Carmarthenshire woman on a mission to 'make life easier' for people with hidden disabilities
Video report by ITV Wales journalist Jess Main
A woman from Carmarthenshire is on a mission to make life easier for those living with hidden disabilities and is urging people to support her cause.
Lizzie Johnstone, who lives with severe visual impairment and hearing loss, set up charity 'Access Wales' five years ago and says her ultimate goal is for Wales to be a disability friendly country.
She has designed posters and cards to help make everyday activities like shopping and catching the bus more comfortable for those with visual impairments or hearing loss.
She said: "Having disabilities, we don't have a choice and we have to live with that so if we can make things a little easier for people and help them, and it helps their mental health that's brilliant, and that's all I care about.
"I kept saying in the shops when I was going shopping, I have a visual impairment and you would hear in the background 'she looks fine to me' and I think that got to me a little bit as well so I knew there was something I had to do.
"It's discreet it's your purse, in your bag. Retail don't know they don't have x-ray eyes they can't see if you've got a disability so the easiest thing to do was to make a drawing."
The idea is that by having a card people will no longer feel the need to explain themselves if they need that extra support.
Lizzie has been campaigning for decades to make life easier for those living with disabilities and in 2018 she and a board of trustees set up the charity 'Access Wales'.
The posters and cards seem to be working with most businesses in Carmarthen on board, but the charity say they now need more help if they are to extend the scheme to other parts of Wales.
Andrew Tait, one of the charity's trustees, said: "Everybody who hears about it says it's an absolutely brilliant idea and then nothing happens and it would be so lovely if people would actually commit to supporting us be it financially or be it with time and energy.
"This is a brilliant idea I was convinced the moment I spoke with Lizzie and it's an idea that's time has come."
More than a quarter of people in Wales live with a disability, and while Lizzie sometimes still struggles to come to terms with her diagnosis she says if she can help just one person feel less alone, all her efforts will be worthwhile.