Galway native devotes working life to helping visually impaired reach their potential
A Galway native who established a successful accountancy business in the UK was so impressed with the efforts of the visually impaired community to come to terms with high tech that he sold his practice and devoted his life to empowering the blind to achieve their potential.
And such has been his involvement and success since that last week Noel Duffy was awarded the prestigious 6th Duke of Westminster Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognises a person’s outstanding contributions to the sight loss sector.
Noel is originally from Eyrecourt but for many years he has lived in Worcester – south of Birmingham, in the West Midlands – where he established his accountancy business.
He admits that he knew nothing about the sight loss sector until his firm began working with Dolphin Computer Access in 1990. Now after 30 years in the sector, he has made it Dolphin’s mission to empower blind, low vision and dyslexic people to succeed in a digital world.
“I was a stranger to visual impairment but seeing blind and partially sighted people using screen readers and reading at up to 600 words a minute was like watching magic,” he said.
Noel was so inspired by the difference Dolphin made to people’s lives that he sold his accountancy practice – and became Dolphin’s Chief Executive in 2007/8. He now serves as chairman.
The company, which is based in Worcester, is one of the largest developers of assistive technology for people with sight loss in education, the workplace, and home life.
Read the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie