133: Future Vision For The Visually Impaired And Making His Impossible Possible, Simon Wheatcroft - Part 2

Guest Overview 

Simon Wheatcroft is living proof that resilience is born from adversity, accepting that things will go wrong, not go to plan, and being prepared to embrace failure without fear. 

Having lost his sight at an early age Simon used running solo as his foundation to building an abundant life as a runner, motivational speaker, and now teacher.  


In part one Simon discusses the impact of growing up in the 80’s, in a small coal-mining town in the North of England, and the devastating social and economic impact of the coal mine closures. He then takes us through his early life and journey to where he met the founders of Haptic Technology company Wear Works.

In this episode Simon explains how he discovered the Haptic technology company Wear Works and how the combination of sensors enabled him to run races and sense people around him

We discuss the future advances using Lidar technology to create 3 depth maps of spaces and object recognition technology that will transform the lives of people with visual impairments


Simon explains the serendipitous moments that enabled him to study clinical psychology, computational neuroscience, and AI in later life and led him onto the motivational-speaking stage. 

Simon covers resilience, dealing with adversity, fear, failure, and managing pain. 

Simon discusses the appalling and enduring employment discrimination against blind or partially blind people and reveals why he is changing his career to teaching and explains his passion to provide visually impaired children with computer science skills to live an equal opportunity life.

Simon and I discuss accessibility and how web page metadata and hierarchies work.

Simon also reflects on his wife’s enduring support.  

And of course all our quick-fire questions 


I am sure you will feel uplifted, inspired and energized by the life story of Simon Wheatcroft.


Social Links 

Linkedin 

Twitter 

Website 


Links in the show 

Runkeeper

The voice of Runkeeper 

Mind Hacks Book Tom Stafford 

Lidar technology 

Ghost in the Wires

RNIB Employment Report


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