Dom is Berkshire Vision’s Sight Loss Support Officer for Windsor and Maidenhead. Her job involves working with people at any stage of their sight loss journey providing emotional and practical support. Living with sight loss herself, Dom is able to provide that all important peer to peer support.
Dom started to lose her sight in 2019 due to optic atropy and her sight loss almost happened over night. With optic atropy, by the time you notice problems with your vision, the damage has been done and it is too late for treatment. One evening at dusk, Dom was driving down a road she knew well, when she realised she was going down the road the wrong way. She went to the opticians the next day, who sent her for an emergency referral. She gave up her driving licence two weeks later and within a year was registered severely sight impaired.
Dom says she did not deal with her sight loss well, but being in covid lockdown helped as no one was going out and doing anything so she felt she was not missing out. When Dom had to give up driving and leave her job, she found it really hard. She had been a carer for over 20 years, was just studying for her level five qualification and had hopes of going into nursing.
But, she decided she needed a purpose, and when she was told about an opportunity at Berkshire Vision it sounded right up her street. She is now one of our seven Sight Loss Support Officers that cover the whole of Berkshire.
Dom is able to do her job using her long cane, adapting each day as needed and utilises Access to Work. Access to Work provides her with the funds to pay a driver to get her to the office and to appointments with members. She also is able to pay a PA to assist her with admin work when needed. Currently she is just adjusting the contrast and magnifying the screen on her laptop to see, but as her sight loss is progressing she will soon need to start using some accessible software.
Dom’s personal experience with visual impairment proves invaluable when she meets with members, having been on a similar sight loss journey herself. She often gets told that “It’s nice to have someone in a similar position to talk to”.
Dom tells the members the same things she told herself in the early days It does take time, and it does get better. You need to find your purpose.
Dom loves her job and working at Berkshire Vision as she is still helping people. The most important thing is
that “I feel included. I don’t get any special treatment, I just get treated normally. I really feel part of the
team”
If you’d like to find out more about our employability support email Jenna on Employability@berkshirevision.org.uk or call us on 0118 987 2803
