life in the darkness

I saw an article yesterday, about a blind person on the iom doing a podcast. She is able to get more help and support at school than I ever did. It feels quite frustrating, as I paved the way for her. I was the first child born blind, in 13 years on the iom in 1993. There was no sensory support service over here. My nan had to fight along with other people, to get such a service established. The teachers had learned braille alongside me. They brought the books along into the classes. I had psychological, physical, as well as verbal abuse from a support worker for 12 years. It took 12 years, for the head of the support service to do anything about it. No one listened. No one listened to me, my Nan, or the teachers who reported it. I was never allowed to interact with the main-stream teachers. If I didn’t understand anything, they were not allowed to help me. The education minister at the time, failed me. I was placed in SEND class at the iom college. The then minister refused to pay for me to go to RNCB. In hereford. Now, this person is getting everything! Help regarding braille technology. IPads. Help from her drama teacher. I was never allowed to do drama properly at school, nor my musical tallents to be nertured. Yet people fail to recognise that I paved the way. My educational life was nothing but a failure! I have been failed by our current government! No employment, due to epilepsy refusal! Insurance rubbish! Health and safety! You expect me to be happy for this person? Yes, I am. I hope she achieves her dreams. But it makes me feel very hurt, and upset when I am not recognised for how much I was a guinneapig for the iom education system and the government at the time in general! I did not do my Open University degree with help from them! It was no thanks to you! It was thanks to a charity! So no, I’m not happy that the BBC and douglas council are recognising this. Where is my recognician! What did I do? Go through educational hell! That’s what happened! I went through hell and experiments! My life hasn’t been easy! It still isn’t! I can’t get a job, because of insurance rubbish, as stated above! You think that’s okay? The only thing I can do is volunteer, but even that’s restricted! You think that’s okay? Employers refuse to acknowledge my CV, or even agree to try to do anything, and say the software isn’t accessible! You think that’s okay? no!!! But here we are! Think about who paved the way! Think about what would be the case if I had not been your guinneapig. I have a BSC)hons) psych)open) cert)he) but no thanks to you.