All Posts in October 2010

There are 5 posts.

  1. Written letter in support of Sensory Support Unit

    by Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman on 31st October 2010 3:43 pm
    Sections: Actions,Sensory Support Closure
    Comments: 0 Add a Comment

    Dear Members,

    I have written a letter to the “Norfolk Big Conversation” in support of our Sensory Support Unit and its threatened closure.

    I have also copied the letter to our county councillors here in Yarmouth too.

    See below for the full text of the letter.

    I also hope you can support this action and write a letter in your own words to describe your experiences with the Sensory Support Unit in helping you in the past.

    I am planning to do this as well.

    Thank you.

    Regards

    Shaun

    Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman

    Great Yarmouth VIP User Group

    === Copy of Letter ===

    Great Yarmouth VIP User Group

    The Forum for all Blind and Partially Sighted People.

    Dear Norfolk County Council,

    I am very worried about your proposal to cut the extremely valuable services of the Sensory Support Unit. I would like to take this opportunity to point out several shortcomings to removing the SSU.

    1. The SSU is the only service in the whole of Norfolk in both the public and private sector that provides support and rehabilitation for people who loses their vision through natural and accidental causes. What are these people supposed to do? How would you like it if you suddenly lost your eye sight?

    2. What will be the knock on effect, financial and with resources, on other departments if these people end up in a worse state, medically and mentally speaking? Some of these would end up in care homes which costs many times more than the cost of teaching people in how to manage their sight lost and stay in their own homes.

    3. Under the Equality Act 2010, the council must provide support for the disabled community so your plans to stop the services of the SSU, I would suggest to you that you are somewhat bending the law or perhaps even breaking it. Most certainly breaking the spirit and morality of this Act which is trying to protect the disadvantaged and vulnerable citizens of this county and country.

    It is already very difficult and a major challenge for any blind and partially sighted person to live a “normal” life but your plan is going to rub salt into the raw wound of the shock of suddenly losing one’s vision. Plus I might point out that the central government is already hitting hard , very hard, our financial benefits for people like my members. Are you not caring? Do you understand the pain of losing the most important human sense? Followed closely by deafness?

    Please please re-consider your planned for the Sensory Support Unit !

    It is your duty as our local authority to support us through the upheaval of sight lost.

    Thank you.

    Yours sincerely

    Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman

    Great Yarmouth VIP User Group

    01493 60 22 72 — 07 985 916 244

    vicechair@gyvipusergroup.org.uk

    www.gyvipusergroup.org.uk

  2. Sensory Support Unit under threat of closure !

    by Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman on 30th October 2010 10:10 pm
    Sections: News,Sensory Support Closure
    Comments: 1 See the Comment

    Dear members and friends,

    I have just found out that our Sensory Support Unit in the Norfolk County Council is one of the departments threatened with closure in order to save money! The plan is that it will only do registration work. No more rehabilitations, No more support and no more equipment.

    The people in Sensory Support has helped many of us over the years and we are asking you for your support by telling your local county councillor why this is a bad idea.

    Also you can visit the web site to read more about the proposal at

    http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/Council_and_democracy/Have_your_say/Norfolks_big_conversation/index.htm

    Or you can send an email to the following address

    haveyoursay@norfolk.gov.uk

    (please put in the subject “Norfolk’s Big Conversation” to get your comments into the right place)

    The more of us that write a letter to the council, the more the officers and councillors will realise their mistake!

    Thank you.

    Shaun

    Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman

    Great Yarmouth VIP User Group

    01493 60 22 72 — 07 985 916 244

  3. Qualitative Research on Disability-Related Harassment

    by Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman on 15th October 2010 2:42 pm
    Sections: News
    Comments: 0 Add a Comment

    If you wish to help or know of anyone who would like to help in this research then please contact Judith on her telephone number below. See her email for more details .

    Thanks

    Shaun

    Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman

  4. Random sluggishness on Windows 7 and Networks

    by Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman on 9:58 am
    Sections: General
    Comments: 0 Add a Comment

    Yippee! I thought I was on my own with a problem of sluggishness on my PC ever since I upgraded to Windows 7! I was wondering if I will have to replace my PC or something!

    But thanks to Windows Secrets, it is a common problem with Windows 7 and working with many computers on a network.

    See the article at :

    http://windowssecrets.com/2010/10/14/01-Simple-change-in-settings-pumps-up-Win7-networks

    but in brief, apparently the homeGroup feature which is new to Windows 7 is enabled as default and the security level is set at 128bits instead of 56bits. All this slows down the networking performances but it also seem to cause odd random sluggish moments when nothing happens especially if you are a screen reader waiting for the next voice message!

    I have disabled HomeGroup and turn down the security back to the more normal 56bits level (all Windows XP still runs 56bits level), I now have a much better time with my computer! At last! It was driving me to distraction at times!

    The full instructions in how to do this fix, is in the article above.

    Hope this brings some enlighten to you and your computer!

    All the best

    Shaun

  5. CABE Report on Street Design for Low Vision users!

    by Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman on 14th October 2010 7:21 pm
    Sections: News
    Comments: 0 Add a Comment

    Dear Members

    An very interesting report of a research into safe street designs for low vision users from CABE ! see below.

    I have copied and pasted the web page in this email but you can see the original at

    http://cabe.cmail5.com/t/y/l/cdidid/djqujqh/k People with low vision need less confusing streets

    (http://www.cabe.org.uk/news/people-with-low-vision-need-less-confusing-streets?utm_medium=email http://www.cabe.org.uk/news/people-with-low-vision-need-less-confusing-streets?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMonitor&utm_cont ent=631793177&utm_campaign=CABENews-October2010-VersionA&utm_term=Peoplewithlowvisionneedlessconfusingstreets> &utm_source=CampaignMonitor&utm_content=631793177&utm_campaign=CABENews-October2010-VersionA&utm_term=Peoplewithlowvisionneedlesscon fusingstreets )

    Happy reading !

    Regards

    Shaun

    Shaun McGarry, Vice Chairman

    Great Yarmouth VIP User Group

    01493 60 22 72 ? 07 985 916 244