Samiya Houston
Last year we ran a campaign #UnlockingEducation, raising awareness of and promoting the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (CFVI). We used five films about blind and partially sighted young people created in partnership with TPT and VICTAR, University of Birmingham. One of the films featured Samiya and we were excited to catch up with her recently to see how she’s getting on.
Samiya is now on the TPT Get Set Progress Internship programme at UCAN Productions, a performance and creative arts charity, working as a Trainee Creative Workshop Leader. She leads on drama workshops and visits schools to promote UCAN. She’s loving making a difference, helping people in her role and is having so much fun.
“Having started as an actual young participant of UCAN myself, I feel that they’ve given me so, so much in developing my confidence and taught me new skills. It feels amazing to be able to give something back.”
She hasn’t had to have any adjustments at work as it’s a charity for people with vision impairment where most of the staff have VI themselves, and all their practices and processes are designed to be accessible. Samiya started an application for Access to Work to enable her to travel by taxi to different schools for her role sharing UCAN’s activities and recruiting participants. Unfortunately, there was such a delay, she’s given up on it. She thought her internship would probably be over by the time Access to Work was sorted.
Another part of her role is collating all the games and activities that UCAN has produced into a shared manual for everyone to use.
“It just feels amazing to be entrusted with the responsibility of something as significant and important as that.”
We were interested to find out if being on film and part of a social media campaign has changed her life at all. She said, with a smile, that it hasn’t in terms of getting her agent or anything like that, but it has made a difference in a quieter way:
“It’s given me more confidence to advocate for myself and actually tell people about my vision impairment and how it affects me and what I’m actually doing and what I want to do.”
She has some anxieties about what she will do post internship but feels she’s in a much more optimistic place than she was when she did the video.
“I suppose I just have to keep working hard, explore different options, meet people and I’ll just see what happens really. I can’t control it.”
Samiya thinks the CFVI is very helpful to children with vision impairment and for everyone who supports them.
“I think that this framework is going to give everybody a better understanding of the skills that VI children need to learn to participate in school life, enjoy themselves and prepare for their future.”
Working in schools running the sessions for UCAN, Samiya has met several QTVIs (Qualified Teacher of VI) from the area who teach the blind and partially sighted children. She’s considering training to be one of the specialist teachers in the future.
She thinks if the CFVI had been around when she was at school, the focus on independent living skills and learning how to use a cane would have been most beneficial to her. Her teachers at school didn’t think she needed a cane as she has some sight.
“But I think that the white cane specifically would have helped me feel confident when travelling independently.”
Since learning to use a cane as an adult with Sight Cymru, she has learnt to use public transport by herself which has enhanced her independence and confidence hugely.
When she was in the sixth form, she was asked if she’d like to learn how to use the bus by herself, but she said no because she had a lot going on with exams, but she also felt scared about doing it. She now wishes she’d said yes as she’d have been independent a lot sooner.
In the films, all the participants were asked what they would say to a politician. If she were to speak to a politician now, Samiya would say:
“Just listen to us and what we need and what we want, because we’re all different. Vision impairment is a wide term, it can mean so many different things. Some of us need more help in certain areas than others and have barriers in more areas than others. So, I would say, please listen to us and give us a hearing and don’t try to fit us all into the same box.”
To find out more about our work on the CFVI and to watch all five #UnlockingEducation films click here.
Find out how Local Authorities can support and promote inclusive, accessible education and the opportunity to thrive for blind and partially sighted students.
Find out more about 'Unlocking Education for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment: Call to Action for Local Authorities'Find out more about the Curriculum Framework for children and young people with a Vision Impairment (CFVI); what it is and what work we are doing in this area.
Find out more about 'Curriculum Framework For Children and Young People With Vision Impairment: Policy and Campaigning'Learn all about our CFVI champions, the work they are doing to raise awareness of the CFVI, what it means to them, and how you can get involved!
Find out more about 'CFVI Champions'Find out about the work we do to lobby Government and decision makers to help ensure blind and partially sighted students can pursue their educational aspirations.
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