Hi Anna – I agree with you. It is not our visual impairments that
disable us, it is the society in which we live that disables us through
its attitudes and lack of awareness of what it is to have a visual
impairment (or any other kind of impairment for that matter). I too
feel strongly on this issue and advocate the ‘social model of
disability’ in the courses that I co-ordinate in the local university.
I hope everything works out for you the way you want it to!
Take care,
Noreen Power-Waldron (Ireland)

-----Original Message-----
From: Anna Berndtson [mailto:anna.berndtson@...]
Sent: 21 January 2005 12:21
To: retinayouth@...
Subject: [retinayouth] RP & career

Dear All,
I don?t write that often and lately I have bee working towards the end
of
my study, which will be finished in March. But I try to keep up with
what
you guys write.
I originally come from Sweden but I?m living in Berlin at the moment. I
was diagnosed with RP at the age of 13 (am now 32) and have a field of
vision
in the centre, consisting of approximately 10 ? 15 degrees sight. I also
have cataract, which is not getting any better.
Was hopping to actually make it to this years meeting in August, so lets
see, maybe I will actually be able to come?.
About career decisions because if RP:
Well, I just do what I want. I am studying Performance in a college in
Germany,
that?s with in the fine arts. Before I studied Theatre in England. I
have
been working with theatre and dance performances and now I have moved on
more to the area of fine arts performance as well as video
installations.
But all along I was involved with the VISUAL arts.
So, the completely wrong thing to do for somebody who if nearly blind.
But!
I can?t imagine doing anything else. Maybe it is typical for artist you
don?t just work with your art you live it.
I think it is important not to lose sight of your dreams and vision
because
you are visually impaired, blind or might be blind one day
Hopefully I don?t make a lot of people angry now, but I really feel
strongly
about this. If you what to do something you arrange it so you can, make
the people around you se and the society you live in understand that
there
is no such thing as handicapped people, only a surrounding that creates
handicaps. Maybe since I come from a European western society it is easy
for me to speak like this. But I can only speak out of my own
experience.
Maybe other people have other opinions and experiences,
Anyone interested in looking at what I do, you can go to:
www.berndtson-art.net

Take care of yourselves
Anna


>-- Ursprungligt meddelande --
>To: <retinayouth@...>
>From: "Noreen Power-Waldron" <nrpower@...>
>Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:32:57 -0000
>Subject: RE: [retinayouth] Dear All
>Reply-To: retinayouth@...
>
>
>
>Hi Sundar,
>Welcome to the group. I am from Ireland. I too had to change my
career
>plans when I was diagnosed with RP 10 years ago - I did my Masters in
>Social Science as I wanted to be a researcher, unfortunately, the
amount
>of reading required for this was too difficult to continue with it. I
>now work part-time as a course co-ordinator and part time as a massage
>therapist and reflexologist. In relation to your question about
>computers - there is a huge amount of software available for people
with
>visual impairments, making it easier for us to use computers all the
>time. In Ireland, most people with visual impairments use computers to
>help them with reading now.
>I think that there must be lots of career choices for people with RP,
>but we don't have enough information on what's out there - maybe this
is
>an area that can be focused on in our meeting in Sweden this Summer?
>Kind regards,
>Noreen Power-Waldron.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Åsa Gunnarsdotter [mailto:asa.gunnarsdotter@...]
>Sent: 20 January 2005 13:36
>To: retinayouth@...; Sundar
>Subject: Re: [retinayouth] Dear All
>
>
> Dear Sundar and warmly welcome to the list!
>I think there are quite a few on the list that works with computers.
>Caisa from Sweden is one of them. I am a student in PSychology so I do
>not face these problems in the same way.
>
>Hope to see you later on the list!
>Best Reg.
>Asa from Sweden
>
>
>
>> Från: "Sundar" <bssundar@...>
>> Till: <retinayouth@...>
>> Rubrik: [retinayouth] Dear All
>> Datum: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 12:52:45 +0300
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> I have joined this group two days before. Thanks to Manuel and
>Moderators
>> for accepting me one among you. This groups seems to be encouraging
>and
>> supportive. I have been much impressed.
>>
>>
>>
>> Before preceding let me give brief introduction about me.
>>
>> Name : B. Sundar
>>
>> Age : 29
>>
>> Sex : Male, Single
>>
>> Native : India
>>
>> Qualification : Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and
>Electronics)
>>
>> Working as a Project Coordinator at Saudi Arabia
>>
>>
>>
>> I have been diagnosed as RP patient at the age of 21 and symptom
>started
>> at
>> 16. My visual acuity is 6/12 and have enough field vision. But it
is
>> progressing. Recently I am seeing the object as wavy in the right
>eye.
>> As
>> I am out my country, I have checked with local ophthalmologist. The
>doctor
>> said that it is due to the progress of RP affecting central retina
and
>> there
>> is no retinal detachment.
>>
>>
>>
>> My basic worry is that being highly technical and management oriented
>> person, I couldn't able to step up further for my career improvement
>as
>> I
>> missed many good jobs because of medical fitness due to RP. Based
on
>> my
>> assessment about the progress of my RP, I can able to do my job for
>another
>> five years. But after that there is lot of
>question?????????????????????
>>
>>
>>
>> As there is no cure for RP at present, I have to look for an
>alternative
>> career to pass on till the treatment for RP comes to reality. In
>addition
>> to the above skills, I have good software knowledge ie. C, C++,
>Oracle,
>> Visual Basic, MS Office, Autocad, etc etc.
>>
>>
>>
>> I couldn't able to imagine that all these skills will be wasted
>because
>> of
>> RP. Do any of you in the group faces similar problem? If so I would
>> welcome if you could share with me. Hope I will get it.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you for showing patience and spending your valuable time to
read
>> my
>> message. .
>>
>>
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Sundar
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>
>>
>>
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>> retinayouth-unsubscribe@...
>>
>>
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>
>10 Gigabyte Mailbox - mail.spray.se
>
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>retinayouth-unsubscribe@...
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>retinayouth-unsubscribe@...
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


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