Visually impaired accessibility advocate, culture vulture & London explorer
Author: Glen
Love London, love a laugh, love life. Visually impaired blogger, culture vulture & accessibility advocate, with aniridia & nystagmus, posting about my experiences & adventures.
Harry Potter has been cropping up with some regularity in my London itinerary over recent months. Back in October I saw The Cursed Child at the theatre, complete with a touch tour on stage and audio description during the show, which was amazing, And shortly after that I did the Tour For Muggles, which was a very enjoyable walking tour around filming locations in London. And later this month i’ll be going to the British Library’s History Of Magic exhibition.
But last weekend I did something which trumps all of that in the Harry Potter stakes, by visiting the Warner Bros Studio Tour: The Making Of Harry Potter. So in this extensive post I’m going to tell you all about my experience, including some of my thoughts from an accessibility perspective, and the merchandise I picked up.
Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and that 2018 is a joyful and prosperous year for you. 🙂
This Christmas marked my first anniversary of moving to London. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long already. And 2017 has been an amazing year! Although I was already used to getting around the city from my previous visits, it was still a leap into the unknown in many respects to actually live here. I had no idea how well it would work out, how safe or comfortable I would feel, how accessible events and attractions would be, and how easy it would be to make friends.
But it’s been more than worth the effort, and I’m extremely happy with how well it’s gone, given all the friends I’ve made, places I’ve explored, new things I’ve tried, and the opportunities I’ve taken up. A year ago I never imagined that I would be doing many of the things that have transpired in the months since.
I’m also pleased that my blog, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages have had a steady increase in followers over the year. Sure, I don’t have big numbers compared to the bigger bloggers out there, but relative to where I was a year ago it’s been a substantial leap. And my goals for this haven’t been about the numbers anyway. Making connections, sharing my experiences and spreading a bit of awareness was always my aim, and I’ve been achieving that. It’s resulted in numerous opportunities and new experiences, including guest posts, a public speech (with another planned for next year), participating in a research study (which is continuing next year), being interviewed by a journalist, and more. My efforts have been paying off more than I could ever have imagined, and I’m loving it.
But above all, thank you so much to everyone I’ve met and interacted with during the year, whether it be in person or online. By reading, liking and sharing my content, leaving comments, asking questions, sending me private messages and emails, giving me opportunities for guest posts and public talks, and even meeting up in person, you’ve helped to make this year a very special one for me. Especially Aniridia Network UK, Nystagmus Network, London Vision, Thinking Bob, VocalEyes, RNIB, Scope, Fashioneyesta, Life Of A Blind Girl, My Blurred World, Luke Sam Sowden & All The Stations, but also everyone else that I’ve had any kind of contact with during the year.
Everyone has been very positive and supportive, and your involvement has enabled me to start this new chapter in my life with confidence and comfort, and fun and friendship. And for that I’ll always be very grateful. 2017 will forever be one of the most significant and happy of my life, nothing will take that away.
And I’ve had a lovely Christmas to finish it off in style, so I wanted to bring you up to date with how it went and the various things I enjoyed. This is quite an epic post as a result, and I’ve also filmed a video that mentions some of the stuff here along with my general reflections on 2017 as a whole. So I hope you enjoy!
Having not been to a pantomime for quite a long time, and with plenty of them taking place across London, it’s been fun to attend a couple of them during my first proper Christmas as a resident of the city. Especially as both shows had audio description as well.
So I figured I’d combine my reviews of them into one post, and I hope you enjoy reading about them!
This is the last in my triple bill of tag response posts to finish off the year. And this is the Colours Of The Rainbow tag by Luke Sam Sowden, which asks for the meanings that you associate with various colours. So I thought it would be something different and fun to do, and I tag anyone else who wants to respond to it as well. I hope you enjoy my answers!
The topic of disability misconceptions comes up regularly, so it’s always an interesting one to talk about. So I nominate anyone who wants to join in with it, as I know many great disabled writers and Youtubers in amongst the many blogs I follow. Thank you to Holly for nominating me, and I hope you like my answers to the questions!
As if nominating me for the Liebster Award wasn’t generous enough, Holly from Life Of A Blind Girl has also nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award twice this year, in January and October, which is very kind indeed, thank you Holly! Do go and check out Holly’s blog, as she publishes lots of great posts about visual impairment, disability awareness and her hobbies and interests.
The Blogger Recognition Award simply requires you to write a bit about your blog and give advice to new bloggers, and then nominate other bloggers to do the same, to share the love and give them some exposure and recognition. So that’s what I’m going to do here. Thanks again to Holly for nominating me!
Today’s post is the Getting To Know Me Tag, which is basically 20 questions about me. This is in response to the tag video by How Casey Sees It, a great visually impaired Youtuber who I recommend you check out if you’re not aware of her already. And I’ve made a video to go with this post as well.
So I hope you enjoy finding out a few things about me. And I tag everyone reading this who wants to do the tag themselves too.
I’ve had an increasing number of parents responding to my videos and written posts since I started blogging, as it’s given them comfort to know that being visually impaired isn’t a barrier to living a good life. And I’ve been very humbled and pleased to be able to give that reassurance. So I just wanted to make a quick post and video addressing them parents directly.
This week I finally went to my first concert since moving to London. I’ve been to a few musicals this year, but not an actual concert. And this was in arguably the most iconic concert venue in London – The Royal Albert Hall. I went there with the family in my youth for a Christmas concert, though I don’t remember it now of course. So going to a Christmas concert there this year felt like the first time really. And it was all for a good cause too.
Following on from yesterday’s post about the V&A Museum, I want to tell you about another museum I visited recently for an audio described tour.
The Wellcome Collection is a museum that focuses on health, life, science and medicine, looking at what it means to be human. I went there a few times with the family when I was very young, although I have no clear memories of it. I just remember it was a place that we really enjoyed. So when I saw that VocalEyes had organised an audio described tour at the museum, I happily signed up.
Well Eye Never 
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