I was diagnosed with my blindness when I was six months old.
I had a great childhood. I was born in Namibia. I moved to South Africa when I was
a year and a half old because when I was diagnosed as blind, those were the days
when the doctors gave you a prognosis and having a
disability was the end of the world. So they said,
"Well she's got a vision condition, the prognosis is bad. She's not going to get her
sight back, or get her sight restored.
She'll need to go to a special school for the blind which is in South Africa."
I had my personal peer support around me because everybody else were blind or
vision impaired. Yeah, I had a great childhood.
Right now we're at the outside of the Blind Foundation. This is the old Jubilee
Building site. It's a historic site and there is a new building too.
This is where the Blind Foundation used to be way back in the eighteen hundreds
and up to now. This is also the agency that helped me to get Western and helped
me with items such as computer training. They also distribute talking books to me.
In the mid-nineties my sister and her husband were recruited to to come and
work here.
I was the only family member left from our small unit really and I'd just
completed my university studies.
I struggled to find a job in the area that I i got qualifications for and I
thought it's as good a time as any to explore coming.
Not too long after I moved to New Zealand
I joined some blind sports clubs in Auckland and I met Gary at the Auckland
Blind Sports and Recreation Club where we played blind cricket and goal ball.
He was there for the cricket and I was for the drinks.
My role at the moment is a specialist advisor at Auckland Council.
I'm the key contact and disability portfolio holder and so most of the
aspects to do with how can we make our services more accessible to disabled
people;
How can we do more community engagement to see what people
want;
Deaf people, blind people those with mobility impairments.
I travel mostly for almost a secondary job that I'm doing.
I've been asked by the World Blind Union to be the strategic lead on access to
the environment and transport.
You know, many people go on trips where there is a lot of temples and
things. Whereas I think sometimes it's just finding something that has that is
more tactile, like I visited a real Mongolian ger and then buying
things that are made of
the skin and the felt that you know that that you have got a replica of the house
that you're in, or something with a lot of history like the masu -
the Japanese drinking vessels from way back.
I have modern sake glasses too
- but these ones are so nice and old. They tell you the story of and the days
of poverty and war where they have the sake inside and the salt on the top
so you sort of had your drinking and eating vessel at the same time.
Here we are at Elliott Street. It is one of our central business district shared
spaces that we've developed. We created what was called a tactile
delineator - made up of stones.
Sometimes they can be made up of concrete and you can actually make it
quite nice with nice kinds of stone.
It's meant to be a tactile indicator for people to feel where their cane, or their shoes or their feet
to feel. This is telling you that you if
you're gonna carry on from here-on cars might be there as well.
We promote this throughout the rest of the country
and even internationally. I've been presenting at international forums on
safe design and inclusive shared spaces.
I've got so many goals. I'd really love to promote accessibility and
inclusive services
more, whether it's locally here and Parnell or Auckland or across
New Zealand or across the world and just you know trying to get the society more
equitable and build the awareness of what's around.