STRiVE: Starting my own venture
by Owais Niaz Owais introduces his new venture, Vision Ability. When his previous employment came to a halt in March 2020 due to the Coronavirus lockdown, he decided to take his job search into his own hands and start something himself with his brother. The aim of Owais' business is to help anyone who faces barriers to overcome them. He wants to do all he can to support others and is able to break things down into small steps for people if they need extra explanation or are experiencing any particular difficulties. He also wants to improve travel [...]
STRiVE: Is university for me?
by Ruqaiya Asim After finishing college this year (2021), decided I wanted to go to university to carry on doing Fine Art. However, I kept asking myself, did I really want to go to university or not. I had several questions floating around in my head. How did I know university was the right choice for me? What else could I do if not a degree? What other options are out there? It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to do. I’m going to share with you what I did and why I made the choice [...]
STRiVE: How volunteering gives back to everyone
by Sonal Sumaria Hi everyone, hope you’ve all had a lovely summer. Did you all get up to anything exciting? I’ve done a fair bit of travelling, both independently and with my family! Are there any fellow Potterheads out there? I would love to share my magical summer adventures with you, but I think that’s for another article. Today, I wanted to talk about volunteering. It is certainly something I really enjoy. Instead of receiving payment, I’m happy knowing that I’ve made a difference to someone’s life. And that means a lot to me. My volunteering journey started [...]
STRiVE: My internship with VICTA
by Harriet Smith I decided to apply for the VICTA Young Ambassador programme in 2019 because I wanted to have the opportunity to further develop my writing skills and increase my confidence in working within a team. I also wanted to meet new people and improve my employment prospects. For my secondary education I attended New College Worcester (a boarding school for visually impaired people), then went on to study Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire where I gained a 2.1 degree. One of the main projects during the programme was to work on and design an [...]
Volunteering as a key for long-term success
Written by Idil Serce The transition from higher education to employment can be a difficult and emotional roller coaster for all new graduates, but especially for visually impaired (VI) graduates who are in a more disadvantaged situation in comparison to their fellow peers. Being VI myself, I know how difficult it is for VI students to focus on their studies and gain work experience whilst fighting with the physical and emotional challenges of living with a VI. As a recent VI graduate, l will share my personal experience of transitioning into the world of employment and the impact that [...]
Behind the blog – A VIP’s blogging experience
By Elin Williams In the last few years, blogs have become one of the most popular innovations in the online world with people of different genders, ages, abilities and interests taking to a blog to share their stories, passions and opinions. This has also been the case for many vision impaired people, myself included, and I receive many questions about how I started my blog as well as how accessible I find the process of blogging and sharing content through social media. I established my blog, My Blurred World, in April 2015 to share my experience of living with a [...]
My university experience during lockdown
By Ibraheem Iqbal A stressful storm Hi, I’m Ibraheem. Currently a first year university student studying Psychology at the University of Liverpool. Well, I should be in my second year, but COVID happened. Let me take you back to the beginning, March 2020. All university students were told that studies would continue at home. To some this brought joy, to others confusion and although I can’t speak on behalf of everyone, from my encounters, most were pretty stressed out. Most students I spoke to adjusted to this ‘online’ method pretty fast. I mean attending a lecture while lying in [...]
Accessing the ‘true’ university experience by Idil Serce
Deciding to go to university can be a daunting thought for all students but especially for those of us who are visually impaired. From the process of applying to university to balancing the demands of student life and study, it can be a roller coaster for all but none more than the VI student. And on occasions I was overwhelmed. But I found ways of coping and put strategies in place that allowed me to enjoy my time at university and graduate with a first class honours degree. Take my advice, make the most of all of your experiences [...]
My journey conquering the visual industry!
By Ruqaiya Asim Ever since I was little, I’ve had a passion to be creative. From an early age I knew I wanted to go into art, however I didn’t realise how challenging this would be. Being a young person going through sight loss and trying to tackle the visual industry isn’t an easy task, but one I strive to triumph. I don’t want any other visually impaired person to feel as though they can’t achieve something because of what society makes us think. I want to help the VI community understand that they can aspire to do what [...]
How health and fitness helped me manage my mental health when I became blind
By Ibraheem Iqbal Hi everyone, my name is Ibraheem, but you can call me Ibz. I am proud to be one of VICTA’s Young Ambassadors. I have been given the opportunity to write an article about mental health in this issue. I will begin to outline what is meant by health and fitness then I will talk about my own experiences and lastly the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and tips towards achieving it. Before I begin, I would like to make the reader aware that this content may be sensitive to some people. If at any point [...]
