A determined blind woman who is training to be a teacher addressed an audience at the House of Lords, sharing her experiences about the challenges she faces and the opportunities available to the visually impaired.
Rosie Johnson, a resident of Epsom’s Swail House, which provides supported housing for those with visual impairments and is run by the charity Action for Blind People (Action), spoke to guests including Lord Trefgarne and Lord Low, who have supported Action for a number of years.
The 24-year-old showcased the services available for visually impaired young people and highlighted what can be achieved through training.
Ms Johnson is studying for a diploma in teaching at East Surrey College, in Redhill, and works as a volunteer, teaching Braille to students at the Surrey Association for the Blind.
Action is also supporting her development through mobility and technology training.
She said: "Speaking in the House of Lords was amazing. I enjoy presenting to groups of people, which is one of the reasons I’m training to be a teacher. But I’ve never spoken to a room of lords and dignitaries before.
"I hope what I said will help them to understand what people with sight loss can achieve with the right support and encouragement."
Stephen Remington, Action’s chief executive, added: "For many, living with sight loss remains an isolating experience, but it doesn’t need to be like that.
"Clever technology, start-up training and support, and a forward-thinking attitude amongst employers, mean today’s visually impaired people should have the same life-chances as their sighted counterparts."
Article and picture from Hardeep Matharu at epsomguardian
We love the great local businesses and community
The following Cookies are used on this Site. Users who allow all the Cookies will enjoy the best experience and all functionality on the Site will be available to you.
You can choose to disable any of the Cookies by un-ticking the box below but if you do so your experience with the Site is likely to be diminished.
In order to interact with this site.
To help us to measure how users interact with content and pages on the Site so we can make
things better.
To show content from Google Maps.
To show content from YouTube.
To show content from Vimeo.
To share content across multiple platforms.
To view and book events.
To show user avatars and twitter feeds.
To show content from TourMkr.
To interact with Facebook.
To show content from WalkInto.