What I asked Mr Blunkett

THE Government will next year move to implement legislation to set up the proposed Disability Rights Commission to protect the rights of millions of

people across the UK.

The pledge on the new body which will protect, enforce, and promote the rights of the disabled was made by Education Secretary David Blunkett during my ''interrogation'' of the first visually-impaired Government Minister at his offices in London this week.

On arrival at the House of Commons, we were met by Ben Brogan, political editor of The Herald. Before I launched Mr Blunkett's grilling, Ben kindly told me that David would be very friendly and would make me feel at ease. Later, I discovered that this was to be absolutely true.

We were shown into a large room which was what you would expect a

typical Minister's office to look like, containing a long table that was used

for formal discussions, a coffee table, and three comfortable sofas which were

used during informal chats or interviews. Mr Blunkett, minus guide dog, greeted

us very warmly and even offered us some drinks.

I was curious to know how he coped with the paperwork in his job as there must be, I imagined, quite a lot. He told me that in the outer office he has private secretaries who are each responsible for organising the reading of particular items of work. He also receives work that has been printed out in Braille and read on to tape by a dedicated reader, responsible for lightening the paperwork load. He gets so much mail that letters are methodically put in order, with the most important taking priority. This prevents work piling up and cluttering his offices. He told me that certain people had been well-known for getting ''snowed under'' by paperwork and he was anxious to avoid this. His secretary types out replies to any letters that he must answer.

During speeches Mr Blunkett uses Braille notes to prompt him, but does not write out a whole speech in Braille which he would find too much. While sitting in meetings Mr Blunkett does not use a Perkins Brailler because they

make too much noise, so he uses quite

an old way of writing, a writing frame, to make notes.

It is very hard to grasp how you use

it because you write backwards in

Braille and then have to turn the sheet of paper around. The advantage of a writing frame is that it is the most soundless way of writing in Braille and this is the main reason Mr Blunkett uses it.

Until that moment I had felt that he

was quite relaxed and so I decided to ask him about his views on the integ-ration of visually-impaired people in mainstream schools leading to the

closure of all special schools, like mine. I had heard before meeting Mr Blunkett that he had been against special schools. I was very surprised when he said that keeping special education open was important and that he believed in giving pupils and parents the choice between special and mainstream schooling.

He told me there were people who believed that special schools should be closed, but he assured me that he was

not one of them. Children, he thought, were all individual and what might suit one might not suit another, so you had to find out which environment would be best for that person.

He saw one of the advantages of a mainstream situation was that the child who is visually impaired learns more about other people's social behaviour. But he also told me that this can also be a disadvantage as they might receive a few ''knocks'' during their life and will have to adjust and deal with them.

On the other hand, Mr Blunkett said that special education schools can have a big disadvantage because they can keep you isolated from the public and then you have to integrate when you leave. But he also thinks they are

good at giving technical back-up during your education and that might improve you dramatically.

I asked him what he intended to do in the future to assist in visually-impaired people's education and employment. He explained his department planned to introduce a Disability Rights Commission which the Government is going to legislate on next year. He hopes this will aim to give every visually impaired

person pieces of technology which they require. Secondly, he said that he hopes that this technology backup will carry on after the individual has left school and will help at assisting people when they find jobs.

I inquired what his feelings were about the level of money visually-impaired people receive through the Disability Allowance. He revealed he was very much for the benefit money that blind people receive. The Minister says he has no intention of reducing or getting rid of the Disability Allowance in the future. He believes the money that visually-impaired people receive helps if it is used wisely and spent on essential equipment so that they can continue to make the most of their lives.

I asked him if any people nowadays treat him oddly because of his blindness. He says that the attitude towards blind people has improved and that occasions such as people speaking to you as if you are deaf and not only blind do not

happen so often.

But, he also says that sometimes when he gets into a lift another person will still say: ''The doors are closed.''

He says that he wants to say to them: ''Yes, I know the doors are shut because I heard them just like you did.'' But,

he manages to stop in time before saying this and gives a more polite answer because if he does not then the person will go away assuming that all blind

people are like that and will say to

others: ''All blind people are always bad-tempered.'' This will make everybody purposely avoid visually-impaired

people because they will believe they are all moody.

I asked Mr Blunkett what advice he would give to someone like me in trying to achieve their goals. He says that the first thing is never to take ''no'' for an answer when you know what you want to do. Second, he says that you should always be confident and just go for it while at the same time making sure that your choice of goal is attainable.

Lately the Government has recommended that all children should do at least two to three hours of homework per night. Unfor-tunately it takes

visually-impaired people normally a bit longer to read Braille and so they will end up perhaps having to study for three to four hours. I asked Mr Blunkett if he thought that this was fair and he agrees with me totally that it is not.

However, he says that if you want a career so much you should be prepared to put in the extra time and effort.

At the end of his ''interrogation'' David Blunkett patiently sat for some photographs before wishing us a good journey back up to cold and rainy Edinburgh. I would like to thank him for being an enjoyable person to interview and for his outstanding hospitality. I also cannot finish without thanking Ben

Brogan who managed successfully to look after us during our lovely visit to the House of Commons.