SEEKING SIGNATURES: Tamworth man Phillip Tilley walks past Gulliver, the huge guide dog, in Peel St yesterday. Mr Tilley is lending his support, also at AgQuip until Thursday, to a new roadshow campaign by Guide Dogs NSW/ACT called Guide Dogs NDIS: A Vision for All, which would like 10,000 signatures on a petition to support Guide Dogs NSW/ACT being included in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Photo: Robert Chappel 200812RCB007
TAMWORTH resident Phillip Tilley, 54, who is vision impaired, is appealing for locals to support the petition.
Mr Tilley, who used to oversee construction for Burwood Council until an eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa caused him to stop work, moved to Tamworth 12 years ago.
Mr Tilley will be at AgQuip from today to ask for local support.
"The number of people who will be at AgQuip, it's a good position to get our message across," he said.
These days, Guide Dogs NSW/ACT did much more than merely provide guide dogs, he said.
As well as a mobility cane, Mr Tilley has a GPS, which tells him his location and the names of the nearest cross streets.
He also has a sensor, which vibrates if there's something in the way.
"It's given me the confidence to move around as people get older and their eyesight diminishes, these things will be available to everybody. I'm doing this to illustrate how important these services are to the independence of people with vision loss, so they're not overlooked by the NDIS," he said.