After my previous blog, you’ll have a brief idea of who I am and what brought me to this point. I want to share my achievements, findings, fears and struggles with you so I’d like to invite you on this journey with me, starting with my battle at getting up and running again after the accident.
My first port of call after the second surgery (knowing my sight couldn’t be saved), was to get in touch with Henshaws. This is a charity based in the North West for supporting blind and visually impaired people. I’ve had some involvement with them over the many years of my journey. I have attended their parent and child groups, guitar lessons, braille group, and arts and craft group, and I’ve also attended some fundraising events. I have put on fundraising events myself; one being a fashion show where some of the models where visually impaired and one with the arts and crafts group where we made snowmen to sell at the carol concert. I also ran the arts and crafts group for a year.
Henshaws has a wide range of facilities that cater for blind and visually impaired people, ranging from tech help and social groups to rehabilitation that supports families with VI children. The charity also has a YouTube channel for life hacks. Whilst it does provide a lot for VI people, it does have its limitations.
I am an Apple user, as I found that during my eye journey, the accessibility software was always the best on the market for me. Once I lost my sight completely, I had to relearn the Apple software using voiceover. This was a very challenging task as I had no idea where to start and, unfortunately, Henshaws was unable to help me with my MacBook needs. They were extremely helpful though and tried to source the help I needed through online videos. I have also found that the service users at Henshaws are of the older generation – not that this is a bad thing, but I felt like I needed someone to talk to who was of a similar age to myself and going through similar experiences. I wanted to find a group for VI parents with sighted kids. With this in mind, I began searching for other charities and groups that would be more suitable for me.
Through my blog, I will continue to bring you my findings and I hope that this can help others in a similar situation.
Speak to you soon
Take care
x
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