Honour ‘elation’ for chairman of a support group for visually impaired

THE chairman of a network to support people who are visually impaired has been made an MBE as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Benjamin Good, from Fareham, has been awarded for his efforts in spreading awareness on how much of a difference introducing resources for people with sight loss can make to their lives when materials are produced accessibly.

Speakingofthe accolade,said:‘Iwas absolutely elated and exceedingly surprised.

‘It was really lovely to be recognised in such an amazing way for doing what I consider really to be the right thing to do.

‘It was phenomenal.’ Benjamin is a customer business partner for business,assetsandinternational tax policy at HMRC and is the chairman of the Civil Service Visual Network which supports civil servants with a visual impairment or those that care for someone who does.

He also chairs the HMRC site’s impaired network.

Speakingofhiswork, the dedicated civil servant said: ‘I am very much trying to promote making everybody aware on how to produce materials accessibly so that all colleagues, regardless on whether they have a sight impairment or not have access to the same materials, can undertake the same jobs, have reasonable adjustments in place to be able to do the job as well as other colleagues.

‘It provides equality and opportunities. If you can't access the material that other colleagues take for granted then you don't get the same opportunities as everybody else.’

Since starting his work to support people with visual impairment 10 years ago, Ben has worked alongside charitiesliketheGuideDogsforthe Blind Association.

He added: ‘We also help with entities like the BusinessDisabilityForumsowe'll collaborate on material that goes out to the wider business audience about how they can make their work places more inclusive for colleagues with visual impairment.’

Benjamin will be working with the executive committee of the civil service network to ensure colleagues are being canvassed on their members viewsandopinionsandwhat’s importanttotheminthevisually impaired community.