Ellie Cole's Couch - Ayesha transcript

Visual Impairment and accessibility in the community

Ayesha: Being a capacity builder, I'm making sure that the community is accessible and also people with disabilities, they feel empowered. My name is Ayesha Patterson, I'm 32, and I'm a LAC Community Capacity Builder at APM Communities. The condition I have, the cells in my retina are dying, so all the ones that are in charge of your peripheral vision, night vision, colour, depth and then I have cataracts over the top as well. It wasn't until after I left high school that I actually accepted my disability and said, “Stuff it, I don't care what people think,” and it was the best thing I ever did because now everything that's happened in my life is all mainly because I have a disability, which is great that it's led to lots of opportunities and being able to share and empower and advocate for others has been great, and also for myself.

Ellie: It's fascinating to have a difference or impairment and it's almost like you yourself don't feel any differently until someone else tells you that you are. And so when you step into a team or a place that's really inclusive, no one's telling you that you are different and it can be really empowering, don't you think?

Ayesha: It's so empowering, yeah. And I find that with my role at APM as well, being capacity builder, I'm making sure that the community is accessible and also people with disabilities, they feel empowered. I'm very excited with what I do at APM. And every day is different because it can be creating projects or building capacity and skills for people with disabilities. But then also doing that for your community and probably the biggest achievement was last year. City of Mandra won the accessibility awards and I was able to help them win those awards which was amazing with all the work done with other people with disabilities to make the town and city more accessible.

Ellie: What are the assumptions that people make about vision impairments that are the most common, the most common things that you see people make assumptions about?

Ayesha: They assume that just because you can't see, you can't actually do stuff. Or they point or gesture and you're like, “Which way?” or they assume that you could automatically see them. I also think because vision impairments, everyone's varied. Some people, they can see stuff or they're completely blind. So I think that's also when people assume their vision impaired, they just think they're completely blind. And also the assumption everyone with a vision impairment reads Braille. And a lot of people in the community actually don't read Braille. A lot of people do, but not everyone.

Ellie: What advice would you give to a business that wants to support people with vision impairments who are either working there or maybe want to engage someone with a vision impairment to work there?

Ayesha: Don't be scared of employing someone with vision impairment or disability. Look at their skills and try and accommodate or arrange ways that the person can still do their job and not give them a task that they can't actually achieve. Yeah, actually looking at the skills and not be scared of accommodating and creating solutions instead of barriers.