See the difference you’ve made to these RNZFB members’ lives:

Artist’s vision…She might be vision-impaired, but that’s not stopping her

Although vision-impaired since she was eight, Sue is a world-renowned textile artist, best known for her fabric collages, inspired by the majestic landscape of Central Otago.

Magnifying glasses allow Sue to see while she works at her sewing machine creating her textile art.  “It is because I don’t see so well that the images I create are soft-edged, blurred impressions of the landscape.  And it’s because I’m not seeing clearly that I use strong colours.”

Sue uses the computer magnification programme ZoomText to manage email, check out the latest work overseas, organise teaching trips, and order fabrics, threads and frames.  Sue has optic atrophy, which is a deterioration of the optic nerve.  Because it is her optic nerve that is damaged, and not her eyes, a lot of people don’t know that she is legally blind.  “I could be looking at you and you wouldn’t even know that I can’t actually see you!”

Sue teaches fabric collage techniques at national and international conferences and often opens and judges exhibitions.  In September this year, Sue won the SBS Blossom Festival Art Award for her postcard-size piece ‘Frosted Night’.  On the other end of the scale, her four-panel piece ‘The Four Seasons’, measuring four metres wide by three metres high, graces Queenstown Airport.  The piece was commissioned by the Aspiring Arts & Culture Trust.

Learning life’s lessons – Hurled through the windscreen

Nigel learned the importance of wearing a seatbelt the hard way.  When he was 19, he crashed his car into the back of a truck, sending him head-first through the windscreen.  The accident left him blind.

That lesson took him on a new path of learning.  Suddenly Nigel had to find other ways to get on with life.  The RNZFB taught Nigel how to use a guide dog, which gave him the independence he wanted to get around.  Adaptive technology helped Nigel access information on computers.  But he also learned to read braille so that he could read books the way he used to: “I wanted to be able to take a break from machinery and just sit somewhere nice and read a book”.

Now he lives with his wife and seven-year-old son.  Nigel has a Bachelor of Literary Performing Arts and is working towards his Master's in Matauranga Māori.  And as if writing a 40,000 word thesis isn’t enough to keep this family man busy, Nigel also teaches the theory behind kapa haka at Te Wānanga o Raukawa in Otaki.

As Vice-President of Ngāti Kāpo o Aotearoa, one of the RNZFB's consumer organisations, Nigel is passing his lessons on by mentoring other vision-impaired Māori and their whānau so that they too can reach their full potential.
 
Deafblind and 100% active

John is deafblind, but he is also one of the most physically fit and active men you are ever likely to find.

A farmer by trade, John made the move from country to city three years ago.  He now works in a warehouse making stock feed and travels to his father’s lifestyle block every other weekend, where he helps raise cattle.

In April this year, John and friend Rob spent several weeks travelling from Auckland to Oamaru in a specially equipped tandem bicycle.  Their aim was to raise awareness of disabled sport.  Rob, who is tetraplegic, was at the front steering and pedalling with his hands.  John, being deafblind and unable to see the road, was the powerhouse sitting behind.  A keen tramper and outdoorsman, John has walked the Banks Peninsula track and sky-dived in Australia’s Northern Territory.

John has Ushers Syndrome Type 2, which means he was born hearing-impaired and then started to lose his sight as a result of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP).  RP affects peripheral vision, but what central vision John did have was clouded over by cataracts in both eyes.  Operations have helped a bit and, even though he only has tunnel vision, he still leads an enormously active life.