Hello Everyone,

A few months back, I did a Tag post on The Visually Impaired People’s Tag. This time, it’s a tag that elaborates that one with more detailed questions. A shout out to the wonderful creators of this tag, two of my favorite bloggers- Elin from My Blurred World and Holly from Life of a Blind Girl. Both are young bloggers with Visual Impairment, and I love to read their blog posts very much so you should definitely check them out, too!

And for now, let’s get on with the questions for this tag, this is quite a long post with many questions, so I suggest that you go grab something either your favorite beverage or a snack before start reading!

Beauty/ fashion

1. When preparing an outfit, do you have your clothes set out in a specific way so that it makes it easier for you to choose an outfit yourself?
   As for choosing an outfit, I don’t really have any problems with this, because with my remaining vision, I could still choose an outfit for myself. But, I still do organize my clothes. Sometimes I even pick out an outfit the night before so I don’t have to worry about what to wear the next day.
2. When you want to buy new clothes do youDo online shopping on your own:
   I used to do online shopping when I was more sighted. But, I haven’t try that for a long time so I can’t say much about that.
   Go shopping with someone:
   Yes, I enjoy going shopping with someone, or even shopping alone.
3. When you go shopping with friends/family is there anything that you ask them to do for you to help choose clothes/make-up you might like?
   Yes, I do need some assistance when I shop for clothes, such as looking for price tag, looking for size, because sometimes it’s hard for me to find such information.
4. Do you find it difficult to pick out an outfit due to your visual impairment?
   At this point, I don’t find picking out an outfit for myself as a difficult task to do.
5. Do you find online shopping accessible? Again, I haven’t tried online shopping since becoming visually impaired so I really don’t know. I am guessing that one of the challenges would be that for someone who is visually impaired, it would be difficult since they can’t really see the image of the outfit to decide whether they like it or not.
6. Does your visual impairment stop you from applying make up? If so, why?
   I will be honest that it actually does. Well, I know many people with visual impairment applies make-up just fine, and this might just be me. First off, I am not used to using make up even when I had more sight, and I find applying make up irritate my eyes very much, and since I am also not very good at it, so I don’t bother.
7. Do you organize your clothing/beauty products? Yes, I organize my clothing and beauty products (even though I don’t do make-up, I still have some products) and the reason is because I am a super organized person.
   Mobility
8. Do you have any kind of mobility aid? If so, what is it?
   I am a White Cane user for about a year now.
9. Do you prefer using this or to be sight guided?
   I prefer using my cane than having a sighted guide. Especially when someone I don’t really know offers to be my sighted guide, I prefer to ‘follow’ than holding on to them.
10. If you use a cane, do you feel self conscious whilst using it?
    I don’t feel as self conscious when using the cane now since I am more used to it. But at first, I was very self conscious.
11. When it comes to transport, do you go on the bus, train etc. by yourself? Yes, I could use public transportation such as buses, or trains by myself. Sometimes, I would ask for direction or assistance.
12. How do you feel about traveling independently?
    Generally speaking, traveling independently is not that bad, (during the day it may be fine but at night it can be a great challenge). Also, because I am very terrified of getting lost, so I would always make sure where I go is the right way. Sometimes, especially when I am at a place for the very first time, I would end up asking a lot of people for directions along the way!

Education

1. Do/did you attend a mainstream or specialist school?
   I attend mainstream school and have been since day one of.
2. If you had a choice, which one would you prefer to go to?
   I think I would still prefer to attend mainstream schools, but with more assistance would be more helpful.
3. Overall, was your experience of education as a visually impaired person mostly positive or negative? How could it have been improved?
   I believe that my overall experience of education as a visually impaired (Low Vision) student has mainly been positive. But because I had denied my visual impairment from about when I was in 8^th grade up until my second year in university, those were the toughest time, because I wasn’t getting any help that I needed, and it was also kind of my own fault, because I was hiding my visual impairment from everyone, that prevented me from getting help.
4. Did you carry on into further/higher education? If so, how did you feel about this transition? If not, why?
   Yes, I did carry on into higher education, I am still an university student. After the first two years in university, having done miserably poor, I went to seek support; then everything started getting better and more on track now.

Assistive technology

1. What is your opinion on assistive technology for blind and visually impaired people, do you think it is vital?
   I honestly think that the kinds and amount of assistive technologies that are available for the blind/visually impaired is absolutely amazing and fascinating! I believe that they really do enhance the lives of people with vision loss like myself in every possible way.
2. Do you use assistive technology?
   Yes, I use a number of assistive devices.
3. What assistive technology/specialist apps could you not live without? One assistive technology I can’t live without is actually my phone-I have an iPhone, and that I do so much on it, and especially when so many amazing apps that I use on it as well; and another assistive technology I can’t live without is my super tiny monocular scope for distance viewing when I’m out and about.
4. If you could recommend on piece of technology for a blind or visually impaired person what would it be and why?
   Honestly, I may not be the best person to answer this because I am fairly new in learning all about the fascination of assistive technologies. But, I do recommend blind/visually impaired people consider using Apple products such as the iPhone or MacBook. So far, Apple stands at the top for their accessibility feature.
5. What’s one piece of assistive technology that you’d really like? Currently, I am in the process of upgrading my Zoomtext Screen Reader/Magnifier to the Zoomtext Fusion, and I think after this, I would be stop looking for any new products as I am good with the ones I have!Friendship
6. Do you mainly have sighted friends or blind/visually impaired friends?
   I have both sighted and visually impaired friends.
7. If you have blind/visually impaired friends, how did you meet them? Most of my blind/visually impaired friends I met are through social media; but I also have some friends I made through CNIB, and on campus as well.
8. Do sighted peers understand your disability and try to help you? Honestly, I don’t know for sure whether my sighted peers truly understand my visual impaired. I mean, yes, I do have really wonderful friends that are kind, helpful, supportive and loving. But, I don’t know if they understand the life and the impact and what it means to live with a visual impairment. Nonetheless, I am always grateful and thankful for those wonderful people that have appeared in my life!
9. What’s one thing you wish your friends understood about your disability?
   What I have learned and understood my vision loss was- don’t take anything for granted, and I wish to pass on this message.
10. Who do you tag to do this TAG next?
    I tag any of my blind/visually impaired friends out there to do this tag. Let’s get to know each other better!So, this is the end of this blog post, thank you for reading to the end!By: The Invisible Vision Project