Leeds local campaigner, Charlotte Proctor, has been working hard over the last three months to raise her MP's awareness of the barriers blind and partially sighted people face when participating in everyday life.
Charlotte began with a visit to the surgery of Greg Mulholland, MP to speak with him in person. She outlined her concerns about government plans to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with Personal Independence Payments (PIP). Like many others, Charlotte is worried that the draft PIP criteria do not recognise the wide range of additional costs that blind and partially sighted people face.
To make sure she really drove the messages home, Charlotte then followed up her visit with her own DLA Diary, explaining exactly how and why DLA is such an important support to help her live independently.
Charlotte also worked with Tracy Dearing, RNIB's regional campaigns officer to invite Mr Mulholland to undertake a blind folded walk around a local store. This gave the MP the opportunity to experience, albeit briefly, some of the difficulties people with sight loss experience when undertaking everyday tasks, like buying milk and bread.