IT IS almost impossible for those of us who have never suffered problems with our sight to imagine what York must seem like to those who do.

Today reporter Victoria Prest describes taking part in a ‘blind walk’ through the city centre. She wore two pairs of glasses. One simulated severe macular degeneration, in which the centre of your field of vision seems obscured by fog. The other simulated retinal pigmentosa, in which you have no peripheral vision at all, and only a tiny prick of vision directly ahead.

Even though she was escorted, Victoria admits that the centre of York quickly became a scary, disorienting place. While wearing the macular degeneration glasses, she almost stumbled over a series of electrical boxes. If anything, the retinal pigmentosa glasses were worse. “They gave me... no idea of where my feet were going or what lay to my left or right,” she writes.

Even with her guide’s help, she stumbled on cracked paving stones, bumped into scaffolding poles and clipped her ankles on an A-board.

Of course, wearing special spectacles isn’t like being really blind or partially sighted. But often it is the only way to get any idea of what life is like for those who are.

Blind and partially sighted campaigners are calling for a ban on A boards on York’s streets. Business owners say they are vital for bringing customers in.

Maybe they are. But perhaps they could be used more sparingly in congested pedestrian areas.