Maryanne Diamond | Qatar Social and Cultural Center for Blind

Maryanne Diamond was born in 1955 in Queensland, Australia; the second eldest of five children and the only blind member of her family. Her father served in the Royal Australian Air Force and they settled in Victoria when she was 7 years of age. Her parents had never met anyone who was blind, however, never prevented her doing what her siblings did or exempted her from daily tasks because she was blind.

She attended a residential School for the blind until she was 14 years of age. At that time it was the norm that children who were blind attend a special school. She made many friends and developed good skills in areas such as: braille, touch typing, orientation and mobility and daily living skills. They had many opportunities to try a range of sporting and recreational activities they may not have done if they were somewhere different. What she missed out on was living at home and being a member of her family and the local community. She completed the last four years of her school education at a regular school. It was difficult as she had come from a class of 9 students to a class of more than 30. She did well at school and made the transission without too much trouble.

She undertook a science degree at Monash University majoring in mathematical statistics and then a graduate diploma in Information Technology. She lived at college during her first two years at university which was a great experience. She then lived in share houses with friends for the remainder of her time at university. She enjoyed her years at university and made friends with people from varying backgrounds and cultures, many remain her friends today. She met her husband at University where they both studied for a science degree.

She spent many years employed in the Information Technology industry before moving into the community sector during the late 90s. She was fortunate that she found employment prior to completing her course and has remained employed since. She worked part time when her children were very young.

Access to information has been one of her greatest barriers in the workplace. She has used a range of different technologies throughout her employment. Braille is something she uses everyday. She use JAWS on her computer, a device which allows her to download books and newspapers via her computer. In her more recent roles it has been essential that she is able to access the news in case she was contacted by the media seeking a response on a particular issue. This was usually the impact on a government or business decision for people with disability.

Her involvement at the international level begun when she was a part of the organising committee to host the 5th general assembly of the World Blind Union. Her responsibility was for the women’s forum and then for all aspects of the assembly. It was a great success and she was invited to chair the women’s committee 2000-2004. She then was elected 1st vice president of the WBU and in 2008 elected the president.

As President of the WBU she is a member of the International Disability Alliance (IDA), International Council on the Education of the Visually Impaired (ICEVI) and through other members of the WBU leadership they have membership of IAPB and many of the UN agencies.

Through her employment roles in Australia, she has also been a member of the group bringing disability and development programs together, The Australian Disability and Development Consortium. Vision Australia has worked with the Danish Association of the Blind to undertake a project in PNG. This is to establish a PNG Blind Union (Papua New Guinea) and to provide leadership and advocacy training to people who are blind or have low vision in PNG.

She has conducted sessions at Melbourne University on advocacy as part of the Masters degree on Disability and Development. She also conducted a training workshop in Mongolia on leadership for women who are blind.

This has been an amazing journey for her. She has met many wonderful people, learned a great deal from them and been able to share her experiences and knowledge.

She enjoys reading and spending time with friends and travelling with her family. She has four children. They live at home and are studying or working. One has very low vision and it has been interesting to be part of the world he has grown up in which is very different to the one she did. She has found through her life that she has been accepted into the group or community she wants to be part of.

She uses a white cane and a combination of technologies. Technology has made many of the tasks she undertakes on a daily basis in her work a great deal easier. She can keep up to date with news, independently read materials and finds information herself.

Much of her voluntary work has been in the local community. She spent many years as a member of Pre School, school, sporting groups and recreational groups for her children. She believes it is in this area where she has made her greatest contribution to awareness of the abilities of people who are blind. She would be at these meetings and events as a parent, not as a blind person. She used braille to participate as an effective member of the committee or group.

She believes that her work within the blindness community to contribute to an improved live for people who are blind has been greatly enhanced because of her local community roles. Being an active member of her local community has both provided her with the opportunity to learn new skills. It has also provided the opportunity for her to educate the general community about blindness and people who are blind.

To Contact Maryanne Diamond: Maryanne.Diamond@visionaustralia.org

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