Proof reading course article by Elizabeth Uren Out of Sight, out of reach? By Elizabeth Uren With services for people with disabilities, I realised an opportunity to research into finding out what services are available for people with a visual impairment. I went into the local branch of HSBC, to ask what services they can and could offer customers with a visual impairment. The services which can be offered to people with sight problems in banks, I asked Richard Magee of HSBC who told me a braille correspondence service is available and free of charge. He also told me a text phone service is available and a hearing loop is available at each counter, sub offices and main accounting branches. “The same facilities are available at each branch of HSBC, specialist equipment is available via call centres, and the website is constantly under review as it is very new. We try wherever possible to help customer interactively, which means that we can process and assess there and then the application and also give the customer an instant answer the same day”,

said Mr Magee adding: “We can discuss with the customer any needs that they may have and personalise the application form such as left handed cheque books, contact preferences for example calling in the morning or large print or braille correspondence; we can personalise to the varying needs of people with disabilities.” I have been into shops recently and I think that the shop assistants do not realise that you may need help, and unless you ask. They cannot be bothered to help you. Certainly there are issues to address here. Many of the shops have their own agenda as to how they want to run things- can‟t they stop and think of the people who have to live with having a sight problem? As for the shops, I wanted to find out what help is available, and if there is not the assistance for someone with a sight problem why won‟t they implement a service? I asked Sharon Rudge the deputy manager at Hawkshead what the shop would do for people with a sight problem. “If someone with a sight problem came into the store we would offer

assistance by helping them with a particular item, colour or style. If necessary, we would assist the customer around the store to help them find what the customer wanted and tell the customer if they were walking into any shop equipment.”

“With payment, for example by cheque or card, then we would guide them where to sign for the purchase. We aim to help in any way possible,” she said.

Here is my own story, At the age of two I was admitted to Falmouth Eye Hospital, to have an operation to correct a squint which I was diagnosed with at six months. Mr.McKelvie the Ophthalmic surgeon carried out the operation. I think that the operation lasted for about an hour although I am not exactly sure how long my operation was. A few years later I had to see Miss. Philips another specialist on the first Wednesday of every month for occlusion therapy. What this consists of is that you have to wear a patch on your eye; I had to wear an eye patch for an hour every Saturday. I had this done up until the age of seven or eight. In junior school I had to visit an optician it was Boots in Truro. The next check up was with Mr. Taylor in Falmouth in 1996. I have to have regular check- ups just to keep an eye on things and to see whether I may need to wear glasses. So far my optician says to me that my right eye is „plain glass‟ which means that there isn‟t anything wrong with my right eye, my left eye on the other hand is a different story, it isn‟t „plain glass‟ because of the squint but isn‟t far off. I am now 24years old and I have to use my right eye all the time, as I have been partially sighted since the operation twenty years ago. I am in great appreciation for the operation and the occlusion therapy that I had done. I have been told that I have 80% sight in my left eye and 100% in my right. When I was going to have the operation I can remember (although this is very vague to me as I was only a little girl) being taken down to the operating theatre and having the anaesthetist give me the anaesthetic. I can remember feeling the needle going into my hand that went in via a „canula‟ as this is how the anaesthetic was administered to me. Bearing in mind I was only two at the time and my memories of this are very vague. During the operation a nurse looked after me, I stayed in hospital for three days, I was ill after the operation this was caused by the anaesthetic. I have had three attacks of the infection conjunctivitis; one was a mild attack and was several years ago. The second attack was in November 1999 and this only came as I was working in a nursing home where a majority of the staff smoked in the staff room. I finished at the nursing home on the Friday night and on the following Tuesday I was at the doctors getting a

prescription for antibiotic eye drops and I then spent three days at home getting rid of it. The third attack was in august 2001 and affected my right eye only and I was given the antibiotics to get rid of it – I even went out on duty with St.

John Ambulance and a colleague put in my antibiotics for me every two hours I must point out here that the doctor advised me to go out on duty but to wear sunglasses to give my eye some protection and to treat anyone with gloves.

I have had to have regular check-ups to see if there are any changes to my left eye. I have a song that reminds me, this song is called „Someone Else‟s Dream‟, which has been composed by Michael Ball. This comes from Michael‟s own experience at having four operations as a result of a parachute accident, he suffered a bruised lower back and a ruptured abdomen, and the operations were to repair his ruptured abdomen. When I hear the song „Someone‟s Else‟s Dream‟ it is almost as though I am an angel looking down onto the operating table and seeing my operation. This song immediately draws me into meditation, making me realise that I have learnt to cope and how I live with being partially sighted. This gives me a reminder and an energy boost to carry on, as it reminds me with how I manage with everyday life, like going to college and navigating my way around buildings to get to lectures. When I heard the song „Someone Else‟s Dream‟ for the first time I went to see Michael Ball in concert at the Plymouth Pavilions on April 13th 1999. Michael performed this song to us [the audience] I immediately felt a personal link with this song after all I went through with the operation and the occlusion therapy I had done when I was younger. Like Michael who wrote this song as his own personal experience at having four operations to repair his ruptured abdomen, in which I think that he had these operations around the same time I had my operation. The song „Someone Else‟s Dream‟ is very personal to me and means such a lot to me as it reminds me that I have had a squint and I have had an operation and occlusion therapy to correct the squint and also reminds me of what I had done to me at the tender age of two years old, that is because I was diagnosed with a squint at six months old and received the correct treatment at the age of two years old which was a few years before I started school. Having had a squint on my left eye I think that because of it I know that I can do things like getting around and also doing my hobbies, and I cope well considering after all the treatment I had from the time I was two up until the age of seven or eight.

I have to say that I think that I have had the treatment I could have and now it is just a case of having to have check ups with my optician every two years or so just really to keep an eye on things and whether there are any changes to my left eye.

Since then, I recently found out, well last year in fact, that I was told by my consultant ophthalmologist, Miss. Stockwell that I may need another operation- a repeat operation some twenty two years after the first one. I was completely in a state of shock and could not believe that this was happening to me, so I left her with an open appointment for a few months time, in the

mean time I did some research as to what alternative treatments are around. I went to the internet, and stumbled across the Moorfield‟s hospital website, which is the famous eye hospital in London, where they use a procedure which is done under local anaesthetic and injects botulinum toxin into the muscles of the eye to realign it. I then several weeks later went back to Miss. Stockwell and told her about this procedure and she then referred me to the West of England Eye Unit at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, where in September of last year I met Mr. Quinn, consultant ophthalmologist who carried out a few tests, the first one was to wear a patch on my left eye for 40 minutes and then have the orthoptist remeasure my eye and then see Mr. Quinn, which was interesting, after this he did the eye health test, which is to look at the back of the eye and check that they are healthy, which was then followed by the eye pressure test, in which I had to have flouresene drops into my eyes. Following this, I was then told by Mr. Quinn, that I had three options open to me and these were, and I had to make a decision then and there:

1. Do nothing 2. Botulinum toxin injection 3. Full operation

I chose to try the botulinum toxin injection at the moment and so far I have had 4 injections, and I now have to go every five months to have the injection into my eye. I have decided though that I will only have the full operation again but only as a last resort.

Proof reading course article by Elizabeth Uren