First Ever E-Magazine | December 2011 | www ... - Oshwal Centre

Visual Impairmentby, Rumit Pravinchand ShahI have been on the EnablingNetwork Committee for the lastone year since it started and Iwish to share my experience onvisual impairment.There are large numbers of Visual impairments peoplecan have including Retina Pigmentosa, RetinaDetachment, Glaucoma, Muscular Degeneration,Cataract etc. I have had some of these conditions for thepast 15 years. About 4 years ago, I had to stop drivingsince I could no longer meet the DVLA driving standard.I work near Reading and live in London, so travelling towork daily without a car is an issue. Luckily, a number ofother people from work also live in London and I am ableto car share with them. On some occasions, I have usedNetwork Rail to travel to work or stayed overnight in aBed and Breakfast.I am an Electrical Engineer and work for the National GridCompany. At work, I am in an office environment andspend most of my time on the computer. I have a slightlylarger computer screen through the Display ScreenEquipment (DSE) Assessment legislation.Travelling to Oshwal Centre is also a challenge sincethere is no public transport for the final bit. I have mainlytaken car lifts from friends and f amily for this andsometimes used a taxi. I usually don’t like asking for liftsfrom other people and sometimes I decide not to go to theevents rather than trying to arrange a lift.Despite these hurdles, I have been very active incommunity events for the past 20years with various organisations.Recently, I volunteered at theOshwal North West SavantsariBhojan, Oshwal MELA and EnablingNetwork Workshop. It was veryencouraging to see a number ofpeople with Visual Impairment takingpart in these events. I am still able toparticipate in events and volunteerbecause my eyesight is fine atpresent, for normal activity in lightedenvironment.a visual impairment. Other people will only know if weinform them.Royal National Institute for Blind (RNIB) and MoorfieldsEye Hospital are very good sources of information forpeople with visual impairment. You may also wish to meetother people within the community with visual impairmentthrough Enabling Network. This may give us anopportunity to learn from each other and s hareexperiences.If you have knowledge or experience of visual impairmentthen please inform Enabling Network and help us developthe knowledge and services for the benefit of otherpeople by engaging and submitting articles that may berelevant to increase awareness. Also please make fulluse of the services Enabling Network may provide.More InformationRoyal National Institute for Blindwww.rnib.org.ukMoorfields Eye Hospitalwww.moorfields.nhs.uk/EyehealthEnabling NetworkEmail: en@oshwal.orgMany people including myself do notcarry a white stick or otherequipment. Therefore, it can bedifficult for others to realise we haveOshwal News E-Magazine of the O.A.U.K. 6 December 2011 Edition