Lyndsay Scott
Lyndsay
Hi, I am Lyndsay, I am 33 years old.  Most of my life, well all my life I have struggled with a visual impairment. Went through school with it, my whole adulthood with it, and found it really hard.  
When I left school I wanted to do hairdressing and I went to college for a year to do hairdressing and I was told that I stood too close to the clients so it wouldn’t be the right career for me – so I was very disappointed at that.  
After that I tried working in a few shops as well, but it never really … I never really felt comfy anywhere – no, it wasn’t what I wanted to do.
Wilma McElroy
I manage three cafes that are posted throughout Scotland – one in Falkirk, one in Edinburgh and one in Partick.  The cafes are actually set up to help people with visual impairments, hearing impairments or any other disabilities, and give them all the support that they need.  Any changes that have got to be put in place to support them in their work, that is my job to make sure these things are put in place.
Lyndsay
I made contact with RNIB through my local Job Centre – I had been signing on for a couple of months and I had been fed up going to the Regeneration Agency.  And I saw a Disability Advisor who put me in touch with the Shaw Trust and that is ran through RNIB.  I went for an interview and they set me on the road to the café. 
I had no experience of catering at all, apart from in the house, so I was quite hesitant at first when they mentioned it.
Wilma McElroy Any new staff that starts, I have an interview and an induction with them, and I ask them any help that they will need with any work that they have got to do. For example if they have got a visual impairment, they might need something in large print and larger utensils and tools and stuff to use.
Lyndsay
Well I went for my interview and I was put into the job placement as a six month placement and they helped me with a bigger till, larger print, chopping boards where I could see what I was chopping up exactly and if a hair had happened to go down you would notice it on the back of these chopping boards. 
Wilma 
So when Lyndsay started with us at first she had no catering experience, no confidence, nothing – so once she was there a couple of weeks we started putting things into place like large print, changed the till, changed a few things for her, and she just came on leaps and bounds then.
Lyndsay
I hadn’t been in employment for about 3 or 4 years before, since I had my daughter, and when I went to work in the café and realised I could do it and settled in well, I was really, really happy.  It has made me overcome the barriers of trying to get into employment, and working for RNIB, because there are so many people with a visual impairment round about me, it has helped me realise just to accept it really.
Wilma 
She done that well that at the end of the 6 months she got an extension and we were looking for someone to run a café in Falkirk on a year’s funding.  So Lyndsay applied – there were other people applied for the job - but Lyndsay applied for the job and she got it, and that is when she got made up to the Café Supervisor, which took on a lot more responsibilities like stocktaking, stock control.  Then she had three community job fund trainees working for her – and she trained them up to the standards that she was taught.  And once her year was up, then this opportunity came up with RNIB as a permanent Café Supervisor, and she has really excelled herself over the past 18 months.  When I look at Lyndsay now to what she was like 18 months ago, you know, she has just come on leaps and bounds – she is so confident and she is really, really good at her job.
Lyndsay
I would just like to say to all the employers that think when they see somebody having a visual impairment, they think “oh they can’t do the job, they are worthless” – I would just say “think again”, because I can do the job as well as someone who has got their full eyesight, that has got all their faculties – I am no different from anybody else.  It’s just a few adjustments that need made.  So I think employers needs to take a good look and make the adjustments, because they will be letting some good workers slip through their fingers.
Wilma
And I just wish other people and other employers would start looking past the disability and give people a chance and support, because they are all capable of doing a job.
Lyndsay
I have never really accepted having a visual impairment, but I think now with being accepted into society and being part of a team and realising that I can actually work to provide for my daughter and provide for myself, it has made me have a different outlook and it has made me feel more worthwhile – I don’t feel worthless any more. 

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