Imaibell's Story
Imaibell (28) works as Policy Support Officer for Supervision, Law & Safety at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Imaibell studied Public Administration/Government Management. She really enjoys boxing in her free time.
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Imaibell is visually impaired. Her visual impairment can be really frustrating when she does not know where she is or how to find her way around. When she started studying, she travelled by public transport. And as soon as she lost her bearings, for example when walking to the bus or the underground, she became extremely frustrated because she did not know where to go. And what made it even more frustrating was that at such a moment, she could not gauge how close someone was to ask for help. Another example was at the training course. If you do not know the building yet, you have no idea where the toilets are, let alone how to get there. You do not know anyone, and you still have to ask someone for help.
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According to Imaibell, the fact that you cannot orientate yourself independently in traffic or in a public space is one of the most frustrating things for someone with a visual impairment. Even if help is nearby, the discomfort you experience every time is something that keeps coming back.
It would really help if these kinds of things were better organised for the blind and visually impaired people. There is still too little thought given to the design of public spaces, such as the fact that guide lines are almost never installed in parks to make them accessible for people who are visually impaired. And it is the same in the digital world. Websites are often inaccessible, making it really difficult for visually impaired people to carry out administrative tasks on inaccessible government websites.
Nowadays, this is given careful consideration because it is necessary, but it is still a problem that occurs. The same applies to illegible labels on products, which are difficult for people without an impairment to read. It would be better if labels were printed in larger fonts or in Braille. Medicine packaging often has Braille on it, but then a sticker is placed over it, rendering it completely useless. This has led me to automatically look for alternatives and to be able to look at a problem from different perspectives. Imaibell is proud that she has taken more space and initiative to speak about social issues that are important to her, both at work and in her free time.
An important message to convey is that inclusion is not just a matter for the government, but for all of us.
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© Photographs taken by Frauke van Lierop
