had some thoughts on improvements which could be made in the City of Hamilton for the benefit of others like himself.

It was, he said, the little things that sighted people overlooked when making improvements and going about their business.

Workmen, for example, often presented real hazards for the blind, albeit unwittingly.

"Digging a hole or leaving a pile of sand or building debris on the sidewalk without a barrier around is is dangerous, '' Mr. Rasool explained. "If you don't know about it, over you go.'' Similarly, utility company personnel raising manhole covers would sometimes leave them off and forget to put barriers around them when they left the site temporarily.

"If everyone who was doing work would just call Beacon House and let us know what's going on and where, that would be good. We would then be aware,'' Mr.

Rasool said. "All it takes is a phone call.'' The same went for general improvements around the City.

The new concrete planters placed around town by the Corporation of Hamilton were, in Mr. Rasool's opinion, too wide and intruded upon the regular sidewalk width.

"They could have been narrower,'' he commented.

The recently half-embedded planter in the sidewalk on Par-la-Ville Road, surrounded by ground-level plants, proved a tricky obstacle.

"I think a waist-high fence around this would be better,'' Mr. Rasool observed, having walked right into it at first because of the unexpected deviation in an otherwise straight pavement.

In fact, trees and shrubbery sometimes gave the blind real problems around Hamilton. Taking Community on a short tour of part of Victoria, Parliament and Church Streets, Mr. Rasool noted that the branches of young trees in the planters, particularly the spiky growth of cedars, had often caught him in the face or scratched his arms.

The spike-tipped fronds of a palm growing up from a car park on private property but overhanging Victoria Street would have gone straight into his eye during our tour had we not intervened.

"Generally the Corporation is very good about keeping things like this under control,'' Mr. Rasool said. "I must call them about this.'' On Parliament Street, the sharp-edged pillars of a law firm's wall and gateway, also at eye level, were pronounced "dangerous,'' and on the corner of Parliament and Church Streets Mr. Rasool particularly disliked the way the entrance steps to the lower level of the new building were even with the pavement.

"They're very dangerous, and I've raised the issue with the owners. They said they'd get back to me, but I've heard nothing,'' he said sadly.

The low wall just outside the parcel post entrance to the General Post Office had also proved a genuine danger, and Mr. Rasool had almost toppled over it.

"The wall should be higher. At present it is only just above the ankles, so if you trip, your full body weight will carry you forward to the drop below.

It's definitely dangerous,'' he said.

Like other blind folk, he has tripped on uneven paving blocks many times.

Ironically, one offender is on Cedar Avenue right around the corner from Beacon House.

"This should not be, it's very dangerous,'' Mr. Rasool commented. "I've caught my toe many times.'' Motorists who idled their engines while chatting provided a very dangerous hazard to the blind, who relied a great deal on their hearing to judge the flow of traffic.

"If someone is sitting on a bike or in a car idling the engine while they talk to somebody we misinterpret that as waiting for the lights to change.

When they drive off, we think the lights have changed and we start to walk out in the traffic. I've done that many times and had to hop quickly,'' Mr. Rasool explained.

To compensate for what they cannot see, the blind memorise routes. Mr. Rasool, for example, knows the streets of Hamilton, and many of their landmarks, like the back of his hand. But unusual obstacles, renovations, and temporary hazards, like walkways past building sites, present special problems.

While he was concerned for the local blind, Mr. Rasool said we must not forget sightless visitors, who were on the increase.

"They are not as familiar with everything as we are, so extra care must be taken to help them.'' Asked how he would like the focus on Hamilton to be commemorated during Access Awareness Week, Mr. Rasool said he thought it would be nice if the Corporation honoured Bermuda's physically handicapped by dedicating The Cedars, a newly-created mini-park on Brunswick Street, to them.

"The Corporation's fixed it up, but right now the rummies hang out there. If it was dedicated to us we'd go there often and police it. A nice way to commemorate the City's 200th birthday would be to dedicate it to the memory of Margaret Carter. They could call it Margaret Carter Park. That would be nice, don't you think?'' Mr. Rasool also thought aromatic flowers and plants which the blind could smell would be nice in some of the planters and gardens of Hamilton.

"That way, we would really be able to enjoy flowers,'' he said.

As for the blind who work at Beacon House every day, Mr. Rasool said they would welcome more social visits from the public.

POTENTIAL HAZARD -- Sightless Mr. Abuwi Rasool appears headed for trouble with this new planter half-embedded in a sidewalk on Par-la-Ville Road. Without prior knowledge, obstacles such as these could prove dangerous to the vision-impaired but on this occasion Mr. Rasool was successfully guided around the obstruction by our reporter.