Eye Health Week

This is an extract from an email sent to me by Guide Dogs.

“Sight Matters Event - Sight Matters is an annual event held in various locations around Nottingham City Centre. The event, hosted by the Low Vision Services Committee (LVSC), aims to raise awareness of local and national services for visually impaired people and their families and friends, an exhibition of equipment and access technology and demonstrations from organisations such as Guide Dogs or sport and leisure groups.

The 2011 event will take place during Eye Health Week focusing on preventable eye conditions, looking after your sight and services to support you should you have difficulties with your vision. Activities taking place across Nottingham:

Wednesday, 15 June – between 10am and 3pm.  Awareness in the Old Market Square, Nottingham City Centre. Events by Guide Dogs and other organisations.  It would be nice if you could come and support us on the day.”

Along with my daughter, Sharon, we went to Nottingham for the day so as to give “Guide Dogs” some support. We travelled to Nottingham by train; the journey took about forty minutes. I have not travelled by train for many years and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey and was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to get on the train but will admit that I was holding on to Sharon. We found some seats and were able to sit opposite to each other by the window………makes it easy for me to lipread and hear Sharon.

Eventually, we arrived in Nottingham, we knew that we had to follow the signs to “Trams” so I left that to Sharon as it would have taken me much longer to find the signs with my eye sight. After a few minutes we were on a tram travelling to the Old Market Square which only took a few minutes. The conductor was a very cheerful person and soon realised that we did not know Nottingham so probably after seeing my white stick, told us to make sure that when returning to the railway station, we queue on the other side of the tramway; I replied that I would do my best and we all laughed!

We saw the GuideDogs stall in the Market Square and went over to see what was happening. We had a go on the tombola and won some prizes and looked at what was for sale, following this we had a lovely chat with Steve and another gentleman who was helping him out on the stall; they both had guide dogs and were very friendly. Sharon and I had a look round and took some photographs then we went to watch the first of the demonstrations. I know that guide dogs are special and so are the people involved with the training but after the demonstrations, Sharon had to admit that she did not realised just how special they were; she loved watching the demonstrations.

Later, we went to the Pizza Hut but as we walked in I turned toward Sharon and told her that I could not see a thing as it was so dark inside but realised that she was talking to a lady who turned out to be the manageress. On noticing my white stick, she suggested that we went in to an area that was actually closed to the public and was at the front near the windows; it was so much better and there was a lot of light. We had a lovely meal and eventually Sharon fetched me some ice-cream which was covered with  chocolate sauce, smarties, chocolate raisons, teddies and others; it was delicious. The waitress was very friendly and we made her laugh especially when I told her that I did not think that I’d been in a Pizza Hut before. At the end of the meal, the waitress asked me if I would go to a Pizza Hut again and my reply was a positive yes as long as it was light enough for me to see what I was eating!

We went back to the square and had a walk round before returning to the railway station, calling in the café for a cuppa and then getting on the train to return home. We had a wonderful day and hope that it will not be long before they find me a suitable guide dog.

A visit to Beamish Museum

Last week, I went on a day trip to Beamish Museum with my daughter, Sharon and her four children. Beamish Museum is an open air museum that shows what life was really like in the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian years. There were some steep slopes and there was a variety of different ground surfaces and houses, shops and other buildings that had exhibits, they all had had stepped access. All these buildings tended to be dark inside, not ideal for someone who has usher syndrome where nightblindness is one of the symptoms. One of my grandsons kept asking me when we were going to the museum but he found it difficult to understand that it was an open air museum and that we were in it! We had a marvellous time and the children want to go again and I enjoyed it too.

We know that the purpose of the long white cane is to prevent the person who has a loss of sight from falling or bumping into obstacles due to a change in ground surfaces especially in unfamiliar places. Beamish is an unfamiliar place to me as the last time I visited Beamish must be about thirty years ago and many changes have been done to the museum since then. I found that I needed the help of a sighted guide and this role was adequately provided by my daughter and eldest granddaughter who took it in turns to guide me. They would just offer me their arm and I would hold it close to the elbow then I would be just that short distant away from them and would be able to follow them with ease.   The reason being is that even though my long white cane has a roller tip which keeps contact with the ground when I sweep the long white cane from right to left and then left to right it indicated too many changes in the ground surface for me though some areas were satisfactory.  This shows that there may be times when we need help from others and so we must not be afraid or embarrassed to ask for it. Inside the shops and other buildings it was too dark for me and after a visit to the bank I decided to go outside where I sat on a bench and enjoy sitting in the sun; thankgoodness that I had my dark red glasses on!

 Here are some photos taken at Beamish:

A hint, if you want to enlarge the photo just click on the photo.

Deaf/Blind

People who are Deaf/Blind have a dual loss of sight and hearing and they face severe difficulties. I am not totally blind and I am not totally deaf, I have hearing aids to help me to hear speech but nothing to make me see like a normal sighted person because at present there is no cure or treatment available for Usher Syndrome which is an eye disease where people progressively lose their sight and hearing.

I did not find it hard being deaf when I was a little girl in the 1940’s because I was never aware that I was different to the other village children. I had a strong relationship with my mother who wanted the best for her daughter however being deaf made me who and what I am; it is part of me. Having said that, I appreciate the fact that I would not have made the friends that I had at the two schools that I attended and thereafter and I will always be grateful for the headmistress, Mrs Groves who recognised that I was not coping with the school work at Scarcliffe Primary School  because I was hearing impaired.

I found connecting to the hearing world after leaving school very challenging with communication being top of the list for being the reason why it was so difficult.  There are several different ways that people with usher syndrome can communicate with other people such as speech, hearing aids, lip-reading, finger spelling and the British Sign language. I use speech, hearing aids and lip-reading but as my field vision changes, by that I mean get smaller it becomes harder for me to lip-read and thus become more dependent on my hearing aids. I went to two deaf schools but never learned how to sign properly, some of my school friends were experts but now, I wished that someone had shown me how to sign properly. It would have been useful for me but having said that none of my family can sign but recently have expressed a wish to learn. The manner in which people sign would have to change too because as the field vision narrows then the area needed to sign would have to narrow as well.  Many deaf/blind people find tactile signing such as the British Sign Language and finger spelling very useful but though I admit that I am no expert when it comes to signing I do know some signs and can do finger spelling.

Here is a bit of history; I cannot tell you who created the British Sign Language but I do know that Thomas Braidwood, a teacher from Edinburgh in Scotland founded “Braidwood Academy for the Deaf and Dumb” in 1760 and it is acknowledged to be the first school for the deaf in Britain. Thomas Braidwood’s early use of sign language was regarded as the beginning of what was to become the sign language of to-day. When I was a pupil at the Mary Hare Grammar School I was in Braidwood House. The British Sign Language is the main sign language in the United Kingdom and is the first language for many deaf people.