Photo Gallery

Below are photos taken at events we've attended to enhance our training and also ones taken during our training sessions with accompanying feedback quotes.

2021

"Really appreciated with Dave's personal experiences and Vicky's patience and understanding. Thank you for the training"

"The training was so good and excellent. The way trainers explained was quite useful and they were knowledgable. Really appreciated."

"Demonstrations were easy to understand and presentation was practical and logical"
"Dave and Vicky were very approachable when it came to asking questions. Dave’s stories about mishaps arising from people thinking what’s best for him made the training particularly unique.
 
I felt the training was more than just providing information since it was provided with always bearing the individual in mind and the challenges they may face.
 
An excellent course covering vision impairment from the individual’s perspective."
"Very relaxed Learning environment."
"I found this training really helpful, delivered in a positive way and there was more than enough time to ask questions, and everything was explained properly. Glad to be part of it."

"I think I will just be more confident, and as a volunteer coordinator it will enable me to pass this on to other volunteers helping support people with a visual impairment."
"Dave and Vicky obviously have a wealth of knowledge and experience which they deliver in a clear and easy to follow style.  The documents which accompany each session are useful and well laid out.  The notes from sessions are thorough and worthwhile as they often contain tips not only from Dave and Vicky, but from the participants too.  I have also found the small number of activities which have been completed individually in preparation for a particular topic to be useful and enlightening."

"The first IT session also sparked the motivation in me to spend a day poking around my Windows machine and personalise, customise etc."
 
​“Thank you once again for delivering such an enjoyable and informative course.  I have learned a lot, as well as refreshing previously learned knowledge and gaining confidence in my personal ability."
"​Thought provoking session. The content about stigma and assumptions about life with a disability was interesting."
"The training was excellent. Both trainers were very down to earth. Relaxed and comfortable asking questions. Thank you."
"It was amazing to meet Dave who is blind & hear him speak about his condition & experiences.  Remarkable gentleman!"
"Due to not being able to do in-person training, we did it on zoom. It was really good and I learnt so much. It was interesting and gave a lot of information that I believe is needed for my role. (understanding, overview on equipment etc). I would really like to do it again when restrictions allow it to engage with the physical examples more.  But I don’t feel I missed out on too much." 

2020

​“More than met my expectations, personal experiences from both trainers extremely good. First hand experiences from Dave was really helpful too.”

2019

"I thoroughly enjoyed the training :-). Thank you Dave and Vicky"
"Really good combination of Dave and Vicky, lots of experience as guider and guided. Easy to talk to. Made the training really interesting and enjoyable. A big Thank you! :-)"
"I thought Vicky and Dave were an amazing double act and clearly have a great rapport. The training was interesting and interactive and I would recommend it to anyone"
“Vicky and Dave had a very relaxed and informal approach to quite a technical subject which made it easy to take in the main points.”
“Dave and Vicky had an excellent presentation style and they were happy to answer our questions! Thank you!"
"What wonderful trainers, I feel I gained a wealth of knowledge and a greater understanding of visual impairments/blind. Vicky and Dave's training style was relaxed, fun and very informative, it really appealed to my learning style (as I am dyslexic).
Dave and Vicky's first hand experience was so valuable and made the training honest, sincere and practical.
I really enjoyed myself and would be interested in having further training!
Thank you 🙂"
2018
“Both Vicky and Dave provided an excellent training course for the centre staff. Thank you and we look forward to training with you again”
“Everything was in depth, always asked if you have any questions about the topic”
 “Really good day, relaxed and informal but very informative, thank you”
"I found the training very informative and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. I found the part on communication useful. Definitely more aware and informed.”
Vicky and her friend Kath, taking part in this year’s Run in the Dark - an annual event held all around the world (we were in Battersea Park, London) - in aid of the Mark Pollock Trust - helping to fast track a cure for paralysis. Mark himself is blind and has a spinal injury.
Dave and Vicky attending this year's Sight Village South East
"Fantastic chemistry between the two trainers. Not dry deliverance at all, kept their audience engaged, informed and involved as they rolled out the day"​
These days "work thanks to the efforts and fantastic presentations by people like yourselves.  A BIG THANK YOU to you all for all your input at today’s meetings!!"
"Thank you again very much for kindly giving a teaching session to the medical retina service.
​​It was lovely to meet you. The session was enlightening and very useful. It is great for us to increase our awareness of how we can better help our patients. We really appreciate it."
​"Definitely could have had a full day! 
​Lots of interesting and relevant conversations and discussion.
​Fantastic trainers - inspirational people!
​Will follow the blog!"
2017
This year we took part in 'Run in the Dark' an annual event held all around the world (we were in Battersea Park, London) - in aid of the Mark Pollock Trust - helping to fast track a cure for paralysis. We decided to walk the 5k as sight guiding and running in the dark might not have been a good mix, but we still raised £200. Our half way live video (https://www.facebook.com/VIDAtrainingUK/videos/1423855351075358/) may not be the best filming ever – but we did our best whilst walking, sight guiding, keeping out of the way of overlapping runners and videoing all in the dark!! A great evening!
We attended Sight Village again this year at Kensington Town Hall, braving the train strikes on the day. It's always interesting to find out about any new developments and we chatted for some time to Simon from British Wireless for the Blind Fund about the Bumble Bee and Arjun from iMerciv Inc. about the buzz-clip. We also spoke to Andrew from Traveleyes – a great holiday company that enables blind and sighted travellers to ‘share the adventure’ in some amazing holiday venues, Ian from Metro Blind Sports who, small world that it is, has a child that attends the same junior school as Dave's and caught up with some people from RP Fighting Blindness who we had met in June at their conference. We chatted to The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association about their My Guide service and VocalEyes - describing the arts about their audio-description and touch tours for theatre productions.As always there was lots of technical equipment demonstrated by different companies and we chatted to people from HumanWare, Optima Low Vision Services, Lifemax Ltd, VisionAid , Optelec and A.C.T. Excel. Dave also had a demonstration of the OrCam MyEye.
Always good to keep up to date with services and technologies that are out there or coming to the market soon.
Vicky attended the We Are Surrey event - aiming to connect businesses with their local communities to make Surrey a better place to live and work. Our poster, outlining what we do, was part of the Hall of Fame line up and it was good to talk to a variety of people there including those from Live at Home, Police Cadets, Wates, Kier and Healthwatch about their organisations and activities as well as chat about what we do as VIDA Training.
Photo of preparations for the training course - boxes of equipment, simulation specs, brochures etc. And a very small scruffy dog that had just sneaked into the photo!
Getting ready - no this dog isn't part of the training!!
"Communicating to people with sight loss was enlightening to me"
"Brilliant relaxed training for VI training that will be useful in my job"​

We were pleased to attend and exhibit at the Sight for Surrey Showcase event, as well as speaking about our involvement with Sight for Surrey's new and exciting Employment Programme, launching in 2018.
"Very illuminating"
"Basing the course around a questionnaire was an excellent idea as it got us thinking at the start and then related to the content."
​"VIDA Training gave me excellent advice and experience of what it might be like to have sight loss."
“Vicky and Dave are passionate trainers, providing a great level of knowledge with anecdotal stories to bring their information to light. Dave has a great sense of humour” ​​
Continuing our working relationship with Dementia Pathfinders, we were pleased to be invited to attend their Margaret Butterworth Awards event in London and also the Young Onset Dementia Group at St. George's hospital in Tooting where we met and participated with the group and demonstrated the Sighted Guide technique. 
We took the opportunity to attend the RP Fighting Blindness Conference in London. RP stands for Retinitis Pigmentosa, one of the eye conditions that Dave has.
We listened to some interesting talks, updating us on the latest research and treatments, as well as an inspirational talk from Steve Bate MBE, double gold medal winner at the Rio Paralympic Games. We were lucky enough to hold one of these sensory enriched gold medals.
In the afternoon there were several options for attending workshops, we attended the one on Employment.
All the RPFB staff were very welcoming and we look forward to attending another event with them soon.
A few of our favourite photos of Errol - Dave's loyal and well-loved guide dog who sadly passed away on 22nd June 2017. Read about Dave's fantastic partnership with this wonderful dog in our blog In memory of Errol (13.06.2009 – 22.06.2017)
“Very successful and stimulating day of training” 
“Vicky and Dave very friendly, professional and knowledgeable. Thank you! Errol (Ernest) is lovely too”
“Thank you for being so open, and allowing people to ask you daft questions!”
“This training has helped me to understand the impact of visual/hearing impairment in the overall assessment of a client’s needs in the course of my work.”
“I was really pleased with the course today. The facilitators were very engaging and approachable. They were also excited about the topics discussed. Great sense of humour and variety in teaching methods. I liked the video”.
Audio Description at The Harlequin Theatre and Cinema in Redhill, enabled us both to fully appreciate the brilliant and thought provoking film 'I, Daniel Blake'.
2016
"Attendance of Errol (the guide dog) was a definite advantage. Both Vicky and Dave were very approachable and made the day an enjoyable experience"
"Great stuff! Great dog!"
"Very well delivered, both trainers had a large knowledge of the subject and explained things really well. Physical exercises were fun but very useful as well. Thank you very much."
"Very informative course. Both Vicky and Dave delivered it very well, with a lot of humour which made it interesting and easy to take in"
We attended the Sight Village 2016 exhibition (organised by Queen Alexandra College) which showcased the latest technology, aids and support for vision impaired people.
The Barclays stand had new prepay contactless keyfobs and examples of credit cards with an indented edge to identify which way round the card would go in to a chip and pin machine as well as their cheque book and credit card writing guides.There were a range of organisations all happy to talk to us and demonstrate their computer access technology, CCTVs, braille displays and notetakers, SMART phones and accessible software, book readers and general living aids. We particularly liked the very stylish and accessible designer ‘Bradley’ watches from Eone. We also had interesting conversations from the Keratoconus self help and support association, Macular Society, MACS and BlindAid.
All good for keeping our training knowledge up to date!
We were really pleased to be able to attend the play reading of 'Don't Leave Me Now' at The Guildhall in Kingston. It provided a very informal and accessible way of gaining some insight into the realities of living with early onset dementia from various people's perspectives. The play reading was hosted by Dementia Pathfinders, working in partnership with St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Home Instead, Wimbledon and Kingston and is written by Brian Daniels who was also one of the readers and can be seen in the photo to the right talking to both of us.
"Thank you so much. You guys were so great! Thank you for the practical activities and Errol made my day"
Dave and Vicky wearing their simulation specs whilst attending RNIB's See Through Sound event at Cadogan Hall in London. Great event with 6 live music acts watched through simulation specs by the audience. Simulation specs are glasses worn to provide the wearer with the visual effect of a sight loss condition. This is a good example of one of the experiences we discuss on our training.
"Excellent training. I have worked with people with vision impairment at various points over the years and still learnt new skills and ideas"
"Really enjoyed the day. Learnt alot within a relaxed environment"
"Information given is very helpful in the future. Very informative, thank you"
"A lot of interaction with the trainers"
"Really fantastic training. It was useful to have training lead by someone with a visual impairment. Vicky and Dave are very approachable and gave practical advice and knowledge."
"Thank you again for an outstanding, fun filled and relevant day! Thank you."
2015
"I liked the 'personal approach' which made the course even more interesting. The practical experience of being blindfolded was particularly thought provoking."
"Well structured, varied, informative"
"Fantastic training session - thank you Vicky, Dave and Errol. Very helpful information, fab examples"