County learning opportunities

Tony worked on a steel processing plant in the 1970s and 1980s but was diagnosed with Scheie syndrome, a degenerative disease, which causes stiffness and swelling in the joints and loss of vision, resulting in his career in heavy industry coming to an end.

Tony realised that he would no longer be able to continue in his current employment so took up learning in order to gain new skills, which he hoped would enable him to find other employment.  Unfortunately, Tony’s disabilities meant that he had to eventually give up work entirely but learning has brought him other benefits and personal fulfilment.

Tony has studied French which has developed his interest in the culture and geography of France and has enabled him to help his daughters and his nephew with their studies; in addition he has been actively involved with helping other visually impaired learners to improve their IT skills, find out what other support is available to visually impaired learners, and pass it on.

He said, “Over the years the stiffness in my joints has become really bad, and my vision is now very poor, so learning has made me get out of the house and go to places on my own.  Learning has led to other things: it has helped me to meet people and make friends; I’m hoping to do as much training as I can, so that I can help other adults find out what learning can do for them.”

Ann Williams, RISE Learning Development Officer added, “Tony is an inspiration to others in his determination not to allow his physical disabilities to prevent him from learning; he has used it as a means of remaining physically, socially and mentally active and, in this respect, he is a role model to those who face similar difficulties.”

Tony is using his knowledge of IT and his experience of coping with a visual impairment to help others.  He has worked as a volunteer at the Gwent Association for the Blind, teaching IT skills to visually impaired people on a one-to-one basis and now, as a RISE volunteer Learning Advocate, he has recently begun helping visually impaired learners to use computers and to advise providers of the needs of visually impaired learners.