A Week In The Life Of A Blind Girl

Running a blog whilst working and keeping up with life can be difficult, it’s all about finding the balance, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

People have made comments that I must have loads of free time because I work part-time, but I like to be busy so no I actually don’t sit around and do nothing all day.

I’m all about breaking down misconceptions and barriers surrounding disability and vision impairment, many people have the outdated and wrongly perceived idea that disabled people stay at home all day doing nothing. Well let me tell you, that’s not true, many of us live fulfilling, independent, busy and active lives despite having a disability. I thought I’d tackle that misconception and break down those barriers by giving you an insight into a week in my life.

 

AS well as being a platform to raise awareness, share my experiences of living with a vision impairment and hopefully help others in a similar situation, I treat my blog a bit like a diary sometimes, it’s somewhere where I can document special memories and write about my life.

 

Disclaimer: this post is not representative of all blind people’s lives, it is a reflection of my own, it’s simply to raise awareness. Everyone’s life is different, we are all unique in our own way, so this post does not reflect every blind or visually impaired person.

 

I’m relaying last week so let’s get into it shall we?

 

Week commencing 03 June 2019

 

Monday

Monday is always my full day at work, so after getting up and having breakfast, I got ready for the day and made my way into work. For those of you that don’t know, I work as an Assistive Technology Advisor at a University.

I like to have a hot chocolate at some point during the morning (I don’t drink tea or coffee so hot chocolate is my go-to), so that’s exactly what I did whilst checking emails and doing a few admin bits when I arrived at work.

I then had a meeting before lunch. I spent my lunch sat outside in the sun with some of my lovely work colleagues.

During the afternoon, I tested a piece of software and also did some final preparation for a conference that I would be attending the following day. I read through the presentation, checked my notes and made sure that I knew exactly what I would be doing.

After doing a few more tasks, the day was soon over and it was time for me to head home.

 

Once getting home, I had tea (dinner, evening meal or whatever you call it), read through my notes one final time for the conference the following day, did a couple of bits and bobs that I needed to do before taking some time for myself the rest of the evening. I watched a bit of TV before heading to bed in preparation for the following day.

 

Tuesday

I would usually be at work on a Tuesday but I was actually doing something different and attending a conference, but not only that, I was one of the speakers…how scary but also very exciting!

I got up bright and early on Tuesday morning. I did my usual routine of having breakfast and getting ready before making my way to the conference.

 

Luckily, I was attending the conference with some other people from work which was really good, it was an unfamiliar venue so I needed a sighted guide, plus it’s always nice to attend these sort of things with people you know.

I was presenting at the conference alongside two other people from work, this was something that was most definitely out of my comfort zone and a completely new experience for me, it was something that I had never done before.

Attending a conference isn’t how I would usually spend a Tuesday, but this was a brilliant opportunity that I didn’t want to miss.

 

We arrived at the conference venue, we were then given our name badges and signed up to the morning sessions that we wanted to attend.

We decided that we would test the equipment in the room that we would be presenting in, I was doing a screen-reader demonstration as part of our presentation, so testing the sound in the room was vital.

Once everything was set up and working, we decided to go and get a snack and a drink before the morning sessions started.

 

The conference started with an introduction, there was a keynote presentation and then it was time for us to attend the morning sessions.

Once our first morning session was over, it was our time to present. Our presentation lasted an hour which included some time for us to answer any questions.

It went really well, we received such positive feedback which was fantastic. Some people even came to speak to us after the session to say how useful it was which was lovely. A couple of people were also fascinated by me reading braille, I had braille notes on hand in case I needed them.

That was it, we had done it!

 

It was then time for lunch.

After lunch, we had two more sessions, a break and then another two sessions and it was time to head home.

It was such a busy day with loads of interesting and informative sessions. It’s safe to say that I was exhausted by the end of it but it was such a fantastic opportunity so it was definitely worth it. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to present at a conference and attend the conference. When I started my job, I never thought that I would have those sort of opportunities.

 

When I got home, I had tea (I was starving), I spent some of the evening replying to a few social media messages and blog comments, I then spent the rest of the evening watching a bit of TV and reading before heading to bed.

I often go visually impaired cycling on a Tuesday evening, however I was unable to make it that week due to being at the conference.

 

Wednesday

Wednesdays are usually my day off, unless I need to go into work for some reason. I was most definitely ready for a day off!

I usually spend my day off catching up with blogging – planning and writing blog posts, replying to emails, doing the admin side of blogging and everything else, I also sometimes meet up with my friends.

Once I was out of bed and ready for the day, I spent the morning replying to blog emails, doing a few blog admin bits and promoting my latest post.

I then had lunch and spent quite a bit of the afternoon planning some blog content.

 

I was chatting to the lovely Vix Meldrew over email about her new venture, Glow&Grow which is a hub for bloggers to connect with each other, have access to useful resources and connect with brands. I’m always interested in this sort of thing but I am always rather hesitant to sign up because I never know about the accessibility of the platform. Vix asked if I would test the accessibility of hers which I happily said yes, so I spent a lot of Wednesday afternoon and evening doing that.

I’m happy to report that it’s fully accessible, and I would recommend it to any bloggers, if you’re interested then sign up to the waiting list and you can join when a space becomes available.

I feel like us disabled bloggers are often overlooked but Vix always tries to include us in whatever she does and really cares about accessibility.

 

I spent quite a bit of the evening doing some work on my new project Access Matters. If you follow me on social media then you will probably know about this project already but if not then I’ll give you a bit of an insight. Myself and my friend Jess decided that we wanted to raise awareness of the issues that disabled people face attending concerts, theatre shows or other events, lack of disabled access at venues, the problems booking accessible tickets and also highlight the good experiences such as venues going above and beyond to meet people’s access requirements. We decided to create a website and the aim is to publish blog posts and interviews about this topic in order to highlight disabled people’s experiences.

We want disabled people to share their stories and experiences, you can find out more about the project and how to get involved over on our website.

 

I spent the rest of the evening listening to a couple of podcasts.

 

Thursday

We’re nearly at the end of the week!

I spent Thursday morning getting some stuff done including a bit of blogging.

When I’m at work in the afternoon, the mornings at home always seem to fly by and before I know it, it’s time to get ready for work.

After doing the things I needed to do, I got ready, had an early lunch and got a taxi to work.

Whilst walking from my taxi to my office I walked into a sign that had been placed right in the middle of the path…#BlindGirlProblems.

The afternoon at work seemed to go really quickly, I got everything done that I needed to do and before I knew it, it was time to get a taxi to go home.

 

I spent the evening doing a bit of work on Access Matters, posted on my blog Instagram, then settled down to watch something on Netflix.

 

Friday

I went out on Friday evening so I spent the morning washing my hair, replying to a couple of emails and getting ready for work. It was then time for me to have lunch and get my taxi and head into the office.

I had a quick meeting and then finished off some bits that I needed to get done.

 

I went to the pub for food and a couple of drinks with my work colleagues straight after work, it’s always lovely when we do things like that. It’s also really nice to catch up with some people that I don’t see as often.

I made my way home and then didn’t do much the rest of the evening.

 

I had a rather chilled weekend, went out for walks and spent time with family.

 

So, there’s my week, at what point did I stay at home all day doing nothing? Not one day.

It was filled with work, blogging and going out with friends.

Apart from the conference on Tuesday, this was pretty much my average week.

This post is a bit different but I really hope you enjoyed reading and that it’s given you a bit of an insight into my life. If you liked this sort of post then let me know and I’ll do more of them in the future.

Holly x