Christmas Competition Winners Announcement
We have our winners! To thank our avid readers and supporters of the VICTA Student Portal throughout 2024, we ran a competition to win 2 Amazon Echo Shows, courtesy of the British Wireless For The Blind Fund. We now have our winners! Congratulations to Charlie (11) and Ben (18) who will be receiving their prizes very soon. Thank you very much to everyone who entered. We had lots of entries and all of your comments were lovely to read through. Watch this space for future competitions!
Tactile Times Online Advent Calendar
Tactile Times are in the Christmas Spirit! Tactile Times have just launched their fully accessible, online advent calendar for the third year in a row. Are you tired of print advent calendars that just feel like...well...paper? This one is different. It is fully accessible with all major screen readers using a computer or phone, and you can access it with a BrailleNote Touch as well. You might even hear a few familiar voices along the way! You can visit it to open the first couple of doors right now. Tactile Times will have a new [...]
Christmas Competition Time!
COMPETITION NOW CLOSED. As a big thank you to our avid readers and supporters of the VICTA Student Portal throughout 2024, we are running a competition! Courtesy of the British Wireless For The Blind Fund, 2 of you could be in with the chance of winning an Amazon Echo Show! We have 2 Amazon Echo Shows up for grabs, and it’s easy to enter. You just need to follow two simple steps: 1. Comment on one blog post on the VICTA Student Portal From gardening to football, the Student Portal has lots of stories to interest [...]
New Technology: The Hable One External Braille Keyboard
Is the Hable One Worth It? As a blind Apple fan, I rarely leave the house without my iPhone. I use it for everything: sending and reading messages; making phone calls; Googling; online shopping; reading articles and social media; ordering Ubers; watching TV shows; listening to Spotify... the list goes on. But despite being one of the most accessible devices in my arsenal, there is one thing I find challenging about the Apple iPhone: typing. I'm a lot slower at typing on a touch screen than I am on a BrailleNote Touch. [...]
Choose Respect for Anti-Bullying Week 2024
It’s Anti-Bullying Week! As a proud member of the Anti-Bullying Alliance, VICTA is delighted to be celebrating this very important week, from Monday 11th to Friday 15th November. Join in with us on the VICTA Student Portal to learn more and encourage others to Choose Respect. Choose Respect This year’s Anti-Bullying Week theme is Choose Respect, so that children and young people can feel empowered to do something positive that will combat the harm and hurt caused by bullying. How have you shown Respect? Comment on this post or email students@victa.org.uk letting us know how you have shown [...]
The pros and cons of having a guide dog or cane
VICTA Changemakers Blindness Awareness Month Ruqaiya qualified with Guide Dog Bertie in April 2023. She chats about some of the pros and cons of owning a Guide Dog, the things she hadn't thought about and the positive things Bertie brings to her life as a university student. Find out more by watching Ruqaiya's video below. Don't forget to give @VICTAUK a like and subscribe on YouTube to stay up-to-date with our latest videos. By Ruqaiya Asim You can also find me Instagram, TikTok and YouTube @ruqaiya.art
How can blind people play sports?
VICTA Changemakers Blindness Awareness Month This article is about sports and how visually impaired or blind people play them. There lots of different kind of sports VI people play such as football, goalball, baseball and much more. They can be played through sound, communication and connection. There are different levels of VI classification which participants can take part in – for example B1 is for someone who cannot see at all, B2 means they can see little bit, B3 is someone who can see bit more and B4 is someone who is partially [...]
Things I learnt training for the London Marathon
VICTA Changemakers Blindness Awareness Month On the 21st of April, along with my guide runner, I set out to compete the 2024 TCS London Marathon. I had raised the money for charity (VICTA), done the training and now, it was time for the real thing. Weirdly I don’t remember much about the day itself. I remember the noise though. The cheering and shouting of thousands of families. There were kids banging tambourines in no apparent rhythm and timpani drummers playing in perfect synchronisation. There were out of tune recorder players and brass bands [...]
The Paralympics from a blind perspective
VICTA Changemakers Blindness Awareness Month We are Scarlett and Eliza, two blind swimmers who competed at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. From the enjoyment of what started as just a hobby, to one day achieving your dream, our journey through the sport has given us many experiences that we shall never forget, and taught us valuable skills both in and out of the pool. We are sharing our experiences of the Paralympics from a blind athlete's perspective - not from the sights, but the sounds and feel of the Games. We know that no [...]
Celebrating World Laughter Day with blind comedian Jamie MacDonald
In 1995, a doctor called Madan Kataria from India made it his mission to help people de-stress through 'laughter clubs'. These quickly spread around the globe and resulted in the creation of World Laughter Day in 1998. It is now observed on the first Sunday of May. To celebrate the day, I spoke to Jamie MacDonald - a blind, Glaswegian comedian who lives with his wife in Sheffield. The 43-year-old began losing his sight at 16 due to a degenerative eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa. He has since gone on to complete degrees, try [...]
