Marcus Boerdijk (67) has been helping blind and visually impaired for 45 years to live as independently as possible. From learning to cook to find the way. But he also ensures that these people can safely go to the street. For example, he arranged that in Vught, tangible lines were at railway crossings, a scoop. “If I see that something can be better, then I do something with that.”
As a teenager, Marcus wanted to go on the water. “I wanted to go to the National Police. But I was wearing glasses and was not allowed to do the training. Then I didn’t know it anymore.” Until he saw blind children playing on television in a blind institute in the late 1970s. “They told them that they wanted to learn as much as possible to become independent. That touched me. I thought: I want to do that.”
After a training as a group leader, Marcus started in 1984 with the newly founded Robert Coppens Foundation in Vught. It was the first place in the Netherlands where people with a visual impairment really learned to live independently. “I not only teach people to deal with a blind guideline or a dog. But also cooking, cleaning, washing and dealing with sexuality and friendship,” says Marcus.
He has been a supervisor and mobility trainer at the foundation for over 45 years. “We had to find everything ourselves. How do you learn to cut someone without chopping in the fingers? Or feeling whether potatoes are already peeled? You discover that together.”
“People often don’t think about how they should do something good for the blind and visually impaired people.”
On average, clients remained thirteen months, then they went to live independently. Many stayed in Vught. That is why nowadays there are still above average blind and visually impaired within the municipal boundaries. “I often come across them. And yes, then we have a chat. I enjoy that.” What drives Marcus? “I want to help people. I watch things that others don’t see. Literally. And then I ring the bell.”
For 25 years, Marcus has also focused on accessibility in public space. He looks critically at the situation in his own place of residence. From dangerous pedestrian crossings to blind guidelines and tiles that are not good. “People often do not think about how they should do well for the blind and visually impaired people,” says 67-year-old Vughtenaar.
“In many places things are going well now, but often only afterwards. They first incur it wrong and do not want to recover immediately because it costs money,” says Marcus. “But the blind suffer from it. I hear their stories, see what goes wrong and want to tackle that.”
“Many blind are afraid of crossing the track.”
This also applies to crossing at railway crossings, of which there are relatively many in Vught. “Many blind are afraid of crossing the track. They can’t ask for help so easily. That’s why we have to make sure they can do it themselves.”
Partly thanks to Marcus, there are now special tangible strips for blind and visually impaired at two railway crossings. “They help you cross your straight, even if you don’t see anything and the noise of mopeds and trucks disrupts your orientation.”
Normally such strips are only used at stations, when crossing between platforms. But in Vught they are now also approved for outdoor use. “That makes me happy, because I feel responsible for their safety.”
“You don’t have to put such strips everywhere.”
While Marcus designates the tangible strips, a visually impaired man with a walker shuffles closer. “Really nice, those comics,” he says just before he crosses the track. Marcus smiles. “They are therefore approved.”
Soon the comics will probably also be placed in a third railway crossing in Vught. Marcus hopes that they will be used in more places in the Netherlands. But he also warns: “You don’t have to put such strips everywhere. Just like ribbing tiles, they are recognition points. If they lie everywhere, a visually impaired no longer knows where he is.”
