Question about one of the ESA descripter.

martin57

Hi there,

I was reading though the ESA descripters link kindly posted by Muttleythefrog (Thanks Muttley) where it says

7. Understanding communication by both verbal means (such as hearing or lip reading) and non-verbal means (such as reading 16 point print) using any aid if reasonably used; unaided by another person

As I suffer from very poor eyesight but hearing is fairly good how should I answer that question when the time comes?

Does the above question imply that I may be able to understand the communication by either means hearing or vision and as long as my hearing is fairly good I won't score any points for the bad eyesight, that its just important that I understand the communication by any means possible?

Usually not bad at filling in forms but that has me stumped a bit.

Thanks

martin57

Muttleythefrog

Let me see what the WCA handbook says http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wca-handbook.pdf

This is regarding the support group descriptor.

Revised WCA Handbook 5 Final MED-ESAAR2011~001 Page 29


[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]2.3.1.7 Understanding communication by hearing, lip reading, [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]reading 16 point print or using any aid if reasonably used.[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial] Cannot understand a simple message due to sensory impairment, such as the [/FONT][FONT=Arial,Arial]location of a fire escape.[/FONT][/FONT]

This descriptor relates to an individual’s ability to understand
communication at a very basic level. The descriptor reflects only basic comprehension of writing and is not intended to reflect any higher level of literacy. Restriction [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]in [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]either vision or hearing [/FONT][/FONT]
must be considered as an individual must have capacity to understand a simple message through [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]both [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]the written and spoken word. [/FONT][/FONT]Ability to lip read, read 16 point print or Braille must be considered. For example, a person who has [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]normal hearing[/FONT][/FONT], but severe sight restriction to the extent that they are unable to read a simple message in 16 point print, nor read Braille would be likely to be awarded this descriptor.


(See section 3.2 for further details of information that may be obtained at
the LCW/LCWRA medical assessment).

Refer to page 85 to 90 for full details regarding the WRAG descriptors and the matters you raise... sorry I'm having horrible problems with formatting on MSE when pasting