Posted in Useful Information

UK Braille Bank Notes

Something I learnt on my vision loss course is that the UK now has dots on the polymer bank notes to distinguish them.

The Bank of England has worked closely with RNIB to ensure that these notes are accessible to blind and partially sighted people. To make life a little easier.

I can still see them at the moment. Not so much coins though. Unless I have alot of patience to look at them.

Hence why I usually just hand a note over or pay by card instead.

The polymer bank notes started being introduced in 2016 in the UK.

The £10 note has two clusters of raised dots in the top left hand corner. Although they are often called and to referred to as braille notes, there is no braille on it, but raised dots. They don’t mean anything. They are just meant to make the note easily identifiable.

PICTURE DESCRIPTION
Close up picture of £10 note with 2 sets of raised bump dots.

The £20 note has three clusters of raised dots in the top left hand corner.

The £50 (released in June 2021) note has four clusters of raised dots in the top left hand corner. 

The £5 note is distinguishable by the absence of the tactile feature.

So go get your cash out and have a feel!

Posted in Macular Dystrophy explained, Useful Information

Two Blind Brothers – How people with Stargardts see

Stargardt Disease. The most common out of the Macular Dystrophy spectrum of conditions. Because of this, It’s most likely I have this problem.

I haven’t been genetically tested yet for which gene is causing my eyesight loss.

They know it’s Macular Dystrophy, but is yet unclear what sort.

This is a depiction of how the brothers see. Some people have grey/black blobs masking their vision, blind spots and floaters.

Facebook post by Two Blind Brothers

Sometimes you may see me tilting the phone or whatever I’m looking at. This is because of the tiny blind spots.

This is called eccentric viewing which came naturally to me early on.

You can have lessons in this from the low vision clinic or the Macular Society offer it too.

The eyes try to fill the blind spots so words or pictures are sometimes hard to make out or become the wrong word or image, with interesting results now and again.

I’ve wrote about this. If you go to my websites search box on desktop, you can search for anything you like including eccentric viewing.

Link to my website search page

Posted in Step around The World Challenge

Just Giving Final Total!

Together we can achieve anything! Thank you so much. £516! For the Macular Society.

PICTURE DESCRIPTION Picture of total raised for the Macular Society £516