I’ve been a Scout leader for most of the time since 1992. When I was 18, I led a team of Scouts on a week-long hike across Dartmoor for my Queen’s scout award, using proper old-fashioned maps and compasses — the sort with soggy corners and pencil marks from a dozen previous trips. We even used “leap-frog” navigation in thick fog, where you take turns pacing out distances and guiding each other forward through the mist. Over the years I’ve planned many hikes and taught Cubs and Scouts how to find their way using map and compass, the stars, the sun and the moon.
(more…)Author: Kelvin
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Agree Workplace Adjustments (Strategy 002)
When I went back to work after my illness, one of the most important things that happened was the process around “reasonable adjustments.” Occupational health got involved and set up a proper conversation between me and my manager. Together, we worked out goals that matched what I was realistically able to do with my new limitations. I’m not an expert in the legal details, but I do know that employers have some responsibility here — and being part of a large company definitely helped. We ended up with a living “reasonable adjustments” document, which we reviewed every month. The deal was simple: if I kept to the adjusted goals and did my part, then in the annual performance appraisals I’d automatically get a rating that kept me safe from being penalised or dismissed for underperformance. It wasn’t perfect, but it gave me security and a fair framework to keep contributing at work.
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Lending Central Vision (Strategy:001)
One of the quirks of living with hemianopia is that I’ve had to adopt little tricks to stop myself colliding with people. A favourite strategy is what I call my Lend-central vision. Instead of walking like everyone else, I tilt my head slightly to the left whilst my body continues to walk straight ahead. That way, part of my central vision picks up what most people would normally see with their left side peripheral vision; the bit that I’m missing .
It means I’m steering myself forward using what’s left of my central vision, plus my right peripheral vision. It also means that I’m avoiding colliding with people using a partly out of focus scene. Odd as it sounds, it works — I hardly ever bump into anyone these days. If I’m carrying a symbol cane or a white stick, that helps too: not just for safety, but because it saves people wondering why on earth I’m walking around with my head cocked at an angle.
Half a Mind to .. 