Ethan is one of our Employability Mentors, working with Jo, our Employability Officer, to help and inspire our members to build confidence to explore the options that are available to them. These could be college courses, volunteering opportunities, or looking at ways back into employment.
Ethan is 25 years old and comes from the North East Coast of Scotland. Both Ethan and his brother have Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), although they both have very different experiences of it. Being diagnosed at the age of five, Ethan’s expression of RP has primarily  affected his peripheral vision but in recent years has begun to affect his central vision.
From an early age, Ethan knew that he wanted to be an engineer. He worked hard at school with the help of a scribe and went onto university at age seventeen to study chemical engineering in Edinburgh.
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In 2014 Ethan started his five year integrated Masters degree and managed very well for the first couple of years.
The University was very supportive and he was able to use adjustments on his PC to help his vision as well as extra accommodations were made for exams. However, in his fourth year Ethan experienced a significant degeneration of his sight and he found that it was necessary for more and more technical adaptations to study effectively.
This rapid decline in his vision was quite a shock to Ethan, he felt like a rug had been pulled out from underneath his feet and that everything became more challenging. By the end of his fourth year Ethan had failed several modules.
The University were very supportive and due to the mitigating circumstances he was able to re-sit the year to re-attempt the four modules that he failed. He passed these with excellent grades and graduated in June of 2019, opting to take the Bachelor’s degree.
After graduation Ethan started to look for jobs and had several unsuccessful attempts, but these were not due to his vision. He finally found a job in Berkshire and started in September 2020 (albeit remotely due to covid). His employer, a defence contractor, has been very helpful, but Ethan has found that he has had to personally pursue the support arrangements he needs.
Despite a tough few years Ethan has managed to build his confidence up and has built a mental framework for dealing with his sight loss.
“For someone living with sight loss, make peace or some loose acceptance with it. Stop fighting it and you will have removed a barrier that is holding you back”
Ethan wanted to share his experience with other young people living with sight loss as he wished that he had come to this realisation sooner. Â Last year, Ethan got in touch with Berkshire Vision and has now started working with Jo to help mentor other young people.
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If you would like to find out more about how our employability programme can help you, please get in touch with Jo on 0118 978 2803 or email employability@berkshirevision.org.uk
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