At 3Spoonies, we love diving deep into real-life experiences that challenge assumptions, broaden understanding, and help make the world a more inclusive place. This week, we had the absolute joy of speaking with author, will writer, and speaker Amanda Harris, who generously opened up about her life growing up and working with visual impairment, as well as her family’s journey through her husband’s sight loss. You can find out more about Amanda here.
Amanda has lived with her visual impairment since birth, navigating life with optic neuropathy, nystagmus, and astigmatism—conditions that shape the way she perceives the world. For Amanda, sight isn’t about clarity or detail, but rather shapes, colours, and her brain filling in the gaps. That means people often appear as “flesh-coloured blobs,” as she puts it, and familiar faces can blur into one another. Even then, she remains fiercely independent, determined, and unafraid to challenge every “she’ll never” she’s been told.
Growing Up Against Expectations
From childhood, Amanda was handed a long list of limitations—activities doctors claimed she’d never manage. Thread a needle? Never. Drive a car? Impossible. Build a career? Not likely.
But Amanda is, in her own words, a stubborn Yorkshire lass—and every “no” became motivation to prove otherwise. She eventually earned a law degree, built a thriving business, and even had a go at driving (just once, carefully supervised!).
Her determination serves as a powerful reminder: only you know what you can do, and sometimes the biggest barrier is other people’s lack of imagination.
Love, Loss, and Learning to Adapt
One of the most touching parts of our conversation was hearing about Amanda’s husband, Martin. When they met as teenagers at a specialist college, he still had partial sight—more than Amanda had, in fact. But in his mid-thirties, that changed.
With advanced glaucoma, he eventually lost his remaining vision completely—right as Amanda was pregnant with their son. They spent long months adjusting to a new reality, both exhausted and overwhelmed, yet navigating it all together. Episode 44.mp4
Despite the challenges, Martin adapted with incredible resilience. Today, he works full-time in local government, manages household tasks, cooks daily meals, navigates spreadsheets with screen readers, and uses a whole toolkit of accessible tech to stay independent. His determination and calm practicality left us in awe.
Everyday Accessibility: The Tools That Make Life Easier
Amanda shared some of the essential gadgets and tools she and Martin rely on to make daily life more accessible:
- A video magnifier (“Ruby”) that enlarges text, perfect for reading menus in restaurants
- iPhone accessibility tools for scanning barcodes, identifying colours, reading text, and navigating finances
- Talking thermometers and scales for safe cooking and daily tasks
- Liquid level indicators that vibrate when a cup is nearly full
- Large print, audio, and occasionally even Braille documents for important information
It was a brilliant reminder of just how powerful technology can be when designed with accessibility in mind.
How Businesses Can Do Better
Amanda also offered practical, doable suggestions for businesses wanting to be more accessible to visually impaired customers:
- Add contrast lines on stairs
- Improve lighting (no “mood lighting” in banks, please!)
- Offer large-print or Braille menus
- Be willing to ask what support someone needs
- Avoid getting flustered about language (saying “did you see that?” is perfectly fine!)
Her biggest message: asking is never offensive—it’s helpful. Everyone’s needs are different, and accessibility begins with a simple conversation.
Amanda’s Book: She Will Never
We also talked about Amanda’s fantastic autobiography, She Will Never, where she shares more about her path to confidence, independence, humour, and resilience. It’s available in print, Kindle, and audiobook—recorded by Amanda herself, after visually impaired readers pointed out the irony that she couldn’t read her own book. True to form, she fixed that.
You can find out more about Amanda here.
Want to Hear the Full Conversation?
This blog barely scratches the surface of Amanda’s warm, witty and insightful stories—like the high ropes disaster, the lasagna missing its OXO cube, and the mysterious “buttermilk-coloured” ties identified by her husband’s colour reader.
For the full chat, including laughs, practical insights, and personal stories, catch the full episode of 3Spoonies on Visual Impairment on YouTube or your favourite podcast app.
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We hope you love this episode as much as we loved recording it.
See you next week for Community Questions — and as always, keep track of your spoons.