coordinator, said the registration would provide stakeholders with information to facilitate the needs of the visually impaired and blind.

Vanique Harding, who is 14 years old and visually impaired, has been at the school for three years.

Harding, who previously attended regular school, told The Gleaner that when she was in class she could not read the board.

"I found going to a normal school challenging. I couldn't spell and I found it hard to keep up in class," she said.

Harding urged parents to register their children so that they could benefit from an environment that catered to their needs.

The registration exercise, initiated by the Lions Club of Jamaica and launched in October, seeks to create a job bank of skilled blind or visually impaired people and prevent discrimination against persons with the disability.

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