Employee carrying a hot cup of tea bumps into the back of another employee who was standing still and spills some on their jacket. The incident happened in a large open area, which was well lit and no trip hazards and there were only 3 people present.

Fortunately no injury, just a jacket that needs cleaning.

What might seem like carelessness or a lack of concentration from the brief description, definitely is not when you know the full facts.

The employee carrying the cup of tea is registered blind, they have partial sight, with peripheral vision only. The individual tries to lead a normal life and the company have adapted their working area/station. Being a small company, everyone knows of their condition, (I even discretely make new employees aware during their induction), and makes space when this employee is walking through the building. The individual is well liked and respected.

They find their way around with a combination of memory and their limited vision, only travelling between the front door and their desk and then their desk to the toilets and their desk to the canteen.
The employee takes their breaks at different times to the main breaks to avoid being in the canteen when there are large groups of people in there.

The incident was reported to me by the third person who witnessed it. The employee who had tea spilt on them did not want to report it because of who was involved, even thinking that they were in some way to blame because they did not move out of the way, even though they did not realise this employee was walking towards them. However the witness has raised concerns that the employee with the disability is going to end up either injuring themselves or someone else in the future.

Not sure how to handle this, as the employee concerned does not like talking about their disability. Nobody knows just how bad their vision is, other than it is deteriorating. They want to appear as leading a normal life and refuse to use a stick.

Its not a question of the quality of their work or what adaptions they need to carry out their role, its an issue of how they move through the building.

This would fall into a safety/HR area, but being a small company, we don’t have an HR department before anyone suggests it.

I know that if we told them they had to either use a stick or have a guide accompany them whenever they needed to leave their desk, it would result in a big drop of self-confidence for the individual.

Has anyone else had to deal with a similar situation ?

We had a blind employee quite a few years ago, before I became involved with H&S and from memory he had a cup with a lid. If spilling hot beverages is the only problem, perhaps this would be less noticeable than the stick. In fact a lot of people had these types of mug (the insulating ones / vacuum flask type), As people were always moving about to do their jobs.

If there is other concerns for their safety or anyone Else's then each issues needs to be looked at separately. Would the stick be much better? Stick in one hand, tea in other and you open doors with??? (ok probably the hand with the stick).

I am not sure, whether this would have made any difference in this case but on our site NOBODY is allowed to carry drinks ( or any other liquids) in open containers. They must have lid. This came about after we had a spill and an employee slipped on it and sued us.

Why is it everyone starts treading on eggshells when the disabled are concerned.
Presumably his eyesight is the problem -he is not mentally subnormal

He has a duty to protect himself & others - his disability does not let him off this.
My guess he would welcome a frank private discussion about the incident

Blind or not post #5 has it -all hot drinks ought to have lids.
That way there is no discrimination & he won't feel singled out for special treatment ( which I guess is the last thing he needs)