Empowerment Project Newsletter Edition

Vintage Voice

Empowerment Project Newsletter Edition January 2017 Hello and welcome to our latest newsletter. Visual Impairment Newcastle upon Tyne AGE or Vintage is Newcastle Society for Blind People‘s project to give visually impaired people aged 50 and over a voice and empower them to stay or become more independent. This issue includes: 150th Anniversary Page 2 Transport Page 6 Attendance Allowance Page 10 IT services Page 11 Activities Page 12 Other agencies’ news Page 13

1 1 150th Anniversary - Research For information on our 150th Anniversary celebrations please see the main Society Newsletter. It’s been a very busy few weeks building on the excellent research into our past already undertaken by our Net and Natter group.  An 1867 group has been set up including visually impaired members, trustees, volunteers and staff.  Thanks to our lovely volunteers and apprentice Courtney we have scanned in nearly 50 Annual reports into large print files to be printed or used on Guide or Word so members can do research themselves.  We have put in a bid for Heritage Lottery Funding and we are waiting for feedback  Bill is heading down to the RNIB archive in London on 26th January. They have annual reports that we don’t have and crucially a 60th anniversary handbook that has a potted history of the Society which may fill in some key gaps What we will do with the research We have a conference provisionally booked for 24th July at the Bewick Room in the City Library. This will look at what the research has revealed and what it 2 says about what we can still do to make Newcastle more inclusive for visually impaired people. We have provisionally booked exhibition space at the City Library for three weeks from 20th July to display the results of research. In addition we will display on our new website. Subject to funding we are hoping for a small book of our research to be published through ‘Then Bridge Publishing’. Flavour of what we've found so far: Here is a flavour of what the research has revealed so far:  There was discussion of a society in 1862 and then again in 1865 before finally being established in 1867. In the same year, a Workshop for the Blind was also established.  We were formed as a Home Teaching society. These were devised by Dr William Moon of Moon alphabet fame whereby a blind teacher would go into blind people’s homes and teach them to read the Bible in Moon. Our first teacher was a Mr Wilkinson. By the 20th century home teaching became a qualification based profession and we have a copy of the handbook that supports the examination in the 1930s.

3  In the 1920s and 30s a blind Newcastle poet E J Sillett contributed a poem each year to our annual reports. He published three books of poetry and we have tracked these down. We have included one of his poems at the end of the Newsletter.  One of our founders, Miss Matilda Gibson, was still a vice president of the Society in her 90s!  Gifts of coals and cigarettes were given to members at Christmas!! How times have changed.  We started a Home Workers scheme and opened a shop to sell their wares in the 1920s. This was at originally at 149 Pilgrim Street.  One of our patrons was the Duchess of Northumberland and a Board member was Chaplain to the Queen!  Alderman James Clydesdale was our President in the late 50s and early 60s. In 1945 he was the first Socialist and blind Mayor of Newcastle. He was also organiser of the Newcastle branch of the Blind Workers Union. Thanks to the sterling efforts of a man who lives in Bedfordshire, we will hopefully be erecting blue plaque on his old home in Benwell, the expected date for this is April. For many years we had an annual trip to 4 Whitley Bay with practical and financial help from Newcastle Rotary Club. But we don’t just want this research to be about the past. We want to bring it up to date so we have a legacy. We need people to be willing to tell their stories so future generations know what life is like for visually impaired people in 2017. We want as many people as we can to be part of the project. Interviews about aspects of your life and what it is like to be visually impaired now in Newcastle. We are hoping to feed this information into the conference. We really want you to take part in whatever way you can. If any of the above has ‘whetted your appetite’ please get in touch with Bill Action Updates Transport We are delighted to say that major progress is being made towards the two main objectives of North East Action on Transport (NEAT). Audio Visual announcements The Bus Services Bill has been amended in the House of Lords to include a requirement that all new buses have audio visual announcements. The Bill is now about to come back for a second reading in the House of Commons on 31st January. We want local MPs to attend the debate and support the Bill. You 5 can really help here. If you get your copy of Vintage Voice before 31st January would you consider contacting your MP to ask them support the Bill? We have a draft letter you could use, but if you prefer to ring them are their numbers and e mail addresses: Newcastle East - Nick Brown Tel: 0191 261 1408 Newcastle North Catherine Mc Kennell Tel: 0191 229 0352 Email: [email protected] Newcastle Central

Chi Onwurah Tel: 0191 232 5838 Email: [email protected]

Disability training for bus drivers NEAT has been campaigning for compulsory disability awareness training for all bus drivers. This would have come into place some five years ago as a European regulation. However, the UK government took the option to defer this requirement. This means that implementation would be deferred until 2018, but we were not sure of the position following Brexit. One of our members asked her MP to write to the Minister for buses to seek clarification and we are delighted to say that he wrote back saying

6 “In 2018 mandatory disability awareness training provisions will come into force, requiring all bus drivers to undergo disability awareness training. This obligation arises from EU Regulation.

There will be means other than the Bus Services Bill to address any need to ensure that these requirements continue to apply to bus operators in the UK once we leave the European Union.” We are also very pleased to say that the new Managing Director for Stagecoach North East is very positive about working with NEAT and in particular disabled people having input in disability training for drivers. This progress means we can start to think more about the other priorities for NEAT including accessible timetables both at bus stops and online. If you have any views about what we need to do about these, please let us know. Accessible information standard We have told you about this standard for the past two years. It has now been in place for six months. For most people, telling services their accessible information needs will be straightforward, but, some people will have more complex needs or they may not have the confidence to tell services. Our project created a template to write your needs on and Nutshell Cards in large print, Braille and audio CD.

7 We have cards and templates you can fill in so if you want them please phone Bill. He will also be giving an update on this at the February CU Wednesday and Mac Groups. Review The government have decided that the Standard has been in place long enough to test if it’s working so NHS England are doing a review in the form of a survey. This is in all accessible formats so if you want to complete one, please contact NSBP and we shall send you one or we can help you fill it in at MEA House. The deadline for the review is March 10th NSBP would also like to know what you think in order to inform our own response. It would be useful if you could consider the following: Have you been to a health or social care service since 1 August 2016? If so,  Have you been asked ‘abbot’ accessible information needs when you go to a health or social care service?  Were these needs recorded?  Have your needs been addressed?

8  If they haven’t, have you thought about making a complaint?  Have you seen examples of good practice? We would love to hear from you so please get in touch - contact Bill if you are interested. Street Charter The signing of the Charter has been put back whilst our colleagues at the Council and the voluntary agencies have been ensuring the Charter is appropriate to a wide range of disabled people not just those with a visually impairment. We hope this makes the Charter stronger and although there’s been a delay we are still looking for an April or May start. There will be more detail about what is in the Charter in the next issue. Help required: We have started our Vintage Action Group and want your feedback regarding the effectiveness of the Charter for visually impaired people in Newcastle. It might mean a bit of legwork - walking down Northumberland Street to test whether there are any ‘A’ boards or trying out the rotating cones at crossings. If you are interested, please contact Bill

9 Attendance Allowance We are delighted to say that a number people phoned up after the last Vintage Voice asking for letters to send to their MPs and as a result of this kind of action, our friends at the RNIB can report the following: “Over the past few months, the Government has been looking at changing the way the older people's benefit, Attendance Allowance, is funded. We were really worried that this would eventually lead to the benefit no longer being available to many older people with sight loss.

As a result of your fantastic support, we're thrilled to let you know that last week, the Government decided to leave Attendance Allowance as it is. This is great news for people with sight loss. Thank you so much for your support. It shows that together, we can really make a difference.” 3 IT Services Tablets course We don’t have a waiting list for our tablets course at the moment so if you want to join to see if a tablet is for you or for help with one you already own, please contact Penny or Bill. We can also provide you with

10 one to one sessions for alternative or additional support where needed. Talking Tech We know of some visually impaired in the city people who are very good with technology so we wondered if you are confident enough to share any tips with other VI people? We are particularly interested in visually impaired accessible apps for phones or tablet or the free screen reader NVDA. Here is an example sent in by one of our members recently: “KNFB reader is mobile and tablet app, it works by taking a photo of a text document which is quickly processed, displayed and read out to you. The accuracy is very high, it is acknowledged by many visual impaired users as the very best way of getting text to speech. You can download it now free from Google Play where you can use it free 20 times as a trial. It then costs £20.99 but you only have to pay once if you download to both a mobile and a tablet.

If people are interested in sharing ideas it might evolve into a regular group - we shall see what the level of interest is but in the meantime if you want to share tips please contact Bill or Penny.

11 4 Activities

Yorkshire Lavender

In feedback we received last year a number of people said they were interested in a day trip to gardens. Bill went with his wife on a day trip to Yorkshire Lavender last year. This is set in a spectacular hillside farm of nearly 60 acres, within the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It includes a set of gardens (one of which is a delightful sensory garden), a café, nursery, sculpture park, shop and maze amongst other things. There’s lavender everywhere - plants to buy, the lavender is used homemade gin and even the scones! We wondered if people might want to go in the summer either on a pre organised tour (last year’s was early July) or to see if we could charter a bus trip. Let us know if you are interested.

5 Other agencies’ news Vision Hotels Earlier this month we asked Action for Blind People for an update on Vision Hotels. They have replied that there will be publicity to sell the two hotels owned by Guide Dogs from January 2017. “Action will continue to operate the Cliffden Hotel and Windermere Manor hotels while they are marketed for sale by Guide Dogs. When Guide Dogs has received expressions of interest for one or both properties then both Guide Dogs and Action will

12 review their options going forward in the best interests of blind and partially sighted people.” In the meantime the local RNIB are organising a weekend at the Windermere Hotel. Please see next section for more details. Guide Dogs From our friends at Guide Dogs .The next Guide Dogs Coffee morning will be taking place at the Guide Dogs Office at Park View House, Benton on 1st of February, starting at 10.30 am with other events planned for April and June. These coffee mornings are an excellent opportunity for people to get together, make new friends and if they wish, learn more about what we as an organisation do. Not to mention, enjoy some tea or coffee and some cake! Anyone who wishes to attend is welcome. Should you require any further information, or would like to confirm your attendance at the event then please contact the Guide Dogs office on at 0345 143 0220. Windermere Manor Hotel RNIB Connect weekend 10th to 12th March Peter Bennetts, RNIB Trustee, is organising an RNIB Connect weekend at the Windermere Manor Hotel on 10, 11 and 12 March. The cost is £139 per person to include dinner bed and breakfast. There will be drinks on arrival, wine tasting on Friday evening, entertainment on Saturday evening and karaoke on Sunday evening.

13 During the day on Saturday Peter is hoping to arrange some Connect sessions. What is Connect? How can we Connect more effectively? What do we want from Connect and what can we put in?

Individuals should book directly with the Windermere Manor Hotel quoting North East Connect weekend. The phone number for the hotel is 01539445801. They should also contact Peter to let him know that they have booked. His e mail address is [email protected] Alternatively, phone Bill and he will let Peter know. Peter also hopes that coach transport can be arranged from Newcastle on Friday 10 March to Windermere and return on Monday 13 March from Windermere to Newcastle at a cost of £25. This should also be booked with the hotel direct.

Northern Alliance Ushers and RP Group We are glad as ever to share news of the Alliance and their next meeting on Saturday 11th March 2017 at 2pm, The Bridges Hotel – upstairs function room, Castle Square, Newcastle, NE1 1RQ Telephone: 0191 232 6400 Guests for this meeting include  Mr Gavin Neate from Neatebox with his fabulous invention which assists the disabled to use traffic lights with ease.  Miss Molly Watt to talk about the latest technology to enhance the deafblind world.

14 Contact for any further details is Colin Hetherington on 07900 960154 or email [email protected]

Tyneside Cinema accessibility for visually impaired users The Tyneside has  A lift to all floors.  High contrast signage throughout the building, complete with braille.  Accessible toilet facilities on floors 2 and 3.  For people who are also hard of hearing they use the Phonic infrared headset system to provide amplified sound in our screens. Headsets are available for this service from the Box Office on the ground floor.  Selected film screenings in their programme are presented with audio description or subtitles for the hard of hearing; please check the weekly film listings for details or ring us for the information.

15 DELAY (Originally published in our 1933 Annual Report)

'Tis easy to think of to-morrow So easy it is to delay. To hold back the words you might utter The kind word, none other can say. 'Tis easy to dream of to-morrow. But better to act well to-day. To reach out your hand to another And give him a lift on the way.

ED. J. SILLETT

Registered Charity Number: 1115815