Word transcript of transitions video – Jennie’s story
J: My name's Jennie. I'm B1, so totally blind and I have been for the last five years or so. I am currently in the second year of my BSc Psychology course the University of Birmingham. I had support in deciding, you know which accommodation I was going to have. I got a meeting with a member of the accommodation team and we sort of wandered around and looked at about you know how hard it was going to be to get from the different set of halls.
The mobility support, you know it's been paramount. It's kind of meant that I have that level of independence. When I was deciding to move out of halls it definitely played a big part in my kind of thought process. When it comes to getting to and from Uni, I have a mobility officer who looks and says okay, this is where you going, we'll walk through the route to decide what the best things are and so he can pick out key landmarks. Like, I don't know, bollards, raised paving, corners, ends of walls, things like that. One of the sort of most helpful things actually in terms of getting around I found is actually my iPhone. There are so many apps available. I have an app which gives me up to date bus times so I can see when the bus is pulling into each stop.
In terms of the independent side of things like shopping, they're generally you know pretty helpful at you know helping you around the store. Once I've got everything home, I have an app called TapTapSee, which essentially takes a picture of whatever it is you've got in front of you and then tells you what it is. My advice to any student who were visually impaired and were going from school into university I would just to be to learn to stand in your corner and to just play around with your options a bit and make sure that you know, you find people who are willing to help you get where you trying to go.
For more information visit rnib.org.uk/young-people
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