Today Lyle and I took the train to Sydney to visit the national headquarters of Vision Australia. Actually, we caught a bus, then the train and then another bus to get from our rental unit north of Sydney to the Sydney suburb of Enfield where the main office of Vision Australia is located. I find that travelling by public transport is relatively easy in Sydney. In my experience, the bus drivers have always been helpful, and on the trains upcoming stops are announced. Announcements are also made on the various station platforms. For the most part, I have found that other travellers are respectful of the use of my white cane.
I had called ahead to arrange my time at Vision Australia and Rolf
and his guide dog, Echo, were ready for us when Lyle and I arrived. The trip to
the centre had taken just over two hours and I was awed when Rolf told me he
did a similar trip by train and bus each day to and from work. That is
certainly a long daily commute. In his previous life, as I like to say, Rolf
had been a pastry chef but when his sight changed he knew that he needed to
shift his career focus. That was his first connection with Vision Australia as
a client, and now he is employed by the organization as Volunteer Coordinator.
We began our tour with the store. I wasn’t surprised to see many of
the same gadgets, devices and tools that are also available in Canada through
the CNIB. In many instances, the CNIB
and Vision Australia use the same suppliers. I was surprised however to see
exactly the same set of audible bathroom scales that I use in my own bathroom
at home. When were shown a display case of Braille, audible, and a large dial
watches, our guide pulled one out to show us.
We were all amazed and amused to see that it was exactly the same one as
the one I was wearing – bought at a CNIB store in Alberta.
From the store we headed downstairs to the central call centre. The
people who seek the services of Vision Australia are encouraged to call the
toll free number so that they can be directed to the appropriate person or
department. This was the same number I had called to set up the appointment for
my tour. This central call system does
have certain advantages to be sure, but there are also kinks to be worked
through. As does Canada, Australia covers more than one time zone. Canada`s
central system is in Toronto. In both cases, this means that when the call
centre in the east is closed for the day, there may still be clients in the
west who need to make contact.
Now, there is more than I can write about our visit in one post, so
I am going to make this Part One, and conclude with a picture of me standing
beside Rolf and his four-year old black lab, Echo.
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