A blind woman from Oswaldtwistle has shared her story after facing rude comments from people who do not know how to help or approach people with sight loss.

Angela Hamilton, 52, was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a rare genetic eye disease that causes vision loss, when she was aged 18.

Angela says people often didn’t help her as she may not have shown "obvious signs of sight loss".

She said people do not know how to approach or speak to her, facing rude comments like “Have you forgotten your glasses today?”

She said: “Even now people often think blind and partially sighted people have to be of a certain age, have big dark glasses, or have something visibly wrong with their eyes.

“I still feel like I have to explain myself a lot because people don’t always realise I have sight loss.”

Angela has helped leading sight loss charity the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) put together a new guide designed to help inform sighted people how best they can offer assistance.

The Be Helpful guide includes tips on everything from starting a conversation to everyday ways to help – like moving your bins back or keeping your car off the kerb.

Angela said: “There are so many variations to sight loss. What type of help one person needs might be completely different to another.

“I hope this guide will help people understand a little bit more about sight loss and encourage them to offer assistance when needed.”

Angela hopes the new guide will help to challenge some of these perceptions and break down the barriers that prevent some people from offering help. She hopes it will be useful to people in a work context.

She said: “Having someone with sight loss in the workplace is an added ability, not a disability.”

The Be Helpful guide is backed up by research commissioned by RNIB which shows that the majority of blind and partially sighted people would like sighted people to offer assistance and that a simple hello and offer of help is the best way to go about it.

Almost half (43 per cent) said they would like sighted people to offer assistance at train stations and 39 per cent at bus stops.

A third of people said assistance would be welcome when on a pavement with obstacles such as bins, pavement parking, or approaching scooters (30 per cent).

When asked "what are the main things people forget to do when trying to guide you", forgetting to give verbal directions or introduce themselves came top.

Almost a third (28 per cent) said that people ‘forget to talk to me directly and not my companion or guide dog’, while almost a quarter (23 per cent) said that people ‘forget to say goodbye’.

David Aldwinckle, RNIB’s director of insight and customer voice, said: “While most people with sight loss, like me, have worked out ways to get around as independently as we can, that doesn’t mean help isn’t welcome.

“When somebody asks me at the bus stop if I need any help, I really appreciate it. Just that small recognition that help might be useful makes me feel like I belong and am part of the community.

“There are times when help is really important. When walking through a busy and crowded underground station you sometimes have to guess which is the right way to go which raises feelings of anxiety.

"A quick ‘hello’ and question of ‘do you need a hand?’ means I can ask if I’m going the right way and it makes such a difference.”