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Annie: Now joining me is Steph Cutler who experienced sudden sight loss but it has spurred her on to success in business. Good Morning.
Steph: Good morning
Annie: Good morning, good to have you with us. You haven’t always had sight problems?
Steph: No, I haven’t. It was about two years ago now that I was told out of the blue that I was going to lose my sight. At the time I was working hard and partying hard in London...
Annie: ...as you do!
Steph: ...As you do! (Laughing) I was a fashion designer, so a very visual job.
Annie: Oh lord (!) and had you had any problems with your sight, I mean was it really very sudden?
Steph: Yeah, up until then my sight had been perfect and it affected one eye first so it did take several months before the second eye started to deteriorate also, and that was when my sight was affected. That was nearly eighteen months ago now.
Annie: ...and obviously you’re sitting before me now, but when you came in you said, don’t make too many movements because you can’t see. How difficult is it to see?
Steph: I have experienced central vision loss so I have quite a lot of useful vision. I’ve got good peripheral vision erm…what that practically means is that I can’t see my computer screen, I can’t see to read or write but my mobility is good because I can see not to bump into things because I have got the peripheral vision. My sight is stable now so it shouldn’t get any better or any worse...
Annie: …but having said that you sound remarkably stoic about it, I have to say, but having said that you can’t see most things that most of us take for granted.
Steph: Yes, it’s enough to be a problem. It’s difficult to recognise people and although I don’t bump into things, knowing what train and bus, where I am in the city and that kind of thing can be a problem, yeah.
Annie: You said you were working as a fashion designer so presumably you needed to change career?
Steph: Yeah, well when my sight did start to deteriorate I came back to the Midlands to work out what I was going to do with myself. It was quite an uphill struggle because I had to relearn how to do lots of things with access technology, which helps visually impaired people to continue to do things such as using a computer with erm, my computer talks to me so I had to relearn how to do all that again, which took a bit of time but I’m back on track now with all of those sorts of things.
Annie: They say every dark cloud has a silver lining. And in a way this has been for you because it has led you to your business, Open eyed. Tell us about that business.
Steph: Yeah, well off the back of my experiences really of learning to live with my visual impairment I came to realise that lots of the barriers that disabled people face are very often created by non-disabled people’s lack of awareness and I thought there might be something I could do about this. With my experience and the huge amount of research that I have done I have set up my business, Open Eyed which has two parts to it really. One side is that I have been going into schools and talking to the children about sight loss and disability. I have them doing interactive activities with glasses that simulate different types of sight loss so they really experience…
Annie: …they know what it is like.
Steph: Yeah, and I have had a fantastic response from that.
Annie: I bet. Steph stay with us, also on the line is Nazar Hussein from Action for Blind, Nazar, good morning.
Nazar: Good morning.
Annie: Good morning. This, I mean, you know it’s something nobody wants to happen but it’s proof, is it not, that you know that if you do suffer sight problems or sight loss that life can continue and very successfully?
Nazar: Absolutely! There are many services out there really geared to assisting blind and partially sighted entrepreneurs and I’m sure we’ve got a great example with Steph. Steph is highly motivated and really my role was just to work with her in terms of business plan coaching,market research and customer profiling and accessing funding but, yeah, absolutely there is help and assistance available and if tapped into rightly you can definitely make a great start towards setting up your own business.
Annie: Steph, it’s led you to be short-listed for some business awards?
Steph: Yeah, I’ve been short-listed for the Handbag.com and Barclays business Plan Award, which was really exciting. That was just really great recognition and a really great way to start a business. I was short-listed for the category, ‘Overcoming Adversity’.
Annie: Which you clearly have.
Steph: Yeah, definitely.
Annie: Has that been partly because you have had the support of the likes of Action for Blind but also it’s very much you as a character?
Steph: Yeah, I mean you have to want to do things, I definitely, from the very start knew that I wasn’t going to sit around and let things get to me...
Annie: …and feel sorry for yourself.
Steph: Absolutely not, and that isn’t in my nature but that said you do need support from people and Action for Blind People is an amazing charity that does help.
Annie: When will you find out if you have won?
Steph: I was just short-listed er...
Annie: ...you see I think you just should have won!
Steph laughs
Annie: They got it wrong you should have won!
Steph: I should have! You should have been a judge, Annie!
Annie and Steph laugh
Annie: God knows I get asked to judge enough things. Why didn’t you ask me to judge this one!! Anyway, continued success. I think you are a remarkable lady and I stand in awe so thank you very much indeed.
Steph: Thanks.
Annie: And Nazar Hussein from Action for Blind People, thank you very much indeed.
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