Blind French visitor disappointed at "model nation for services for the disabled"

Gilbert Montagné filing a report on position of Finland's blind and visually-impaired

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By Minna Nalbantoglu
     
      The Ruusuvuori School in the Korso district of Vantaa is just the sort of place that French pianist and singer-songwriter Gilbert Montagné wishes he could have gone to as a child.
      “You are so lucky!” he declared to a class of 7th-graders when he sat in on a Finnish lesson at the school on Friday.
     
Instead of a normal school, Montagné - who has been blind from birth - was obliged to attend a special establishment for the blind and visually-impaired.
      He is a firm believer in the merits of having the visually disabled taught alongside seeing pupils.
      “Hey, we share the same world with the seeing population in other respects.”
     
Ruusuvuori School has two visually-impaired students among its pupils.
      In the Finnish system, nearly all children with seeing disabilities go to the standard local school.
      Gilbert Montagné was taking stock of the school in Vantaa as part of his visit to Finland.
      The reason is his roving mission for the French government.
      He was recruited in September by Xavier Bertrand, Minister of Labour, Social Affairs, and Solidarity in the new French cabinet of Prime Minister François Fillon, and was asked to draw up a report on legislative and other measures to improve the position of the visually impaired in society and everyday life.
     
Montagné wanted to come to Finland because - in his own words - there is “a legendary belief” in France that all matters relating to the disabled are in exemplary shape across the Nordic region.
      In the course of just under a week here, the shiny image has faded somewhat.
      “I don’t honestly think that things are really so much better up here”, he says.
      Ten years ago, yes, perhaps the gap between France and Finland was then a large one, but according to Montagné the French have been quick students in taking account of the needs of the disabled.
     
To give one example, he says the signs for the visually impaired in the Paris Métro are better than in the Helsinki equivalent.
      In great part as a result of Montagné’s own campaigning, France has now also got hundreds of bank ATMs that are suitable for use by the sightless, and into which headphones can be inserted allowing for audio directions on what the user should do.
      Parisian traffic lights, too, are in Montagné’s opinion easier for the visally impaired to use than the beep-on-walk lights found in Finland.
      “We have this small gadget, a bit like a remote control unit, that advises the user waiting to cross whether the light is red or green”, he explains.
     
While in Finland, Montagné met numerous ministry officials and representatives of organisations and companies active in the branch.
      He also paid a visit to Näkövammaisten Keskusliitto, the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired.
      FFVI Organisation Director Merja Heikkonen accepts Montagné’s analysis that the countries of Central Europe have largely made up Finland’s earlier lead in matters relating to the disabled.
      “The brakes were left on after the recession hit, and we have not made much in the way of progress”, she admits.
     
From the school in Vantaa, Montagné made his way to the Nokia headquarters in Espoo.
      He is particularly interested in the technical devices and innovations that he says have smoothed things for the everyday life of the visually-impaired.
      “They have opened up new doors for us on a huge scale.”
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.11.2007


Links:
  Näkövammais­ten Keskusliitto, the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired
  Gilbert Montagné (Wikipedia - there is much more on the French-language site)

MINNA NALBANTOGLU / Helsingin Sanomat
minna.nalbantoglu@hs.fi