Talking Vision is Vision Australia Radio’s flagship program, discussing the latest news and issues from a blindness and low vision perspective.
This week on the show Sam chats with Max McDonnell, a recent graduate of Vision Australia’s LEAP program.
Max, 19, is an avid cricketer, musician and speaker of three languages who is starting a TAFE course in conservation and environmental management in 2023.
LEAP is an employability and leadership program for young people, aged between 14 and 18, who are preparing to tackle their personal and professional goals, and Max enjoyed connecting and sharing lived experiences with other young people.
“Having people all around Australia in the group it was quite amazing, being able to hear people’s stories from all around the country,” Max said.
As part of the program, participants are paired up with a mentor who guides them through the program and helps them build valuable life skills.
For Max, his mentor helped him to promote himself to an employer and provided advice on ways to find the adaptive technology that suited him.
“We worked on something called an elevator pitch, which is just a short sharp conversation with someone where you want to give them info about yourself as effectively as possible.”
“I thought he [Max’s mentor] was always very willing to understand my situation with my vision, and helped me with what technology might be best for me,” he said.
Listen to the full Talking Vision episode on Omny or on the player below:
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