justin – Legal Vision

“It’s hard enough for most sighted people to dodge bullets, let alone for me,” quips Justin Glyn, explaining why he left Johannesburg in South Africa two and half years ago.
In fact, he adds, his mother and father decided to come here, and he decided to accompany them. The Auckland-based barrister has been partially blind since birth due to hypoxia (lack of oxygen at birth).
But living in world of blurs and shady images didn’t stop him from achieving academically, thanks to combination of bifocals, magnifying glasses and supportive family during his school days.
Since 1989, he’s had the benefit of telescopic glasses. “Essentially they’re telescopes screwed into lugs which are glued onto my glasses,” he explains.
After practising as solicitor in Johannesburg, he admits to being surprised at the time it took to get his qualifications recognised here – over 18 months. Then he discovered it was even harder to get position. “I suspected I’d have to build up from scratch but I didn’t realise how much from scratch,” he says. Through the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind (of which he is member) and Workbridge, he found out about the “Self Start Programme” for people with disabilities in the process of setting up their own businesses. “I prepared business plan which was approved, and got the funding to meet the cost of overcoming my disability in starting up my own business.” With this he bought laptop, text enlargement software and scanner to allow him to read documents in variety of font sizes. Glyn is currently working as junior with barrister Colin Amery, and is enjoying being involved in new field of work. And he’s positive about growing more work on his own account. “I think as my contacts grow, I’ll get more work myself.”
A practised singer, Glyn was welcomed into three of Auckland’s choirs, the Dorian Choir, the Auckland Bach Cantata and the Orlando singers. He recently returned from performing tour to Germany with the Bach Cantata.