RNIB

We all shine when we add alt text to our #StrictlyComeDancing images. [Image description: “Make your posts shine: add alt text. 1. Click add description when you upload an image. 2. Add your image description, including any text. 3. Click done and share your accessible post’. A silver glittery curtain drapes across the background.]

🎉We're over the moon that the fabulous Claire Sisk is our new Ambassador! We can't wait for what's to come! We'll be working together with Claire (and her buddy Rick the Stick) to challenge misconceptions and drive change and inclusion for blind and partially sighted people. Watch Claire's educational and funny videos on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dY7H6MGD Video transcript and description: [Claire, who has tied back blonde hair, and is wearing a black top with a large bow, and a short grey pleated skirt, walks toward the camera holding something she is hidden] I have something very exciting to share with you. Lee Murray from Let Loose, drum roll please. [cuts to Lee Murray from 90s boy band Let Loose performing a personalised drum roll for Claire] [Claire holds up giant double chocolate chip cookie. "RNIB Ambassador" is written in white icing with a rainbow and white clouds in the centre. The cookie is bordered in pink icing.] I can't actually believe I'm saying this. I am the new RNIB ambassador and this shows how well they know me because they sent me a giant cookie to celebrate. Get in my belly!

Volunteers are integral to everything we do. This #InternationalVolunteerManagersDay, we’re taking a moment to celebrate our volunteer managers, like Andy – Volunteer Coordinator for our Ivybridge Transcription Team, who explains why they have a duty to make our volunteers feel valued and show an unwavering appreciation to what they do. #Braille200 [Image description: Andy stands on-stage speaking into a microphone. He wears a black sweater over a green polo shirt with an RNIB lanyard around his neck, and has light brown hair.] [Video transcript: Andy: I feel it's important as a volunteer manager to look after your volunteers and make them feel valued because in our service particularly and I'm sure it's the same in other areas of RNIB, we rely so heavily on them. So making their tasks and their contribution fun and interesting and engaging and supporting them and you know, showing our appreciation as an organisation to what they do. And it's so key and it's so central to everything that we do. Giving them the best experience possible. I mean, that's why it's important to be able to do what we do and deliver the services that we deliver. There's lots of different ways you can do that. David: Now, obviously the volunteers are the lifeblood of what you do at Ivybridge transcription. Can you go into a little bit more detail please? Just about what the volunteers do? Andy: They’re the nuts and bolts of it basically. When we get a transcription job in, it's because somebody wants to be able to read some text that they can't get anywhere else, and they ask us to convert it into the format that they want it whether it’s Braille, large print, audio, E-text or synthetic speech. And what happens is that arrives with us, and then we do a little bit of fiddling around with it to make sure that it's ready to kind of go as a file to our volunteer. And they are the ones who then prepare that ready for us to then print and dispatch to our customers. So a lot of the actual proper nuts and bolts of the transcription process is done by our volunteers and us as staff. The transcription executives particularly manage that sort of process and put all the finishing touches to the raw transcription that our volunteers have done.]

🎂It’s 30 years since our first Eye Care Liaison Officer (ECLO) started providing vital emotional and practical support for people diagnosed with an eye condition. Last week, we celebrated the anniversary by going back to where it all began - The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust eye clinic. We now have 130 RNIB ECLOs – with another 60 employed by other sight loss organisations. And the end of 2024 will bring a significant milestone - there will be an ECLO in every major UK hospital eye clinic! Read about the history of our ECLO service: https://lnkd.in/ed-GYk96 [Image descriptions: Image 1: First Rotherham ECLO Kevin Hewish with Stevie Johnson, Clinical Lead of RNIB’s Eye Care Services, sitting in the ECLO room at Rotherham Community Health Centre. Kevin has a grey beard and is wearing glasses and a blue checked shirt. Stevie has shoulder-length light blonde hair and is wearing a dark blue floral patterned top and glasses. Image 2: Rotherham eye clinic patient Jean Derrick with ECLO Gabrielle Bower, sitting in the ECLO room. Jean has short light blonde hair and is wearing a light grey top that has large blue and grey spots, and glasses. Gabrielle is wearing a pastel pink pantsuit and has long dark blonde hair. Image 3: A group photo of people at the Rotherham celebration, with (left to right) Carolyn Chamberlain, Director of RNIB’s Specialist Eye Care Service, Rotherham ECLO Gabrielle Bower, ECLO Alice Elliott, Rotherham eye clinic patient Jean Derrick, Stevie Johnson, Clinical Lead of RNIB’s Eye Care Services, and Kevin Hewish, first ECLO at Rotherham. They are sitting in a large room, with some of them standing and others sitting on dark pink hospital chairs. Image 4: Rotherham ECLO Gabrielle Bower, former Rotherham ECLO Matt Bower, and Hewish, the first Rotherham ECLO, standing in front of a pink background with the RNIB logo. Gabrielle is wearing a pastel pink pantsuit and has long dark blonde hair, Matt has a dark brown hair and beard and is wearing a dark blue floral shirt and glasses, and Kevin has a grey beard and is wearing glasses and a blue checked shirt.]

Don't throw away the stamps from the cards and parcels you receive this Christmas! We can turn them into funds to support blind and partially sighted people. You can download a prepaid label or request your pre-paid collection envelopes or boxes: rnib.in/StampAppeal.

"How do blind people choose their outfits?" With #BeforeYouAsk blind and partially sighted people banish misconceptions surrounding what it’s really like to live with sight loss in a fun and insightful way. Ask more questions with our video chat rnib.in/AskAQuestion [Transcript: I actually really love fashion and styling. Like, it's a huge passion of mine. Um, it's kind of like an art form. Like I'm curating myself. But for a lot of visually impaired people, they use like context cues to figure out what they're going to be wearing. So some people have like colour detection apps where you can like point your phone and it tells you what colour the item is. I personally use texture, so like, I know how heavy or how soft the t shirt is supposed to feel. I can feel like denim, I can feel fur and stuff like that. And also friends and family, they're always around to help you. I always send outfit pics to my friends before we go out. Sometimes we like to match or if there's someone around me, I just ask for their feedback and see what they think. RNIB see differently.]

Only have a minute to learn about our new #TurnedOut Report? Here's Tom to explain the key takeaways from our research around blind and partially sighted voters' experiences of the General Election. Find out more: rnib.in/TurnedOut2024 [Video description: Tom has blond hair, wears a grey shirt and black work trousers. He stands in front of a grey wall and addresses the camera.] [Video transcript: Today, RNIB is launching our Turned Out Report based on the experiences of blind and partially sighted people at this year's general election. It's more than 150 years since the Ballot Act guaranteed the right to a secret and independent vote, but far too many are still denied this right. Only a quarter of blind voters feel the current system allows them to vote independently and in secret, two thirds of blind voters had assistance to enable them to vote, and 73% of blind and partially sighted respondents did not know that they could request reasonable adjustments and consequently 94% didn't request any. So our key recommendations are that audio and tactile solutions must be available in every polling station, that the government must proactively identify and roll out accessible voting solutions, and that the postal voting system must be reviewed and revised to make it accessible. So read the report.]

Today we’ve launched our 2024 #TurnedOut report about the experiences of blind and partially sighted voters at the General Election in July this year. Our research has found that many voters with sight loss still feel frustrated and humiliated by the current electoral system: https://lnkd.in/eSXd3m-U Only a quarter (26 per cent) of blind people felt that the current voting system allowed them to vote independently and in secret at the General Election. Only half of blind and partially sighted people were satisfied with their voting experience at this year’s General Election. 73 per cent of blind and partially sighted people didn’t know they could request reasonable adjustments from their local polling station to allow them to vote independently and in secret. Solutions do exist, but more needs to be done to get these solutions into polling stations. Above all, we need audio and tactile voting solutions to be available in every polling station. [Image description: "Only a quarter of blind voters feel that the current system allows them to vote independently and in secret." A pink graphic with a white ballot box illustration, accompanied by #TurnedOut24 #AccessibleVoting hashtags.]

Looking to better support your patients with sight loss? Our specialist optometrists Louise Gow and Preeti Singla have curated a range of free training and resources to keep you up-to-date and make sure you know what to do if your patient needs help. We have options for all eyecare professionals and support staff, whether you’re new to low vision or an experienced practitioner. Our two levels of GOC CPD approved eLearning modules have been developed in conjunction with people with sight loss to ensure practitioners understand the needs of their patients. You’re can get in touch with Louise and Preeti at eyecare.professionals@rnib.org.uk. You can find out more about our e-learning, as well as our wide range of other training and resources, on our website: https://lnkd.in/eXrPkJ-N. [Image description: Louise Gow placing a trial frame on a patient during an eye examination.]

What's it like being a blind goth? 🖤 Persi's here to let the bats out of the bag and show off a spook-tacular Halloween costume! [Video description: Persi has short, curly brown hair and wears a black RNIB polo shirt. They sit in a library. A filter has been added with flickering black splodges, like vintage film.] [Transcript: It's harder to be a goth in a village than it is to be blind because everyone knows I'm blind. Everyone's known me from birth. But you start dressing weird and everyone's like: "Ooh, what are you wearing?" I mean, I'm not particularly fashionable today because I'm wearing my work top and all that. But I think I was always different. It started off as "the people that I hang out with are doing this because we're all the weird kids." And it became, "I actually really enjoy looking like this." I like being different. Skulls are fun. Just, you know, I liked the aesthetic. I couldn't look in a mirror. I couldn't see what I was wearing, but that didn't particularly matter. And it was for a lot of reasons. I mean, black is great because things don't clash with it and that's comforting. But also like a lot of this clothing is like really tactile. So there was a period where I was wearing a lot of like lacy chokers and everything had big roses on it and everything was really intricate. Don't do that so much anymore because it's a bit more feminine than I'm really comfortable with now. But you know, I did that for a while and I really enjoyed it at the time. Now it's more kind of a bit steam punky, the kind of stuff I like. So I've got earrings in at the moment that are cogs and I have a ring on that's got like gears on it. And when I go out I enjoy like, I look a bit piratey, I've been told. I kind of like waist coats and frilly shirts and, you know, big platform boots and all that kind of thing. And I wear a lot of jewellery and it's just, it's very over the top. And I go to the pub and like capes and stuff and it's great and I love it. [Voiceover]: Stick around for Persi's audio description of a very spooky Halloween costume - if you dare. [Persi]: So this is a Halloween costume I wore last year. I'm wearing a black and red, kind of slightly oversized, I would say top hat with cogs and things on it. It's very steam punky. I have goggles around my neck that are also very steam punky. They're like silvery and people who can see who've tried them on have assured me that they make everything green if you wear them. I have a long black velvet cloak and kind of white shirt, black trousers - simple - big chunky black platform boots. I look very suave even though I say it myself. And then in this picture the lighting is all red because we have colour changing lights in my house and it looked cool. Not entirely sure what I was supposed to be. It's kind of vampire-y, but it's mostly just cool things I had in my house that I couldn't wear any other time. But if I could dress like this all the time, then I totally would.]