About Us.
Racing Sight is the brainchild of Edd Francis, the founder of Francis Racing.
A serious accident and a resultant progressive eye condition meant Edd lost most of his eyesight in a relatively short period of time. With help and training from the ex servicemens charity, Saint Dunstans, Edd retrained oninformation technology.
Although now totally blind, with the help and backup of Janis Sharp and David Hickey of Saint Dunstans, Edd managed to build most of this website by himself.
The existence of Racing Sight is best explained in Edd’s own words:
All through my life, I have maintained a keen interest in horse racing, and I thought it would be a good idea to put together an Audio Book for blind and partially sighted people, in which I described the race tracks in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
As I started to do my research, I found most of the existing racing websites were mainly built for sighted browsers, and then I realised an Audio Book could be limited by practical considerations. It then occurred to me, a better option may be to construct a website accessible to EVERYONE, no matter what their physical status.
Being blind became an advantage in a way, for I was forced to design this site in a simple style. I hope that proves to be true for all site visitors, especially other visually challenged browsers. Not that I am complacent. On my home page, I have included a link to the contact details, and I hope you will give me your sensible suggestions as to how I may improve this website.
To cater for the aesthetic tastes of sighted visitors, graphics have been added to the website, but it remains easy to navigate. Indeed, on most pages, I have included the key stroke guide as to how you may move around the site.
In the coming months, I plan to add to my range of services, and I hope you will take advantage of my website facilities. If you are visually challenged, and want a quick link to my website, you can achieve this in one of two ways. Once on the home page, you can press the alt key, then press the letter a, then press a again, finally press enter, and this will add my website to your list of favourites. Alternatively, you can send me a request email to admin@racingsight.co.uk, and I will send you a direct link to my website on a reply email.
Finally, I want to thank Tim Cox for his invaluable assistance on racecourse histories, and of course British Horse Racing, and Go Racing Ireland, for their assistance on racing fixtures and major races.
