Practical Sensory at Priestley Smith

Big news from TPT. Our Vision Awareness Training for Bus Drivers, developed with Sight Loss Councils and in collaboration with Bus Users UK, Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency, Confederation of Passenger Transport, and Brighton & Hove Buses, has been recognised as Highly Commended at the UK BUS AWARDS 2025, under the Partnerships for Excellence category.

Among those representing us on the night was Lauren Eade, SLC Coordinator for South East England, who played a key role in developing the training. Reflecting on the moment, Lauren said: “It was great to attend the UK Bus Awards and for our work on the bus driver training to receive a Highly Commended award. It’s fantastic to see our efforts making public transport more accessible for passengers who are blind or partially sighted”.

We were shortlisted alongside many outstanding organisations doing vital work. And while we didn’t take home the top prize, being Highly Commended honours both the quality and the impact of what we’ve created, and we’re genuinely proud of that.

When we began developing this training, our goal was simple: to equip bus drivers with the knowledge and confidence to make bus travel safer and more inclusive for blind and partially sighted passengers across the UK. Just months later, thousands of drivers have already embraced the materials, and stakeholders across the sector have welcomed the resource.

A massive thank you to everyone who helped shape this resource, including SLC members now delivering sessions nationwide, and to the judges for recognising the value and impact of this work.

Once again, a huge congratulations to the teams at TPT and the SLCs! We’re proud to be recognised for our work and committed as ever to making everyday travel easier, more accessible, and truly inclusive for visually impaired passengers.



Image description: Alison, Sussex SLC member, her guide dog, Jen Sweeny, Corporate Engagement Manager for TPT, and Lauren Eade, SLC coordinator for South East England Sight Loss Councils being photographed by a photographer against the UKBA backdrop , holding their Highly Commended certificate.

Try climbing with 4x Paraclimbing World Champion and VICTA Patron Abbie Robinson! If your child is aged 10 to 17 years and has a vision impairment you can apply to join us for this free taster session on Saturday 4 May 2024, 2 to 4pm in Coventry. The session will take place at the fantastic Climbing Wall facility, part of the Warwick University campus.

Applications for this free session close this Friday so make sure you get your applications in this week!

Find out more and apply here: https://www.victa.org.uk/victa-calendar/warwick-climbing-day/

Please share! The places for the weekends are now going fast please spread the word as we would like to reach as many children as possible to benefit from our activity weekends.

Are you working with babies or toddlers? Have you seen the resources on Little Amber from Amber Trust ? These are specifically designed to help parents to support their child.

Little Amber Little Amber was setup to give practical help to parents of blind babies.We have specially designed 48 fun and colourful activity cards to help you engage with your child.

Examining the reforms to Disabled Students’ Allowance | Wonkhe Changes to how Disabled Students’ Allowance works are intended to make the system work better for disabled students. Lucy Merritt analyses what’s changing and where the sticking points could be

More have a go days from BBS

'Have a Go' Days Male participant enjoying one of British Blind Sport's Have a Go Days.

TPT has some great advice on applying for DSA for students heading off to university

Applications for student finance loans are now open, which means you can also apply for the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) if you are a full time undergraduate student.

To find out more about the DSA and the new streamlined process, visit Thomas Pocklington Trust’s Student Support DSA webpages which go into detail about the DSA application process and how it can support you during your studies.

https://www.pocklington.org.uk/education/university/dsa/

[Image description: A young female student with a pile of books in front of her, holding a book, smiling and looking up]

This is a really useful video on changing Cane tips, that is worth sharing with students and families

Ever wondered how blind and partially sighted cane users change the ball on the end of their cane? Samantha walks through some simple steps to keep her cane in tip-top shape. Do you have any helpful tips about your cane? 💭 And if you do lose your cord inside your cane while changing the tip, our Cord Fisher (which you can get here rnib.in/CordFisher) can help you retrieve it! The video was originally published on @samantha_gough6's channel and shared here with permission. Samantha is a blind content creator who makes videos about living as a blind person. [Video description and transcription: POV-style video with Sam (and sometimes her puppy) in a hallway talking to the camera. ‘Hi, I'm Samantha and I'm blind, and in today's video, I'm going to be showing you how I changed the ball on the end of my cane. If you're new here, this is Mr Ponte and he goes everywhere with me. But on a recent trip to New York City, the ball actually broke to show you actually what happened to the ball in New York City. Sam, roll the clip.’ The clip is of Sam’s cane tip that looks like the ball tip has cracked in half. ‘Audio description. It is literally half of a ball. It's Easter and you crack up in your Easter egg. It's like half. It's literally it's making this rattling noise and everything. To change the ball, I obviously need to get a new one and that is exactly what I've got here. Well, I have got some gloves to do this. So to change the bulb what you need to do is you kind of just need to pull out of the socket and as you pull out the socket this little plastic thing will come out. It never used to have this so that when you pull it, it then stops you losing the bit of string, you lose the string. You have no way to try and fix your cane. If you want to see what's inside our ball canes, that is literally what is inside our new ball. It's got a hook that you just want to just hook onto the cane itself, put the little plastic thing back through the little hole, the rope, and it should just slide back in. And that is how you transform your cane into a new cane.’]

Just over a week to go until the London marathon where my youngest, Stephen Broadze, will be running on behalf of Guide Dogs for the Blind. If you’ve already donated- thank you so much- we really appreciate it. If you haven’t donated, but would like to, the link is below. No gift is too small, every Penny is appreciated. Think of me next Sunday, hurtling from checkpoint to checkpoint, trying to stay ahead to cheer him on!! 🤣

TCS London Marathon 2023 Help Stephen Broadley raise money to support Guide Dogs

It's UCAS deadline day! Are you applying to a new course? You'll find lots of uni-related resources on the Student Portal. Plus, VICTA Young Ambassador, Natalia Foster, shares her top 5 tips for navigating UCAS and starting university as a student with a vision impairment: https://victastudents.org.uk/ucas-starting-university/



UCAS University of Birmingham