Max Conway, RNIB's National Involvement Coordinator shares the latest opportunities for blind and partially sighted people to get involved in.

Opportunities highlighted this week included:

This opportunity is from Charlotte Jones, who works in RNIB’s Insight Team and is working on a series of short podcasts and videos to educate our staff and the wider public on a range of topics which affect people with sight loss.  The next round focusses on technology and Charlotte’s keen to share clips of blind and partially sighted people sharing their experiences of technology - good and bad. She’d like to hear what barriers you encounter when using tech and or how tech enables you to be more independent.

The podcast will be shared externally but the video will remain internal and be used to educate staff across RNIB on the benefits and barriers technology creates for people with sight loss. 

This is an opportunity to be part of a research group with RNIB and The National Institute for Health and Care Research.

The RNIB and the NIHR want to know, Do you have one of the following eye conditions?   

• Glaucoma 

• Cataract 

• Uveitis  

• Retina/ inherited eye conditions 

• Paediatric ophthalmology and neuro-ophthalmology i.e., Squint, Amblyopia, neuro related. 

• Those who have eye conditions that affect the external eye (cornea, lids, lashes, and conjunctiva)   

Or do you currently use low vision services or optometry services? 

If the answer is yes we have an opportunity for you to support the RNIB and the NIHR (The National Institute for Health and Care Research) with their research projects. 

The NHS are designing new features for the NHS App, and they need your help to test how useful they are and if they are accessible with any assistive technology you may use.  They have online research sessions taking place 19th and 20th October via Microsoft Teams to test some of their new features.

If you don’t already have Microsoft Teams, they will ask you to download this onto your device. they will give you a link to their NHS App prototype and ask you to share your screen. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do this, they will test this with you a few days before.

You will then be given a few tasks to try and complete and you can help to test how good the designs are. Sessions will last between 45 minutes and 1 hour and they will thank you by sending you a £45 gift voucher.

To find out more about these items and how you can get involved with RNIB Connect Voices do visit -

https://www.rnib.org.uk/connect-community/connect-voices-network/connect-voices-current-opportunities

(Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)