Exposed ceiling joists being held up by acrow support posts with a broken wall to the side

Letting the (brick) dust settle – An introduction into accessible kitchen design

When talking about modifying a space to make it more accessible, one typically conjures up images of a clinical, functional space littered with those chunky white plastic grab handles like someone has just finished kitting out a nursing home and have a job lot of handles left over! But if TV shows like DIY SOS …

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The sun reflecting off the open sea between Nine Wells and Solva, Penbrokeshire. The cloudless sky is bright blue and the sea is still, the sun is making a channel, reflecting off the water, in towards the coastline, breaking only around scatter rocks just off the shoreline which curves around in the distance on the right-hand side of the image

The bitterest pill – How one blind bloke is coming to accept his limitations

It’s a bittersweet time as I sit at the dining table of our holiday rental in a secluded area of the South Wales coastline, not far from the city of St. David’s. It’s Easter Sunday and we’ve just got back from a very wet and windy walk around the headland. The reason we’ve come to …

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An iPhone resting against a laptop screen, both screens are open at the Blind Man with a Backpack homepage. The laptop has accessibility software open showing a zoom level of 6x

The Cookies Banner and the Screen Reader – The ongoing conflict to make the Internet accessible to all

Recently I’ve been spending an extraordinary amount of time sat in railway waiting rooms and the usual way to pass this time is no different to anybody else - staring at my phone, browsing Facebook or Twitter, playing some random game, or simply doing a bit of online shopping. The difference is that I use …

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Chris, a white man in his forties with a greying beard is stood, wearing a tweed flat cap, wraparound sunglasses, green jacket and blue jeans holding a long white cane. he is stood on a viewing platform next to The Iron Bridge at Ironbridge, Shropshire.

The latest member of the Severely Sight Impaired Club

The last of the old articles and a huge milestone for me. Things are continuing to change which is an ongoing adjustment with using new accessibility tools and finding ways to adapt to different environments. First posted: 6 January 2022 Once more, I’m sat with pen in hand on a train, this time waiting at …

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Chris is stood, leaning against a railing with Cardiff Bay behind and the sun low in the sky.

From denial to acceptance: Coming to terms with disability

Originally posted in early December only a few weeks before discovering I was Severely Sight Impaired, this article discussed the various stages of grief that we go through after a traumatic event such as discovering you are losing your vision. Quick update - As my vision continues to deteriorate I am constantly readjusting and resetting …

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A railway bridge at Goring Gap, England crossing the River Thames

Coach D: How one missing carriage kicked off my long cane journey

This piece marked the start of me accepting the need for aids to make people aware of my limited vision. This talks about an incident on a Cross Country train from Southampton to Reading which, as a result, I decided to get myself a symbol cane (it's called Daisy and is always in my backpack). …

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A brown series 2 Jaguar E-Type on a car lift above a white Jaguar Mark 2

Cracked leather and straight sixes, a boyhood dream

Originally written during a summer holiday, this is one of my favourite pieces talking about the impact of being told I no longer had the vision to be able to drive First published: 23 August 2021 It’s a sunny Sunday evening in mid-summer and I’m sat with my brother-in-law outside the village pub just down …

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A view from the dock in Varenna, Italy of the mountains behind Lake Como under a vivid blue sky with wispy white clouds

Blind Man with a Backpack – An introduction

This article was first published in June 2021 introducing the Blind Man with a Backpack. Since then, things have developed somewhat resulting in the business, Axiom Sensory being closed down due to my vision continuing to fade. As I migrate to my new home, I feel it is still a relevant piece so I hope …

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