Stories - experiences around people living with disability
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SHARI'S STORY
I'm Shari. I have no vision at all out of one eye, and only a little bit out of the other one. What you can see at 60 metres, I can only see at two metres. It means I have to get really, really close to see things. So, I don’t have much vision, but it's OK! I wouldn't want it to get worse though.
I am very independent. I don't like people helping me that much. I just do it on my own. If I get hurt doing something, I just get up again and keep going. When people try to help me I just say, "Go away, I don’t need your help, thank you." At home I normally watch TV. I like sport: rugby; wrestling; all that stuff. And I like comedies such as “The Simpsons”. I can see it alright – we have a big TV and I just sit very close to the TV, and it's really OK! I also jump on the trampoline (a lot), talk on the phone, and hang out with my friends; just the normal stuff.
I ride my bike and my scooter –up and down our drive or on the footpath if I've got a friend with me. It was one of my goals to learn to ride a bike, so I taught myself. I learned on this tiny little bike so it didn't hurt too much when I fell off, but then I got a bigger one. The first day I got my scooter was on Christmas Day when I was 7, and I fell off into one of the posts on our house. That really hurt!
My friends are OK about my disability. They think it's cool, because I've got all this cool equipment and they like to have a go with it. I'm like, "Sure! Go ahead". I have a laptop and it has zoom text on it which is great. I can't use a mobile because I can't see it, though I've got a magnifier and if I put it over my sister's phone I can see it. I think they're going to make phones that can talk, though, and that would help.
Next year I'm going to Avonside Girls' High School. Lots of my friends are going there too. I'm looking forward to it! I don’t like the uniform though. They already have two people who are visually impaired at the school. In the first year I'm doing German for a full year. And I'm doing History for a half year, and I'm hoping to do Braille for the other half year, because I have to continue with my Braille lessons. Jenny, who's my RTV (that's Resource Teacher for the Visually Impaired or something like that) will come and teach me there, so I don’t miss out on anything. I hope the school will agree to that.
I haven't got a clue what I want to do when I leave school. But since I was really young I've always really liked history. I want to go to Egypt one day! And I thought about learning German, because I've done Maori and Japanese at school, and I want to do something different!