Introduction At the beginning of Blindness Awareness Month, which took place during October, I was left feeling frustrated and disheartened by the high level of inaccessible blindness content I saw being posted online. Each year it seems I speak out about the problem of inaccessibility within blindness spaces and every time I’m told it can’t…
Category: Disability and Identity
My identity as a disabled person is very important to me. It has undoubtedly shaped my life experiences, including how I interact with others and obtain an education.
It was other disabled people that taught me how to value my body, how to love myself and reject society’s perception of disability.
Sharing Posts for Blindness Awareness Month Might Make You Feel Good, But Where is the Meaningful Change?
October is blindness awareness month, or so countless posts over on Facebook tell me. I forget about it for the most part, until I’m reminded by organisations who want me to support their campaigns, and friends and family who ask me to share their posts. I have come to the conclusion, after years of sharing…
How Artificial Intelligence is Describing Adult Content to the Blind
In recent years, several companies have developed apps or implemented technology which uses artificial intelligence to describe photos to blind people. In 2016 Facebook released a feature which auto-generates alt text for photos uploaded to the social network. A year later, Microsoft released Seeing AI, an app with multiple features, one of which is analysing…
The Student Loans Company Refuses to Comply with Discrimination Legislation. Their Unwillingness could Cost me my Education.
On July the 18th I published a blog post entitled Despite Covid19, Student Finance England Continues Discriminatory Application Process in which I outlined ongoing problems I was having obtaining a Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) application form in an accessible format. I’m a blind user of assistive technology and I required the form in a format…
Despite Covid19, Student Finance England Continues Discriminatory Application Process
As a disabled student, I rely on Disabled Students Allowance (DSA), in order to receive the support I need at university. Administered by the government through Student Finance England, DSA funds equipment and human support that disabled students require in order to receive an equal education. The application process however is far from equal. Whereas…
A Dating App would Match Couples using their Genetic Profile: the Idea Worries me
A Harvard geneticist, George Church, is developing an app that would prevent couples who carry the same recessive gene from ever meeting. The goal: to eliminate hereditary genetic diseases. Critics of the app have raised concerns that this is 21st century eugenics, but Church claims that it isn’t, and that he values diversity. The app,…
Finding a Family at the Colorado Center for the Blind
On Wednesday I will start cooking a meal for 60 people. My final project at CCB, a celebration of how far I’ve come over the last six months. I know this last week is going to rush by before I know what’s happened. On the one hand it’s hard to believe that I’ve been in…
Living as a Blind Person in the United Kingdom and the United States
At the state convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado I was given the opportunity to share my experiences growing up as a blind child in England and how moving to Colorado for training has had an impact on my life. Please watch my speech. I hope that for those of you…
A Blindfold, a Cane and the City
Yesterday I was dropped somewhere in Denver. Wearing a blindfold and with no access to my phone I had to find my way back. I had no idea where I was, if I’d travelled north or south, or if there would be busses or trains anywhere nearby. I hadn’t been kidnapped, though it might sound…
A Blind Person is Crossing the Street
A blind person is crossing the street. You see them waiting, white cane in hand. Should you tell them it’s safe to cross? They can’t see the light change, is it your moral duty as a fellow human to give them this information? They step out into the street and you watch from your car,…