News, press features, events and more from the world of Dotty About Braille.
I'm delighted to announce that I've partnered up with print specialists TM Print. (opens in a new tab) Together we're on a mission to increase the number of braille and large print menus available in the UK. I recently met up with Glen and we both came away from the meeting excited about the difference we can make. Find out more about Braille & Large Print Menus (opens in a new tab)
I volunteer for Greater Manchester Sight Loss Council and we invited my local MP, Jonathan Reynolds to come on a walk of my local town to see the obstacles visually impaired people face on a daily basis. Despite the rain, Jonathan, and local councillor Tafheen Sharif, walked around with us, tried out the sim specs so they could literally "walk in our shoes" and they listened.
I've wanted to offer a large print range for a while but my printer was not cooperating! So I've now purchased a new printer that will enable me to print these cards, along with braille business cards too! These cards can have just large print, or you can add braille to them too. View the range of large print cards here.
I reached out to multiple brands to ask if they'd work with me to offer accessible advent calendars, sadly I was mostly ignored, or told no thank you, or yes you can but we don't want anything to do with it. So you can imagine how pleased I was when NOMO not only replied to me but gave me a very positive, yes, we'd love to work with you.
NOMO are already a really inclusive brand, offering chocolate that is suitable for all, without compromising on taste, and now they're even more inclusive! Order your NOMO Braille Advent Calendar here.
I've been thinking about cane training for a while but honestly, I felt really self conscious. But after volunteering with the Sight Loss Council, I decided I would sign up for it and give it a go. It would give me the independence to go places in the dark by myself, feel more confident in busy places and also let people around me know that I had a visual impairment.
UPDATE Feb 2026: I've now finished my cane training, we had to wait for winter to do some training in the dark. I'm so pleased to say I'm finding the cane very useful, I use it a lot more than I thought I would and it feels like it's making my life easier.
I can't believe it's been two years since I first had the idea to sell braille greetings cards! The last two years have been a crazy whirlwind, I've sold 1000's of cards, all over the world, which makes me so happy. I've been on live television, I've been invited to
Downing Street, twice! I was invited to be a member of the steering board for The Lilac Review which was such an honour and I'm so proud of the work we did, which is now continuing under The Lilac Centre.
I'm excited to see what the next 12 months brings!
What an amazing couple of days I had at the beginning of December, I was invited to the House of Lords to celebrate the Small Business Saturday and Small Biz 100 2024, then the next morning I popped along to 10 Downing Street where I had the amazing opportunity to meet the Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, both were really interested in my products and it was a real pinch me moment! Then later that afternoon, I was back at the House of Lords to celebrate the launch of the Disability Finance Code for Entrepreneurship. Wow!
I was so pleased to be asked to be a speaker on this webinar, where we'll be talking about how to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. Sign up for free here. 31st July at 4pm BST.
I joined the lovely Karen from f:Entrepreneur to discuss my business, watch it here (less than 10 minutes.)
Lloyds Bank invited me to be part of this event and what a fantastic experience, Lloyds employees working together with disabled entrepreneurs to come up with new products and services to better meet the needs of disabled and neurodivergent entrepreneurs.
I'm delighted to announce a new collaboration between Dotty About Braille and the Royal Shakespeare Company. You can now buy a range of Shakespeare themed cards from their shops (both in person and online.)
Would you like to stock braille cards in your shop? Get in touch.
Sadly I didn't attend this awards ceremony as my dog passed away the day before and I was just too upset. Congratulations to all the winners!
Today we launched the interim report for The Lilac Review, it was great to hear from the speakers, including Amelia Peckham from Cool Crutches (pictured above.)
In the interim report, we outlined recommendations for government, financial services and business support. The interim report is available in various formats here: https://lilacreview.com/interim-report
Another awards ceremony, another amazing night! The London Gay Men's Chorus were brilliant and Sue Perkins as the host was, as you can imagine, hilarious. I also got to have a chat with her about braille which was great.
Again, I didn't win but when you have such a fun night, it really doesn't matter in the end! Big congratulations to all the winners.
This was a very glam evening! Held at the stunning Winter Gardens in Blackpool, we had fantastic entertainment, delicious food and we got to meet Tess Daly, who said she loved my dress!
I didn't win the National award but it didn't matter, I was so pleased just to be shortlisted as a finalist. Huge congratulations to all the winners.
So pleased to have been chosen for the Rising Star Award North West, unfortunately I won't be able to attend the awards ceremony on the 12th September but delighted to have gotten this far.
Delighted to have been shortlisted for another local award. The award ceremony takes place on the 23rd May, fingers crossed!
I've been shortlisted for "New Kid On The Block" at The Small Awards, the award ceremony will be held on the 16th May, wish me luck!
What an amazing night this was! Winning this award was just incredible and I'm so grateful for the judges for choosing me. Walking up on stage was terrifying but such a buzz!
I was interviewed by Tameside Radio afterwards and you can watch that interview on Youtube.
I've seen a graphic like this across social media with some very big names attached to it, so I am over the moon to be even nominated! Finalists will be announced in July with public voting taking place in August.
I'm over the moon to be a finalist in my local business awards, they're holding a glitzy awards ceremony at the end of March so I'm looking forward to attending that, wish me luck!
Although I have been included in some amazing lists which are fantastic accolades, this is my first official award and I'm over the moon to have been chosen.
FSB are a fantastic supporter of small businesses all over the UK and I am so happy that they can see the value in my braille greetings cards.
We find out on the 9th May if I have won for the whole of the UK.
I've been featured in Pick Me Up magazine which is really exciting, a double page spread all about me, why I started Dotty and lots of photos of my cards.
To read the article, please visit Readly.
I was honoured to be one of the disabled entrepreneurs invited to the launch of The Lilac Review, an independent review into the barriers disabled entrepreneurs face.
I'm a disabled entrepreneur myself so this is something I'm very passionate about. There are so many barriers we face that a lot of people wouldn't even think about, big things like lack of access to funding because we're seen as high risk, or smaller things like not being able to stand up for long at networking events.
And a lot of disabled people are forced into self employment because regular employment isn't accessible to them, this means some disabled people aren't equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to run a business. At the moment, there are very few business mentors that are disabled and this needs to change.
Please do get involved with The Lilac Review whether as a disabled entrepreneur, or as an ally to us, the more people involved, the bigger the impact we can make.
Since attending the launch, I have also since been invited to join the Steering Board which is a real honour and I'm looking forward to being involved and helping to make change.
Being invited to 10 Downing Street, as part of the launch for The Lilac Review, was a real honour, and it was so much fun walking up and knocking on the very famous door! (see my reel on Instagram)
Once inside it was very plush, as you'd imagine but I was slightly surprised to find that number 10 and 11 are the same building! We went upstairs to a room overlooking Horse Guards Parade which was cool. We heard from Kevin Hollinrake MP, Mims Davies MP and Michelle Ovens CBE, each talked about The Lilac Review and the changes they hope to see.
It was a fantastic experience and it was great to meet Larry the Cat!
More great news! I am honoured to be included on this list, which features so many amazing women, women who are not only running fabulous businesses but are also managing other things too - a part time job, a family, a disability etc. It can be challenging running a business when you have other things going on in your life, but we do it and I'm proud to say we do it well.
What a great start to a new year! My braille Christmas cards have been shortlisted in TWO categories at the Gift of the Year Awards. The finalists will be announced on the 20th February so please keep your fingers crossed.
I'm delighted to say I have been chosen as a finalist in both categories and the winners will be announced on the 16th February.
Gift of the Year also have a People's Choice award, you can vote up until the 16th May and I'd be so grateful if you could vote for my cards in the Cards, Wrap & Stationery category and the Health, Wellbeing & Accessible Gifts category
I'm a little late to writing about this, but in November I was invited to the House of Lords to celebrate the #SmallBiz100 list for 2023. My local MP is Jonathan Reynolds, who spoke at this event, he was kind enough to arrange for my husband and I to have a private tour of Westminster Palace which was so cool and our guide for the day, Patrick, was incredibly knowledgeable and a fellow Tamesider so that was nice. During Jonathan Reynolds's speech, he was kind enough to give me a special shout out (his words: using shameless favouritism because I was one of his constituents haha)
It was great to meet up with the small business owners I'd met at The Blue Tie Ball and meet some new ones too!
As part of being selected for the Small Biz 100 2023, we were invited to attend the Blue Tie Ball in London, which was really exciting! We got to dress up and look glam, which doesn't happen often! And we got to meet some other small business owners which was great.
I was so pleased to be featured in our local online paper to celebrate the Small Biz 100 win.
I was invited on to Channel 4’s daytime TV show Steph’s Packed Lunch to showcase my braille greetings cards, as part of a feature on disabled business owners and the challenges we face.
Dotty About Braille has been selected as one of the Small Biz 100 for 2023 which is just amazing and I am honestly over the moon! To have been selected when I only started the business in May is such an honour.
Small Business Saturday is a grassroots, non-commercial campaign, which celebrates small business success and encourages consumers to 'shop local' and to support businesses in their communities.
I love writing blog posts so I was delighted when d:Entrepreneur put a shout out for disabled business owners to come forward and share their story.
d:Entrepreneur are part of the Small Business Saturday network and are hugely supportive of small businesses.
Blind New World is a blog owned by the Perkins School for the Blind, a fantastic organisation, who happens to also be the manufacturer of Perkins braillers (as shown in the photo!)
So when Leah at Blind New World asked me to write a guest blog post, you can imagine how pleased I was!
I was over the moon to be selected as one of Theo Paphitis’ Small Business Sunday winners! It’s a great accolade and I’m delighted to be part of a supportive small business family.
My Twitter feed was on fire last night, with many messages of congratulations and lots of new followers.
