CNIB teaches students to protect their eyes

Amber-Joy Boyd doesn’t want to see a single Yorkton Regional High School student during her day job. She is a specialist in career and employment services for Vision Loss Rehabilitation Saskatchewan, part of the CNIB. Her job involves helping people adjust to life after they suffer from vision loss. That’s why she was at YRHS, to teach students about the importance of eye safety, in the hopes that they never have to make that adjustment.

The focus was on students in shop class, because those students are more likely to go into the trades, careers where eye safety needs to be paramount. The goal is to give the students valuable information about eye safety and vision health in general.

“We show them some pretty graphic pictures, which is a bit of a scare tactic, but it shows different injuries in the workplace that have occurred because of poor eye safety.”

Each student also receives safety glasses and sunglasses so they have “no excuse” to not practice good eye safety.

The program is offered in partnership between the CNIB and WorkSafe Saskatchewan. They have similar goals, according to Boyd, in that the CNIB wants to reduce the number of eye injuries while WorkSafe Saskatchewan wants to reduce the number of workplace injuries in general.

“It’s safer and cheaper for everybody if everyone takes care with their eyes.”

The goal is to get students right before they enter their career, Boyd said. They aim towards the Grade 11 and 12 students because they are right about to begin their careers, though they also go for younger and older students.

“A lot of people just make careless mistakes with their vision, and they don’t realize how detrimental it can be.”

While the focus of the presentation was on workplace injuries, Boyd said that they also give advice for life outside of a work environment. For example, they recommend sunglasses when fishing and  cutting the lawn, because a stray hook or debris launched by a lawn mower can cause damage to their eyes.

“They are so young, it’s the rest of their lives that are going to be impaired by that one mistake.”