I first became aware of the Hampshire Sight Loss Council when I went to the Eye Contact exhibition last month. Members of Southampton Sight will remember from when I worked at Sight how Jackie regularly suggested projects and ideas to keep me busy – well she has been at it again!
I attended the Hampshire Sight Loss Council launch event on Tuesday 8th October and in a good old fashioned Southampton Sight tradition we drank coffee and ate the obligatory cake (mouth falls open in mock horror)!
Although we’ve yet to decide on what projects to begin with, we started to get to know each other because successful projects work best when we play to every team members strength and by working collaboratively.
Some of you might say well what is the Hampshire Sight Loss Council? They are being set up all over the country to work on both national and local accessibility projects. But what does this mean for Hampshire? I and my fellow volunteers will be working with organisations to improve accessibility to transport networks, the built environment (built environment is the county’s streets and the placement of street furniture bus stops, pelican crossings etc) as well as other projects.
Currently there are only four of us so please be patient with us, but we will do what we can to make Hampshire a more accessible and welcoming county. We will be meeting next month to decide what projects to start with and I really look forward to being able to do my bit but me being me, I want to do the work now!
