Chris McMillan's Area
Chris
Chris
was born, and has always had a home in Reading. When she was five years old she
was sent to Barclay School in Ascot, an all-girls school for the partially
sighted. She stayed there from 1957 to 1963 when she moved to Exhall Grange
School in Coventry, a co-ed for children of all abilities and ages, who were
either partially sighted or had a physical or learning difficulty. She stayed
there from 1963 to 1969. She left after taking 'O' levels and then spent a year
at what was then Reading Tech. College taking a one-year Secretarial course.
In 1970, she went to work at Paddington as an audio-typist for British Rail
Headquarters where she stayed until 1978, then moving to the Divisional offices
in Reading. She was made redundant at the same time as going on maternity leave
in order to have Hazel in 1984.
Mike and Chris met in 1974 at a meeting of the Berkshire Branch of the
Partially Sighted Society and were married in 1976. Hobbies are: reading,
writing articles on visual impairment, which occasionally get published in
specialist magazines, and contributing to various newsgroups on the Internet:
the main ones being alt.comp.blind-users,
alt.disability.blind.social
as well as uk.media.radio.archers.
Other hobbies include: Photography, meeting overseas students; particularly
those of Chinese origin, writing letters, travelling by train and listening to
radio extensively. Chris lives with her husband and daughter; although cats are
her favourite pets, she does have a soft spot for her Dad's dog
Duffy.
She has a keen interest in all forms of music, particularly classical
orchestral and is slowly building up a collection of Chinese folk and classical
music.
Away from the computer, she is one of the editors for the quarterly
newsletter of the Berkshire County Blind Society, known as 'Insight' and is a
member of the Nystagmus Network UK, a group dedicated to self help and research in the
UK into this eye condition. She contributes to both their newsletter and their
website as well as the mail list based in American
Nystagmus Network . She also reads material in
Braille as well as print.
Since 1997 Chris has been sending UK produced Braille magazines to English
speaking visually impaired people in China. During 1999, she and a small group
of people in the UK set up a charity named China Vision which has now received
charitable status in the UK.
The group works in conjunction with the Golden Key Project, an NGO based in
Beijing. We are sending out unwanted equipment such as braillers and embossers
as well as the braille material. The equipment enables children to attend their
village school without having to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest school
for the blind. This project is based in Inner Mongolia.
The braille material is split between Inner Mongolia and the Golden Key's
library in Beijing.
Chris may be contacted by
email.
