Action Blog
Viewing entries posted in August 2009
What’s wrong with Attendance Allowance?
In the Government Green Paper on ‘Shaping the Future of Care’ there is a proposal to replace Attendance Allowance with a ‘new offer’, whatever that means. Action for Blind People will not back any plans that threaten to reduce the income received by blind or partially sighted people, and I fully support this stance. I do however have my own views on the way that entitlement to Attendance Allowance is decided at present and how this could be changed for the better.
Paying lip service to web accessibility just won’t do
You would think that, in my job and with my burning desire to make sure that all disabled folk are getting the best out of technology, I would be able to get more people to understand why it is so important for the Internet to be Inclusive and that Accessibility isn’t something that you think about as an add-on after you have built your website. It is an integral part of every website. You wouldn’t build a 50-story building without a lift now, would you?
How one visually impaired girl got fit and healthy
I went to my GP a while ago and asked for an MOT. I was stressed, tired and feeling sluggish all the time. I wasn’t particularly unhealthy. I don’t smoke and I wasn’t overweight, but I didn’t do any exercise and was certainly having a few too many shandies of an evening. Living with a visual impairment is exhausting, with everything you do requiring some sort of decision, so it is easy for stress levels to get high and your overall state of mind and body play a big part in how you handle it all.
What the ‘Green Paper’ says about Attendance Allowance
In July the Government presented a Green Paper to Parliament entitled 'Shaping the Future of Care'. In it they set out proposals for creating a new care and support system and how the money could be found to pay for it. One proposal has set alarm bells ringing for many people who are getting Attendance Allowance.
Gratitude comes in all shapes and sizes
At this exact point in time, I am glad that there is no cure for retinitis pigmentosa. I know that sounds pretty peculiar, but this dreaded disease has changed my life for the better.
I am a person!
‘The Prisoner’ was a fascinating 60’s television series. It portrayed a culture where people no longer had names, just numbers and were under the control of Number One. At one point the Prisoner, Number 6, cries out ‘I am a person... I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own!’ Cut backs in service provision, euphemistically called ‘streamlining’, often result in the removal of personal contact in favour of cheaper less time consuming methods. A recent home visit re-iterated the need to meet and listen to a person.
A visually impaired geek finds happiness with a small but perfectly formed Mac Mini
Although I purchased my beloved Mac Mini on the same day I got my iPhone back in June, I wanted to wait a while to have the experience of using it day in and day out, as I anticipated there was going to be an adjustment period since I did port over from a PC running the dreaded Vista after all. It is not like me to wholeheartedly diss something outright, but really, it is just not right when you have regular freezes and crashes because of conflicts between your operating system and software when they are made by the same company!
The ruined carpet
I often give talks to groups of elderly people who are experiencing sight loss about the possible benefits available. Unfortunately some are reluctant to claim. Receiving benefits can significantly increase a person’s income and provide them with a better life so, wanting to encourage people to claim, I often use a true story.
Individual or collective – Is disability a personal thing?
When I got an email last year from the RNIB asking people to join their Taken for a Ride campaign and lobby Parliament for visually impaired people to get the appropriate level of DLA, I felt compelled to do so. I have never been the protesting or heckling type, but as any sort of injustice just niggles away at me, I could not ignore this call to action.
Disclosing a disability at work
As so many visually impaired people are able to cope with minor modifications to their work environments without having to officially wear the disability badge, they live in fear of being caught out and are hanging on to whatever useful vision that they have and are waiting until the eleventh hour to tell their boss that getting that new pair of glasses they have been allegedly putting off just isn’t going to cut it.
Tag cloud
accessibility, apple, assistive technology, beauty, benefits, braille, burnley, christmas, confidence, coping, disability, discrimination, dla, dwp, education, employment, esa, family, fashion, grieving, guide dogs, holidays, human rights, inclusive design, inclusivity, independence, independent living, iphone, life, lifestyle, living with sight loss, money, pension, people, personal independence payment, pip, registration, rp, sailing, shopping, sight loss, social inclusion, stereotypes, technology, travel, vi people, web accessibility, welfare rights, white cane, work,
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