QAC offers a wide range of courses in a safe and friendly environment to suit all levels of ability and many different interests. Whatever course you choose, you will be encouraged to stretch yourself and enjoy achieving good results. Wherever your learning takes place there will be plenty of support and chances to develop your Key Skills.
Making sure that your course information is accessible to you and that you are at the centre of the learning is really important at QAC. We encourage learners to let us know what they think of the way they are taught and their experience at College so that we can continue to improve the QAC experience.
All residential courses provide learning opportunities outside the classroom through social, leisure and sporting activities. This helps you to contribute to College life and to the community outside College. It also helps you to develop social and independence skills for your successful future. With free membership of QAC’s Feelgood Fitness Centre you will have a chance to keep fit and meet people.
Although every effort is made to ensure that the all the information contained in this web site including the course information is accurate and up to date, QAC reserves the right to make changes necessary, as circumstances may occasionally require, in relation to any of the details shown. Please check course details with us prior to enrolment. This web site cannot be considered contractual.
Training & Consultancy Services from QAC
Queen Alexandra College staff have many years of experience in training and consultancy to external organisations. This includes visual impairment awareness training for individuals or groups of staff and consultancy and advice on meeting the needs of learners, staff and customers who are blind or vision impaired.
In partnership with Sign Solutions we can deliver training in deaf, deafblind and visual impairment issues in a single day or half-day session. call 0121 428 5041 for more information
Visual Impairment Awareness Training
Introduction
There are approximately 309,000 people that are registered as having a significant sight loss in England. There are many more people who for one reason or another do not become registered and the true number is difficult to determine but substantially higher than this. Appropriate training is essential for any organisation to successfully meet the needs of this group of people.
Overview
The session challenges preconceived notions about the nature of visual impairment giving participants an insight into the different types of sight loss that people experience. It also provides practical advice and skills for successful interaction and communication with those that have reduced or no vision.
Objectives and Delivery
1. To give an overview of different eye conditions demonstrating that contrary to expectations, most people with a visual impairment see something.
This is achieved with the use of simulation glasses and exercises, along with accounts from the tutor’s experience in the field. The different scenarios discussed introduce information on broader topics such as mobility techniques, guide dogs and some of the emotional/psychological considerations around sight loss.
2. To increase awareness of the difficulty that people with a visual impairment have in accessing information and how this can be eased.
This is achieved by splitting the group into teams and setting a task to scan a dense piece of literature for answers to a series of questions on different eye conditions. The source material is formatted in a variety of ways that replicate, for people with sight, some of the problems that those with a visual impairment may encounter.
This leads on to discussions about how the frustrations that people with a visual impairment experience can often be easily remedied with a little understanding of alternative formats.
3. To teach participants the techniques to safely and efficiently guide a person with a visual impairment.
The group is split into pairs and practice the skills used to guide a person with a visual impairment. The activity involves demonstrations and discussions around how to approach, talk to and relate to people with a sight loss, generates a lot of discussion about trust and provides an awareness of the effects of the environment on an individual with reduced or no vision.
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