Meet the Team: Claire

09/07/2020

As well as being a Euan’s Guide Ambassador for Dundee, Claire is part of our Reviewer Engagement and Outreach Coordinator team. She also promotes accessibility and diversity on her Instagram and YouTube channel – A Journey in my Wheels. We spoke to Claire as she is shielding at home.

What have you been up to recently?

In this pandemic we’re in right now there are good days and bad days, which I think a lot of people are experiencing. In order to get through these stressful bad days I wanted to try and find a hobby that helped me escape whilst also not staring at a computer screen all day. Therefore, I’ve started doing cross stitching. At first, I bought a few kits to get familiar with what I was doing but, now I’ve purchased an organiser, 100 different colours of thread and I’m going to start doing patterns I have found online. I enjoy watching TV whilst cross stitching but, I also have been enjoying listening to music or a podcast.

What do you like watching?

I’ve been watching a mixture of TV programs, movies and YouTube videos. I like crime and mystery dramas, but I also really enjoy comedies. My favourite being The Big Bang Theory, I could honestly watch reruns of that show all day every day. Before I started shielding, I decided to buy a year subscription to Disney+ as it was just about to be released and was on a good deal. I’m very glad I did because there’s thousands of movies to choose from and lots that are very reminiscent of my childhood.

How did you first come across Euan’s Guide?

I was a keynote speaker at an event in Dundee that was run by PAMIS in 2017 and there I met Ryan MacDonald who was the Ambassador Network Manager at the time. We planned to meet up a few weeks later for him to tell me more about Euan’s Guide and what the role of their Ambassadors were, since then I have been their Dundee Ambassador.

What is your role and what is your favourite part of it?

I am part of the Reviewer Engagement and Outreach Coordinator team at Euan’s Guide. We reach out to people who may not have heard about Euan’s Guide before and speak to them about the benefits of leaving a review, whilst also helping existing reviewers who contact us with any queries. The thing I love about speaking to people is, hearing their personal stories on good and bad accessible scenarios they’ve encountered when visiting venues. It’s great to share experiences and hear about other places to visit. Our daily tasks can vary though, and I think that’s the best thing about our Euan’s Guide team, we’re always on hand to help each other.

What are your pros and cons about working from home?

I love coming into the Euan’s Guide office and visiting Edinburgh however, when working from home I like having a flexible schedule and being able to start work straight away, instead of travelling anywhere. With my disability I can get quite sore sitting in my wheelchair so, it is good to be able to make myself more comfortable at home. There are lots of distractions at home though so some days it can be hard to get into that workflow mindset. As a team we always keep in touch even if we’re not in the office, and I think having no choice but to work from home just now has made it easier.

What is your favourite part of making YouTube videos?

I like going through all the different stages of producing a video for YouTube and seeing the final piece. I feel there isn’t much disability representation on YouTube so I love showing my daily life as a wheelchair user whilst sharing barriers that I sometimes face. Unfortunately, I’ve not done any videos for a little while due to not having much space to film but, I hope to start doing videos again soon.

What do you like about living in Dundee – is the night / social life fun?

It feels like forever since I’ve been out in Dundee with everything going on but, I do love living in Dundee. It’s the right kind of busyness and close to lots of beach and nature walks. I also like how Dundee is in the centre between all the other big cities of Scotland and it’s not too bad travel time to get to them. The nightlife isn’t too bad in Dundee either! I feel everywhere is quite close to each other so it’s quite good for a pub crawl. I feel wherever you live there’s always something missing that you like in other places and I think the main thing in Dundee is the ten-pin bowling. When I was very young, we used to have bowling in Dundee but, it closed a while ago.

Do you have a favourite accessible venue?

Oh, that’s a difficult one, I feel there are some great places that I’ve visited. If I had to pick one though it would have to be The Enchanted Forest, although does that count as a venue? It’s more described as an annual event within woods in Pitlochry. I’ve been for the last 3 years though and each year they take my Euan’s Guide review on board and make appropriate changes the following year to make the event more accessible. It’s fantastic how they want to meet the needs of all their visitors.

What are some of your goals for the future?

I feel my main plan right now is to do my own shopping at a supermarket safely. However, my main goals are to hopefully move out to my own place soon and to continue spreading accessibility and disability awareness through Euan’s Guide and my blog and YouTube channel.