VICTA Changemakers
Blindness Awareness Month
My name is Bilaal Ali. I’m 21 years old and live in Sheffield with my family and I’m severely blind. I have a syndrome called BBS (bbsuk.org.uk) which affects my eyesight, overweightness and slight learning difficulty. Despite having this rare condition, I always work hard and am determined to not let anything get in my way of life and just carry on thriving.
I’m an undergraduate student at Sheffield Hallam University studying accounting and finance. I’m currently on my placement year after completing the first two years of the course. During these two years I have had many challenges such as accessibility, making friends, course material, employability, study/work-life balance and navigating around university.
My support
At university I have a wide range of support through DSA (disabled students allowance), such as a notetaker to take notes, sighted guide when travelling around university, assignment support, technology and cane training. I have a disability advisor to go to for any general issues or help.
Accessibility
When it comes to accessibility there is a lot of material and the accessible formats team run at a slow pace with many delays. How it works is for each module the module leader has to share all the material to the accessible formats team for them to convert and sent to me in advance of lectures and seminars. Most the time this isn’t the case as the module leader forgets to send stuff over or the accessible formats team forget to send it to me, so I end up just using my note takers notes or having to grab the documents from the university website portal myself and covert them myself which is tricky. When it comes to graphs it’s tricky as the team don’t give a great description so I end up asking the seminar tutor to describe it to me.
Making friends
Making friends at university is not easy, especially when you are the only blind student on the course. At first it was really hard not knowing anyone, not having good confidence and being in a new environment. It was scary and nerve wracking but as time went on more people noticed me more, as my confidence grew, and doing group presentation projects in modules helped me to get to know more people. I still struggle to make friends but it is easier now than it used to be.
Course material
At university there is a lot to learn and lots of material to go through, having to study three modules per term with exams and assignments. It’s not easy, as being blind and studying a hard subject, but my hard work, positive attitude and determination gets me through it.
Study/work to life balance
When studying and working you need to have a good balance with life as you need to look after your mental and physical health.
I have now managed to gain a good balance as I have many hobbies such as playing blind football and tennis going to the gym and swimming and going to the cinema to watch films.
Employability
Throughout my life, I’ve never had the confidence to approach the idea of working or complete work experience. During my first year at university one of my lecturers kindly approached me and told me about an organisation called Thomas Pocklington Trust ((pocklington.org.uk) who help blind and visually impaired individuals into the world of work. They helped me gain some work experience with the Financial Times where I was interviewing employees, doing ice breaker tasks and created and presented a business plan in a team. Another company called Blind in Business has also supported me with my CV and getting me in touch with employers about work (blindinbusiness.org.uk).
My employability advisor at university put me in touch with an employment coaching company for disabled people called Working Win (shawtrust.org.uk/working-win) where I had weekly sessions for a year on how to get ready for work and speak about all the barriers. I approached a few companies in Sheffield asking for work and Nicholson and Co Accountancy offered me some work which was amazing (nicholsonandco.co.uk). I started working at Nicholson and Co in November 2023, starting off by doing one day a week whilst studying at university. The manager, Samantha Nicholson, kindly offered me work and helped me contact and fill in forms for access to work (www.gov.uk/government/publications/access-to-work-factsheet/access-to-work-factsheet-for-customers) which helped with getting equipment and other support in place. I am a Junior Accountant and work alongside a colleague. I use a large screen with Jaws speech software and ZoomText fusion screen magnifier to do my working activities. I use accounting software called Quick Books to work on company’s accounts and inputting and reviewing invoices. I also use Google sheets and Google docs when at work. I’m now working on my placement year with the company working on how to become more independent and more confident in my role with the help of the company which has supported me very well which I appreciate. In October 2024 I’m going to be starting an internship with Thomas Pocklington Trust working on development skills and training with sight loss and I will also doing a group project presentation which will come in further months.
My achievements
During my time at university I have had many achievements of success with the first one coming in the first year, achieving the Inspirational Student Award, for which only one pupil from the sector is selected. I was nominated by two of my module leaders for my hard work and determination to the course and how I adapt to university life while being blind, often teaching them and myself how it works.
My next achievement came as I was published in the Financial Times article for my work experience I did with them and showing how disabled people strive past barriers.
www.ft.com/content/92bdb2a7-29ad-43d5-bb3c-18b5988a06eb
I have also been on BBC Radio Sheffield as I did an interview about my university journey. I am also a published author through a university project in the book rising above.
Listen to Bilaal’s interview on BBC Radio Sheffield
Conclusion
As you can see, overall my university and employment journey has been a rollercoaster experience but with hard work, determination dedication and heart anything is possible so never give up.
There are a lot of pros and cons to university: workload, amount of material, making friends, use of time and accessibility are some cons for me but pros are a lot of support is in place, and a lot of opportunities and achievements have come my way. I’m on the right career path and have been supported when it comes to employability and enjoy attending university and giving an input to the university.
