Date: 28/08/2007
The council's recycling team had not heard of Daltonism, until a resident - keen to be involved in the Binnovation recycling scheme - alerted them to the condition.High Peak resident, Tony Risely was born with Daltonism - another name for red-green colour-blindness. It is an inherited condition, which affects about 6% of men but less than 1% of women.
"The main problem is perceiving and distinguishing red and green," explained 73-year-old Tony. "The only way I can understand traffic lights is to watch the lighting sequence - the top 2 lights just look the same colour to me. Red and yellow colours look similar and green can look like brown or grey.
"People often don't take Daltonism seriously, but it has been a big problem all of my life. When I joined the RAF I couldn't be a pilot or a navigator, or even an electrician, so I worked in the pay accounts section - that work was all black and white you see."
Tony has become used to finding ways of coping with his condition: "I support Wolverhampton Wanderers, to me the referee and the players seem to be wearing the same coloured tops. I recognize the 'ref' because he doesn't have a number on his shirt."
However, when he received the council's recycling information pack explaining the Binnovation scheme, Tony had problems: "I really got confused when I got the first calendar, because unless something is written using only black and white I don't know if I am reading it correctly."
When they heard about Tony's problems, High Peak Borough Council's Joy Redfern and Chris Noble, who are currently introducing the Binnovation scheme to Buxton, took immediate action, and sent him a large-print black and white copy of the whole Binnovation pack.
Chris said: "We were sorry to hear about Mr Risely's problem, although we had heard of colour-blindness, the term Daltonism was new to us. It seemed the ideal solution to send Mr Risely a black and white copy of all the information. It is most important that we help residents to understand how the scheme works, so that they put the correct bins and containers out."
To ensure that as many people as possible are able to participate in the Binnovation scheme, the council have prepared Braille and audio versions of the information pack, as well as large print black and white texts. Residents can also ask for translations: Polish and Czechoslovakian copies have already been requested and provided.
When asked what he thinks about the council's response to his problem, Tony Risely replied: "I now have a Binnovation calendar in black and white and I can follow the timetable quite easily. I was pleased that the council took my problem up because it is good that they are addressing these issues."
To ensure that colour-blind people and blind and partially sighted residents can distinguish between the black-lidded waste bin and the green-lidded recycling bin, the council have embossed the green-lidded bin with 'High Peak Borough Council' written in full. The black-lidded bin is usually embossed with 'High Peak BC' or the initials 'HPBC.'
Residents who would like help or information about the Binnovation scheme should ring the council's call centre on 0845 129 77 77.