July 23, 2025 • 32 mins
Lizzie Eastham and Sam Rickard present Studio 1 - Vision Australia Radio’s weekly look at life from a low vision and blind point of view.
On this week’s show
“50 years of Blind Citizens Australia Part 1 – David Blyth and Bill Jolley”
It is June 1975: flares are in fashion; the Captain & Tennille are at number 1 on the charts with “Love will keep us together” and the organisation that will one day be called “Blind Citizens Australia” holds its first convention.
Lizzie and Sam catch up with two men who were there from the start. David and Bill talk about how and why the then “Blind Citizens Foundation” was formed; the people who helped to shape it; and some of the achievements that have affected all our lives over the last 50 years.
Studio 1 welcomes any input from our listeners. If you have any experience or thoughts about issues covered in this episode or believe there is something we should be talking about.
EMAIL: studio1@visionaustralia.org or leave comment on the station’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/VARadioNetwork
Thank you to: David and Bill. Extra thanks to Deb and the board and staff of BCA for helping to make this possible.
Learn more about BCA's first 50 years and beyond here: https://www.bca.org.au/bcas-rich-50-year-history/
This program was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at https://cbf.org.au/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:14):
This is studio one on Vision Australia Radio.
S2 (00:21):
Hello, I'm Sam and I'm Lizzie, and this is Studio One,
your weekly look at life from a low vision and
blind point of view. Here on Vision Australia Radio.
S3 (00:29):
This week, blind Citizens Australia was formed 50 years ago.
S2 (00:33):
We catch up with David Blythe and Bill Jolley, who
talk about the early years of the organisation and its achievements.
S3 (00:40):
As we always said this point, please do get in
touch with the show, whether you have experience of any
of the issues covered on this week's episode of Studio One,
or if you think there's something we should be talking about.
You never know. Your story and insight may help someone
who's dealing with something similar.
S2 (00:55):
Please contact us via email. Studio one org. That's studio
number one at Vision Australia.
S3 (01:01):
Org or of course, you can leave us a note
on the station's Facebook page at facebook.com.
S2 (01:10):
Hello, David and Bill, welcome to studio one.
S4 (01:12):
Good afternoon. Good to be with you.
S2 (01:14):
So last week, one of our conversations was about how
blind people will often naturally just take a step back.
When someone's actually talking. They will allow people to talk
over them, or will sit back and take into account
what's going on before they say anything. I'll start with you, David.
What was the thing that made you go against that
(01:36):
instinct and actually speak out a bit more?
S5 (01:38):
Well, I thought I was sighted until I was 14
and I lost my sight, and I had a bit
of experience in Queensland before I came to Victoria. And
I was an active member of the Mine Workers Union
for a number of years and the Guild of Business
and Professional Blind. So I was quite confident in talking
out and representing blind people. So I had no trouble
(02:02):
with the establishment of the National Federation of Blind Citizens,
as it was then.
S2 (02:08):
So in some ways you could be said that you
didn't you didn't get the same bad habits as the
rest of us.
S5 (02:12):
Well, no, as far as I'm concerned, um, I just
had to get on with life, and, um, that's all
there was to it. Once I accepted the fact that
I was blind. Um, nothing. Nothing changed it. Just my
life just continued.
S2 (02:25):
Bill, I'll ask you the same question. So, as I said,
the natural instinct is to step back. But you're slightly
different because you came from a family with a number
of different blind people.
S4 (02:33):
I did. There were four blind children in my family,
the four eldest of seven children. But there was no
history of, um, blindness among my parents or, or, um, um,
grandparents and so on. And I was fortunate. I got
a good education and I got a good academic education,
and I got a good social education or cultural education
(02:57):
in terms of the blind community. So when I came
along at the formation of Blind Citizens Australia, I was
21 going on 22, and I had just finished a
four year arts degree. I studied mathematics and I did
an honours degree, so I worked really hard there and
(03:19):
didn't have much of a social life except for playing
blind cricket on a Saturday afternoon. And there were a
couple of public meetings. One was about forming this national organization.
Another one was about the the forming an organization which
ultimately became radio for the print handicapped. Because this was 1974,
when the Whitlam government had changed the Broadcasting Act and
(03:43):
allowed for community broadcasting. So there was quite a lot
of activity in Melbourne, and I was kind of looking
for a bit to get involved in coming out of
the student world, going to the adult world. And we
had these meetings and, uh, I just sort of followed
on and, uh, agreed to be the, uh, secretary of
(04:04):
this new, uh, organization. And it sort of started from there.
Me sitting at the foot of the cherry tree, listening
to people like David Blythe and John Machin and Phyllis Grayson,
Hugh Geoffrey Chew, the fat talk about the world. What
was wrong with it? There was a bit that was
right with it, and that's sort of where I got
involved and had a lot of my learnings.
S2 (04:24):
So we'll take things back back slightly here. So all right.
It's June 1975. People are wearing flared trousers. The Captain
and Tennille are number one with love Will Keep Us Together,
and the Blind Citizen's Foundation is hosting its first conference.
But I'm presume that wasn't the start of the story. David,
(04:47):
maybe you can give us an idea what the start
of this might have been. What? Um, got people together
to form what eventually became Australia.
S5 (04:56):
You have to know that in those days, things were
very different to what they are today. Our opinions were
not listened to by management of Organizations. Um, we were
denied representation to world organizations, which, um, the agency people monopolized.
(05:17):
People had varying, um, disagreements with issues concerning, um, the agencies.
We also had issues with government, actually, and the traffic
signals were the classic example of one of the things
that we were able to do. But, um, the thing
that drove us really was the fact that, um, there
(05:40):
was no real representation for blind people. In general, there
were several organizations that were specific, but in general, there
was no a role. And, um, we really had a
belief that we were entitled to be treated as first
class citizens. And we demanded that. Right. And that's what
(06:02):
drove us, I believe, to get blind Citizens Australia up
and running, and it's the thing that's kept it going
for 50 years.
S2 (06:09):
So you're one of the founding members? Um, what? Got
the ball rolling, really? I mean, they had to have
had to have been us, like a moment where a
few of you sort of looked at each other. Um, well, proverbially,
and said, all right, we've got to do something.
S5 (06:23):
Oh, well, I think we can go back a step. Um,
I was, along with Hugh Jeffrey and Phyllis Gration. We
were involved with previous national organizations, the organizations of the blind,
and they were all specific bodies that made up that
national body. And we were disillusioned with them because they
(06:45):
wouldn't allow general blindness groups to be members or individuals
to be members. So when the opportunity came, there was
no hesitation, I believe, particularly from Hugh Jeffrey and Phyllis Greyson,
probably John Nash and myself. A bill with a newcomer in.
(07:06):
But he was a pretty willing starter in saying, okay,
we're going to do this and we're going to make
it open to any blind person anywhere in Australia by right,
not by invitation or anything like that, because there was
another organisation that were trying to set themselves up, but
they were very selective in who could be a member,
(07:27):
and we were totally opposed to that. And that's, I think,
what gave us the impetus to say, let's go.
S4 (07:33):
So the organisations at the time that David refers to
there was the Australian Guild of Business and Professional Blind,
which was national in uh, in principle, but it was
based very much in Victoria with a small branch in
Western Australia. There was the Association of Blind Citizens in
New South Wales, which was an organisation that anyone in
(07:55):
in New South Wales or really Sydney could join. And
then there was a blind workers union in Victoria, South
Australia and Western Australia. So that sort of topology of
organisations meant that there were a lot of people that
couldn't join. For example, it was harder for women to
fit into those categories. People in Queensland didn't fit in.
(08:16):
And so we saw the need for this for a
national organisation that anyone could join by. Right. And as
David says, that was the that was the thrust of it.
There was another organisation, I think, Australia Council for the
Advancement of Blind People that was sort of looked like
it might get started, but it was very radical. It
was we were pretty, uh, pretty feisty, but it was
(08:37):
more radical than we were. And I think in some
respects a bit unreasonable. And so that really said to
some people, well, look, we we've talked about forming this organisation.
We'd better get cracking and doing it and do it.
And that's then really the small working party was formed
in November 1974. We had an initial meeting in March 1975,
(09:01):
and it was decided that we would proceed with the
idea of a national organization draw up a constitution. The
name of the organization, a membership fee. I think it
was $3 a year initially. Eventually we changed that to
be a life membership fee, and that we would have
branches in the organization, local branches that people could join.
And we optimistically said, well, we won't have branch voting
(09:22):
at the national convention until we've got 25 branches. Well,
I think we've never got past ten. So so that
idea didn't quite work out. But but it was a
good we got a good start when there was a
lot of young energy uh, in in the organization. Building
on the work of a lot of leaders in the
previous organizations who'd really done some great work, such as the, uh,
(09:48):
work to have free public transport for blind people or
the means test, free blind pension. These were world leading
provisions for blind people that had been achieved by previous
blind people. So it's not at all as if the.
The previous generations had been sleeping or anything like that.
It's just that the model of representation they had didn't
(10:09):
meet the, you know, the world in the 1970s.
S3 (10:13):
So how long between the formation of Blind Citizens Australia like,
how long after that did you start seeing an influx
of members, like how keen were the blind population of
Australia to join this organisation, or do you think that
there was some hesitancy, you know, on their part?
S5 (10:30):
Yes, there was quite a lot. It was very much
a Victorian initiative. We had a little bit of support
from New South Wales, but we got more support from
New South Wales in the next couple of years. Some
of the younger people came on board. We've trained a
bit more younger people, I think, than older people. And
South Australia was. They came on slowly.
S4 (10:53):
Um, yeah, I remember from South Australia at Dolly Lee,
saying to us at a convention one time. Well, um,
and she was a leader in South Australia at the time.
She said, well, you'll be welcome to come to South Australia,
but wait until you're asked, you know. So don't, don't,
don't push us. Don't push us too much. But of course,
as David will attest, things were very different then that
(11:13):
telephone calls, interstate telephone calls were expensive. Yeah. And they
were a couple of dollars, a dollar a minute or
something like that. When a dollar then was worth $10 now.
So we didn't have lots of interstate calls with, uh,
with each other. Airfares were relatively expensive. The train was
cheaper than the others, but still. So we didn't have
(11:34):
this crossover or mixing of people from, uh, between the states.
The main, um, time that that happened really was on
the blind cricket carnivals. In the blind cricket candles were
were relatively very significant in, in those days and have
been up until probably ten years ago when things have changed.
(11:55):
And that was the main time really, when black people
came together. And of course that was mainly men rather
than women, because women didn't play cricket in those days
and still are a minority of the of the players.
S5 (12:08):
So therefore, to annual meetings in Victoria, annual.
S4 (12:12):
Conventions.
S5 (12:13):
Conventions, we put our third one to New South Wales.
I think we're in the fourth one as well, didn't we, Billy? Yes.
That's right. Yes. And that was where we started to
get some impetus with the interstate people, that the fact
that they had to go to them to invite them
and that brought them on board, and that's when the
growth started from that point.
S3 (12:32):
So apart from the cricket carnivals, how were you able
to communicate with people interstate then? Because as you said,
things were expensive. And then how did you get the
word out about the organisation in the first place?
S5 (12:45):
Word of mouth mostly.
S6 (12:47):
Yeah, it's sort of a bit of telephone tree.
S4 (12:50):
What they often called telephone or call that now where
someone would be allocated, you know, to, to ring 3
or 4 people they know, talk to them and you know,
you'd pick the the key people who would talk to
others as, as well as people who probably weren't going to, um,
tell a lot of other people but would come along themselves.
(13:13):
You know, a good tree has, um, strong branches and,
and and twigs and leaves all making the network of
the tree. So it's sort of a bit like that.
And we started our, um, magazine called buff pretty early on.
That was a quarterly magazine, and we produced that in,
in braille and on cassette and in and in large print.
(13:35):
And we also produced programmes for the radio, for print,
handicapped network on reel to reel tape in those days.
And they'd have to be sometimes, uh, flown or couriered from,
you know, one state to another state. But Neville Kerr
and John Machin did a lot of that work, and
then we had good support from Ross MacGregor and Barry
(13:57):
Chapman in in Sydney as well. So we used the
methods that were contemporary at the time for, uh, for communication.
S2 (14:05):
So when would you say when you had annual conferences,
when would you say you had the first truly national conference?
I'm discounting the Northern Territory because yes, I know how
that story went. We got involved in the early 1990s,
but as far as the rest of the states go.
S4 (14:20):
They'd be the mid 80s. We were getting a few
people from Perth, a few from Queensland.
S5 (14:26):
The one we had in um in Adelaide probably was
the one that lifted it to other make it more national.
I think people came across to that one.
S4 (14:36):
Yeah. Or Canberra. Maybe Canberra.
S5 (14:38):
Canberra Theatre was another one.
S4 (14:41):
So sort of early to mid 80s. It was a
gradual a gradual thing. And by this time we were
getting better recognition from the blindness organizations and a number
of their chief executive officers and general managers would would
come to the convention. Uh, mainly to present at uh,
(15:01):
at different sessions. And we gradually got more representation or
inclusion of relevant people in the, in the bureaucracy and,
and uh, often would get a minister to uh, uh,
open our, our, uh, convention.
S5 (15:18):
I think that was one of the key things we
did do. We we were very firm, in our opinion,
with the agencies, but we were respectful and, um, we
didn't charge out willy nilly. We were quite responsible. And
they reacted to that, and we invited them to present
to our people. And, um, in doing that, we were
(15:42):
able to present back to them. And I think they
were the sort of things that we were able to do.
and we had enough respect for people in our organization
to carry that through. And that was something we learned.
There's no good to bashing your head against the brick wall.
I mean, you have to work hard at getting people along. Yeah,
(16:03):
and that's how we did it. And, um, we had
some very strong minded people in the organization who could
do that.
S4 (16:10):
And I think, David, at one of the important things too,
was our policy work. Like with the we got the
audible traffic signals developed in, in Melbourne and Sydney and then, uh,
in Melbourne, for instance, it was around the Or and
New South Wales to the International Year of Disabled Persons 1981.
So governments were looking for some projects that they could
(16:32):
do to hang their hats on and say, well, we,
we help the people with disabilities and the audible traffic signals,
the technology breakthroughs sort of came at the right time.
And then we needed the support of the agencies like
Royal Victorian Institute for the blind. Royal Blind Society, because
they had O&M instructors who could go out and look
(16:52):
at the crossings and say, yeah, that's a good one,
where we'd put a signal and that's another one. We
got these. Lists of crossings from the government and said,
you know, which ones do you want signals on? Well, yeah,
to some extent we had no idea really, because we
only know the ones near you. You know, I didn't
know the crossings in Footscray. I didn't know the crossings
somewhere else. So we needed help from those people to
(17:15):
do that. We also did some very good work on
library services, liaising with the National Library and also the
people at the blindness agencies, particularly John Berryman in Sydney
and Bill Byrne in Sydney. James Mark Nielsen in Victoria
were very open minded and not threatened. These ones in
(17:36):
particular were not threatened by the existence of blind citizens. Australia.
Sometimes like their, um, the chief executives or members of
their board felt a bit threatened and they were very
supportive and engaged very well with us. And so we
did do some really good work there.
S5 (17:53):
The respect of government to bill, that was the other
factor that we we were very in. What we put
to government was very well received mostly.
S4 (18:03):
Yes. That's right.
S2 (18:04):
The thing is, I mean, a lot of what you're
talking about are things that nowadays are just completely taken
for granted. I mean, especially the, um, the audible, um,
road signals. I mean, I personally can remember when they
first came in, in Perth, for example. But I mean,
prior to that, you pretty much just had to, well,
wait till other people crossed the road. Really? I mean,
if you that was the other thing. But I mean,
(18:25):
you're talking about library services. I mean, what let's expand
on that a little bit more. I mean, I can remember, um,
large print books there, but I mean, is that what
we're talking about, or is there is there more to that?
S7 (18:33):
Well, there was large print books initially.
S4 (18:34):
Then there was, uh, then there was cassettes, but there
was a number of organisations producing talking books, but there
was no national catalog. So you could get a situation
where a book was narrated in Sydney, and another version
of it was narrated in, uh, in Melbourne. The National
(18:56):
Library did a lot of good work to develop a
national catalogue of, of, um, talking books. And that was
a bit tricky because some organisations didn't want to contribute
to it because of the murky arrangements around getting copyright
clearance for actually producing the audio books. It's pretty easy
(19:17):
with Braille. People weren't worried about Braille impacting the copyright holders,
but there was more concern with, uh, the audio. So
getting the organisations to have the confidence to contribute to
the catalogue was a bit complicated. And I think we
did some good work there. And in fact, one of
the early people that we recognised as a real contributor
(19:38):
to the blind community through the Blind Citizens Australia. David
Blythe Award was in fact Barbara Sattler, who was the
the founder of Hero Book Service in Tasmania and Hero
Book Service. They narrated audio books for public libraries, and
they were actually producing more audio books there for a
(19:59):
number of years than all the other producers put together.
They did it. They did a power of, of, uh,
of work, but it was in a different genre. It
wasn't through the the Blindness Agency system. It was right
out there in the, in the public libraries.
S5 (20:13):
Bill, I think the other thing we did with the
library is, um, the book producers were getting a subsidy
to produce talking books and Braille. And we convinced them
to give 1% of that to the round table so
it could do its work. And that lasted for quite
a number of years. And that was an initiative from us, too,
(20:33):
because I was chairman at that time.
S4 (20:35):
Yes, that's right David. So that was the round table
on information access for people with print disabilities that was
formed in 1981. Yeah, it was around the time I
was working up in Sydney for the Institute for Deaf
and Blind Children and managing their computerized braille production. So?
So we worked in different areas and, and, uh, you know,
brought the different strands together. I was working there and
(20:58):
also involved in BCA. David was, um, involved through the
roundtable or so. Um, then in on the board of
the Braille and Talking Book Library and also, you know,
president and a leader of of Blind Citizens Australia. So
we worked in different orbits, I suppose you could say to,
to maximize our, uh, pressure and our effect.
S5 (21:19):
If you really think about it in that five year
period from, well, say, six, seven year period from 75,
we went from no representation virtually to we could almost
put a name somewhere in that. We did have a
remarkable success early.
S7 (21:36):
We did.
S4 (21:37):
And there were there were other contributors like Graham Innes
and Joan Letterman, who also did a wild ball and
who also did a terrific amount of work. Maxine Hewitt
was another one.
S2 (21:49):
It actually speaks volumes that the the young, um, innovators
of 1975, um, you're all still around, are still raising hell.
I mean, that's, I think, an inspiration to all of us, really.
S5 (22:00):
There were a few rebels around at the time, and
a bit later on we had to moderate them a
little bit. I think, um, you know, the Penny group,
they were a very radical group for a while, and
we negotiated with them and helped them to realize that
there are better ways of doing things than camping out
(22:20):
on Saint Kilda Road.
S4 (22:23):
Yes. The penny stood for people for equality, not institutionalisation.
And and I think there was Martin Stewart and Steve
Herd and a couple of others involved in that. So
some of their activism was towards the the Blind Workers
factory at the at the Arbib in Melbourne. But also, um,
you know, in a mainstream sense, it was one of
(22:46):
those members who, um, with his radio scanner got onto this, um,
recording after an election towards the end of the 1980s between, uh,
recording between conversation between Jeff Kennett and Andrew Peacock and
they were, uh, they were not very happy little vegemites
(23:06):
because they'd just lost the federal election. And, of course,
Andrew Peacock had lost the leadership of the Liberal Party
to John Howard. And then he quite made the news, this, uh,
recording that this, uh, this guy from a member of
this organization got and, uh, created quite a, quite a
stir in the, in the public arena.
S5 (23:27):
To negotiate for those cars and help them. And they
helped us. I mean, that's right. We had a an
interesting role when you think of it, because we came
in as a, as a, an advocacy group and we
stayed that, of course, but we also advocated amongst ourselves
as well as towards the general public and and general community.
S4 (23:49):
I think that's right, David. In in those years, the
the blind citizens Australia was very significant in the broader
movement of organisations of people with disabilities. Our outreach to
other organisations and uh, in the 1990s there we led
the um, that coordinated a project, um, of disabled people's
(24:11):
organisations providing a feedback and consultation on the standards for
the Disability Discrimination Act and also on telecommunications services and, uh, reform.
And they were cross-disability projects that we had. And some
of that outreach work we did culminated really in, in
our hosting of the World Blind Union General Assembly in
(24:35):
the year 2000. In Melbourne. David had been president of
the World Blind Union back in 92 to 96. And
then we had the General Assembly in Melbourne. But we
did make a lot of contributions outside of BCA. But
we learnt so much. People or people like me. Maryanne Diamond,
(24:55):
Graeme Innes learned so much from our time. Our formative
years as active members of of Blind Citizens Australia.
S5 (25:04):
The other one we did Bill was um, we took
a leadership role in the setting up of DPI here
in Australia. Graeme Innes and a couple of others were
very much involved in that. I was involved in the formation,
but I dropped out and I think Graeme stayed on
as chairman on one stage.
S4 (25:19):
Yes he did. He was, I think, the first.
S5 (25:22):
Cross-disability organisation, which we assisted them to get themselves organised.
S2 (25:28):
So we've covered a lot of the big ticket articles.
Is there anything like, really small? I mean, I'll give
you one example. In Australia helped to negotiate between the
tax department, the Department of Social Security and a number
of blind people in Northern Territory who were getting about
to have to pay back a whole lot of money
because we had not been informed properly how to fill
(25:49):
out a tax return. So are there any small things
that over the years either of you are particularly proud
of that maybe didn't make the headlines but made a difference?
S5 (25:59):
I mentioned one at the convention. I think what BGA
has done is that it's it's encouraged and made the
platform available to blind people to advocate for themselves. And
I referred to um, Lindley Barber in Up in North Queensland,
(26:19):
who ran a campaign about getting a disabled parking sticker
for blind people in Queensland. And she got strong support
from VCA and uh, and VCA BCA members throughout Australia
because of the list that she put it on. And
I think that that sort of thing is, to me,
is one of the great things that BCA has done
(26:41):
is that so many blind people now are comfortable in
advocating not only for themselves, but for other people as well.
S8 (26:48):
I think that's a really good.
S4 (26:49):
Point, David. The other thing that I think has where
there are a number of little wins was through the
individual advocacy service when I was the executive officer of
BCA back in the late 90s, our chief advocate was
Aileen McFadzean, a young lawyer. She was a very feisty
(27:10):
advocate and did a lot of really good work for
a number of our members individually. And that work is
carried on these days by Martin Stewart, where people often
contact BCA when they have an advocacy problem to sort out.
I remember in in my day, a lot of them
were to do with, um, access to the disability support pension,
(27:32):
the blind pension or to different aspects of the benefit
and allowances. And there might have been other work related, uh,
issues and so on that they're kind of noted in
general terms in the annual report. But because of, you know,
people's right to privacy, they're not not, uh, shouted from
the rooftop. But there has been some, uh, terrific work
(27:56):
in that domain that's been done over the years that
I personally am very proud of.
S3 (28:01):
So from the original founding members back in 1974 or 75,
are there any that are still, you know, working within
BCA or like, you know, main members of the organisation?
S5 (28:14):
Well, three of the first five council members are still
alive and are here, and that's Bill, John Mason and myself.
Quite a few of the original members that attended the
first meetings are still around.
S7 (28:26):
And there was a few of them.
S4 (28:27):
Came to the 50th anniversary. Not in leadership positions in
BCA now, but they're, um, you know, long time stalwart members. Uh,
Stephen Jolly would be, uh, an example of, uh, of that.
Graeme Innes was there not quite at the start, but
pretty close to it. We were talking to him at
the start. You know, the people like Sue Thompson and and, uh,
(28:50):
Michael Janes have been around for a very long time. Uh,
but broadly speaking, you know, we have to move aside
a bit and, uh, uh, make room for the, uh,
the younger ones with greater energy and fresh ideas and, um,
who are more tuned in to today's world, obviously, than
us old people are. So there's there's a strong commitment
(29:10):
and belief in the organization, but there's been a pretty
good I think there's 95 or 96 people that have
served on the board of BCA over those years, which
is a pretty it indicates a pretty good rate of, uh,
that inclusion, I think.
S5 (29:26):
And we've also had a very strong involvement internationally. Hugh Jeffrey,
one of our founding members, wrote the original charter for
the blind in the Old World blind.
S4 (29:37):
International Federation of the blind. Yeah.
S5 (29:40):
And we adopted that in the World Blind Union and
with a bit of change. And then they adopted it
with DP with a few more changes. So, you know,
we've had a pretty big involvement. We've produced two world
presidents from BCA and no other country or organization. The
world has done that. So we we're all along just
(30:02):
doing our job.
S4 (30:03):
So those two presidents, as you, David and Mary Anne Diamond,
who for Philadelphia.
S5 (30:08):
Yeah. Mary Anne was the architect of the.
S7 (30:12):
The Marrakesh.
S4 (30:13):
Treaty.
S5 (30:13):
Treaty. So that's a fantastic thing that's happened. And we're
very much a part of it. So basically I It's
one of those organization now that's just doing its job,
and no one seems to see anything marvelous about that
because we expected.
S2 (30:31):
Well, yeah, we will be talking to, um, a couple
of luminaries from the organization's current, um, board next week. So, um, yes,
we'll be, uh, quite happy. I'm sure they'll be quite
happy to, uh, say what they have been up to.
David Blythe and, um, Bill jolly, thank you so much
for sharing your memories with us and, well, telling us
(30:53):
all about an organisation which some people really don't even
know about nowadays or take for granted. So, um, thanks guys,
for for your stories.
S5 (31:01):
Thank you for the opportunity.
S4 (31:03):
Thanks for having.
S5 (31:04):
Us.
S2 (31:04):
That's a wrap for this week. A big thank you
to David and Bill, and an extra big thank you
to Deb from Blind Citizens Australia.
S3 (31:11):
And of course, thanks to you for listening. That includes
our listeners on the Reading Radio Network. You can find
a podcast of this program, including some extra content on Apple, Spotify,
Google or your favorite podcast platform next week.
S2 (31:26):
The story continues. What is Blind Citizens Australia up to now?
What are some of the hot button topics that are
pushing the organization forward, and what have we got to
look forward to in the future?
S3 (31:37):
But between now and then, please do get in touch
with the show. Whether you have experience of any of
the issues covered on this week's episode of Studio One,
or if you think there's something we should be talking about.
You never know. Your story and insight may help someone
who's dealing with something similar.
S2 (31:51):
You can email us Studio One at org, that's studio
number one at org.
S3 (31:57):
Or of course you can find us on all the
good social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram by searching
for VA Radio Network.
S2 (32:06):
Studio one was produced in the Adelaide studios of Vision
Australia Radio. It was made possible with the support from
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
S3 (32:14):
Find out more at.
This is studio one on Vision Australia Radio.
S2 (00:21):
Hello, I'm Sam and I'm Lizzie, and this is Studio One,
your weekly look at life from a low vision and
blind point of view. Here on Vision Australia Radio.
S3 (00:29):
This week, blind Citizens Australia was formed 50 years ago.
S2 (00:33):
We catch up with David Blythe and Bill Jolley, who
talk about the early years of the organisation and its achievements.
S3 (00:40):
As we always said this point, please do get in
touch with the show, whether you have experience of any
of the issues covered on this week's episode of Studio One,
or if you think there's something we should be talking about.
You never know. Your story and insight may help someone
who's dealing with something similar.
S2 (00:55):
Please contact us via email. Studio one org. That's studio
number one at Vision Australia.
S3 (01:01):
Org or of course, you can leave us a note
on the station's Facebook page at facebook.com.
S2 (01:10):
Hello, David and Bill, welcome to studio one.
S4 (01:12):
Good afternoon. Good to be with you.
S2 (01:14):
So last week, one of our conversations was about how
blind people will often naturally just take a step back.
When someone's actually talking. They will allow people to talk
over them, or will sit back and take into account
what's going on before they say anything. I'll start with you, David.
What was the thing that made you go against that
(01:36):
instinct and actually speak out a bit more?
S5 (01:38):
Well, I thought I was sighted until I was 14
and I lost my sight, and I had a bit
of experience in Queensland before I came to Victoria. And
I was an active member of the Mine Workers Union
for a number of years and the Guild of Business
and Professional Blind. So I was quite confident in talking
out and representing blind people. So I had no trouble
(02:02):
with the establishment of the National Federation of Blind Citizens,
as it was then.
S2 (02:08):
So in some ways you could be said that you
didn't you didn't get the same bad habits as the
rest of us.
S5 (02:12):
Well, no, as far as I'm concerned, um, I just
had to get on with life, and, um, that's all
there was to it. Once I accepted the fact that
I was blind. Um, nothing. Nothing changed it. Just my
life just continued.
S2 (02:25):
Bill, I'll ask you the same question. So, as I said,
the natural instinct is to step back. But you're slightly
different because you came from a family with a number
of different blind people.
S4 (02:33):
I did. There were four blind children in my family,
the four eldest of seven children. But there was no
history of, um, blindness among my parents or, or, um, um,
grandparents and so on. And I was fortunate. I got
a good education and I got a good academic education,
and I got a good social education or cultural education
(02:57):
in terms of the blind community. So when I came
along at the formation of Blind Citizens Australia, I was
21 going on 22, and I had just finished a
four year arts degree. I studied mathematics and I did
an honours degree, so I worked really hard there and
(03:19):
didn't have much of a social life except for playing
blind cricket on a Saturday afternoon. And there were a
couple of public meetings. One was about forming this national organization.
Another one was about the the forming an organization which
ultimately became radio for the print handicapped. Because this was 1974,
when the Whitlam government had changed the Broadcasting Act and
(03:43):
allowed for community broadcasting. So there was quite a lot
of activity in Melbourne, and I was kind of looking
for a bit to get involved in coming out of
the student world, going to the adult world. And we
had these meetings and, uh, I just sort of followed
on and, uh, agreed to be the, uh, secretary of
(04:04):
this new, uh, organization. And it sort of started from there.
Me sitting at the foot of the cherry tree, listening
to people like David Blythe and John Machin and Phyllis Grayson,
Hugh Geoffrey Chew, the fat talk about the world. What
was wrong with it? There was a bit that was
right with it, and that's sort of where I got
involved and had a lot of my learnings.
S2 (04:24):
So we'll take things back back slightly here. So all right.
It's June 1975. People are wearing flared trousers. The Captain
and Tennille are number one with love Will Keep Us Together,
and the Blind Citizen's Foundation is hosting its first conference.
But I'm presume that wasn't the start of the story. David,
(04:47):
maybe you can give us an idea what the start
of this might have been. What? Um, got people together
to form what eventually became Australia.
S5 (04:56):
You have to know that in those days, things were
very different to what they are today. Our opinions were
not listened to by management of Organizations. Um, we were
denied representation to world organizations, which, um, the agency people monopolized.
(05:17):
People had varying, um, disagreements with issues concerning, um, the agencies.
We also had issues with government, actually, and the traffic
signals were the classic example of one of the things
that we were able to do. But, um, the thing
that drove us really was the fact that, um, there
(05:40):
was no real representation for blind people. In general, there
were several organizations that were specific, but in general, there
was no a role. And, um, we really had a
belief that we were entitled to be treated as first
class citizens. And we demanded that. Right. And that's what
(06:02):
drove us, I believe, to get blind Citizens Australia up
and running, and it's the thing that's kept it going
for 50 years.
S2 (06:09):
So you're one of the founding members? Um, what? Got
the ball rolling, really? I mean, they had to have
had to have been us, like a moment where a
few of you sort of looked at each other. Um, well, proverbially,
and said, all right, we've got to do something.
S5 (06:23):
Oh, well, I think we can go back a step. Um,
I was, along with Hugh Jeffrey and Phyllis Gration. We
were involved with previous national organizations, the organizations of the blind,
and they were all specific bodies that made up that
national body. And we were disillusioned with them because they
(06:45):
wouldn't allow general blindness groups to be members or individuals
to be members. So when the opportunity came, there was
no hesitation, I believe, particularly from Hugh Jeffrey and Phyllis Greyson,
probably John Nash and myself. A bill with a newcomer in.
(07:06):
But he was a pretty willing starter in saying, okay,
we're going to do this and we're going to make
it open to any blind person anywhere in Australia by right,
not by invitation or anything like that, because there was
another organisation that were trying to set themselves up, but
they were very selective in who could be a member,
(07:27):
and we were totally opposed to that. And that's, I think,
what gave us the impetus to say, let's go.
S4 (07:33):
So the organisations at the time that David refers to
there was the Australian Guild of Business and Professional Blind,
which was national in uh, in principle, but it was
based very much in Victoria with a small branch in
Western Australia. There was the Association of Blind Citizens in
New South Wales, which was an organisation that anyone in
(07:55):
in New South Wales or really Sydney could join. And
then there was a blind workers union in Victoria, South
Australia and Western Australia. So that sort of topology of
organisations meant that there were a lot of people that
couldn't join. For example, it was harder for women to
fit into those categories. People in Queensland didn't fit in.
(08:16):
And so we saw the need for this for a
national organisation that anyone could join by. Right. And as
David says, that was the that was the thrust of it.
There was another organisation, I think, Australia Council for the
Advancement of Blind People that was sort of looked like
it might get started, but it was very radical. It
was we were pretty, uh, pretty feisty, but it was
(08:37):
more radical than we were. And I think in some
respects a bit unreasonable. And so that really said to
some people, well, look, we we've talked about forming this organisation.
We'd better get cracking and doing it and do it.
And that's then really the small working party was formed
in November 1974. We had an initial meeting in March 1975,
(09:01):
and it was decided that we would proceed with the
idea of a national organization draw up a constitution. The
name of the organization, a membership fee. I think it
was $3 a year initially. Eventually we changed that to
be a life membership fee, and that we would have
branches in the organization, local branches that people could join.
And we optimistically said, well, we won't have branch voting
(09:22):
at the national convention until we've got 25 branches. Well,
I think we've never got past ten. So so that
idea didn't quite work out. But but it was a
good we got a good start when there was a
lot of young energy uh, in in the organization. Building
on the work of a lot of leaders in the
previous organizations who'd really done some great work, such as the, uh,
(09:48):
work to have free public transport for blind people or
the means test, free blind pension. These were world leading
provisions for blind people that had been achieved by previous
blind people. So it's not at all as if the.
The previous generations had been sleeping or anything like that.
It's just that the model of representation they had didn't
(10:09):
meet the, you know, the world in the 1970s.
S3 (10:13):
So how long between the formation of Blind Citizens Australia like,
how long after that did you start seeing an influx
of members, like how keen were the blind population of
Australia to join this organisation, or do you think that
there was some hesitancy, you know, on their part?
S5 (10:30):
Yes, there was quite a lot. It was very much
a Victorian initiative. We had a little bit of support
from New South Wales, but we got more support from
New South Wales in the next couple of years. Some
of the younger people came on board. We've trained a
bit more younger people, I think, than older people. And
South Australia was. They came on slowly.
S4 (10:53):
Um, yeah, I remember from South Australia at Dolly Lee,
saying to us at a convention one time. Well, um,
and she was a leader in South Australia at the time.
She said, well, you'll be welcome to come to South Australia,
but wait until you're asked, you know. So don't, don't,
don't push us. Don't push us too much. But of course,
as David will attest, things were very different then that
(11:13):
telephone calls, interstate telephone calls were expensive. Yeah. And they
were a couple of dollars, a dollar a minute or
something like that. When a dollar then was worth $10 now.
So we didn't have lots of interstate calls with, uh,
with each other. Airfares were relatively expensive. The train was
cheaper than the others, but still. So we didn't have
(11:34):
this crossover or mixing of people from, uh, between the states.
The main, um, time that that happened really was on
the blind cricket carnivals. In the blind cricket candles were
were relatively very significant in, in those days and have
been up until probably ten years ago when things have changed.
(11:55):
And that was the main time really, when black people
came together. And of course that was mainly men rather
than women, because women didn't play cricket in those days
and still are a minority of the of the players.
S5 (12:08):
So therefore, to annual meetings in Victoria, annual.
S4 (12:12):
Conventions.
S5 (12:13):
Conventions, we put our third one to New South Wales.
I think we're in the fourth one as well, didn't we, Billy? Yes.
That's right. Yes. And that was where we started to
get some impetus with the interstate people, that the fact
that they had to go to them to invite them
and that brought them on board, and that's when the
growth started from that point.
S3 (12:32):
So apart from the cricket carnivals, how were you able
to communicate with people interstate then? Because as you said,
things were expensive. And then how did you get the
word out about the organisation in the first place?
S5 (12:45):
Word of mouth mostly.
S6 (12:47):
Yeah, it's sort of a bit of telephone tree.
S4 (12:50):
What they often called telephone or call that now where
someone would be allocated, you know, to, to ring 3
or 4 people they know, talk to them and you know,
you'd pick the the key people who would talk to
others as, as well as people who probably weren't going to, um,
tell a lot of other people but would come along themselves.
(13:13):
You know, a good tree has, um, strong branches and,
and and twigs and leaves all making the network of
the tree. So it's sort of a bit like that.
And we started our, um, magazine called buff pretty early on.
That was a quarterly magazine, and we produced that in,
in braille and on cassette and in and in large print.
(13:35):
And we also produced programmes for the radio, for print,
handicapped network on reel to reel tape in those days.
And they'd have to be sometimes, uh, flown or couriered from,
you know, one state to another state. But Neville Kerr
and John Machin did a lot of that work, and
then we had good support from Ross MacGregor and Barry
(13:57):
Chapman in in Sydney as well. So we used the
methods that were contemporary at the time for, uh, for communication.
S2 (14:05):
So when would you say when you had annual conferences,
when would you say you had the first truly national conference?
I'm discounting the Northern Territory because yes, I know how
that story went. We got involved in the early 1990s,
but as far as the rest of the states go.
S4 (14:20):
They'd be the mid 80s. We were getting a few
people from Perth, a few from Queensland.
S5 (14:26):
The one we had in um in Adelaide probably was
the one that lifted it to other make it more national.
I think people came across to that one.
S4 (14:36):
Yeah. Or Canberra. Maybe Canberra.
S5 (14:38):
Canberra Theatre was another one.
S4 (14:41):
So sort of early to mid 80s. It was a
gradual a gradual thing. And by this time we were
getting better recognition from the blindness organizations and a number
of their chief executive officers and general managers would would
come to the convention. Uh, mainly to present at uh,
(15:01):
at different sessions. And we gradually got more representation or
inclusion of relevant people in the, in the bureaucracy and,
and uh, often would get a minister to uh, uh,
open our, our, uh, convention.
S5 (15:18):
I think that was one of the key things we
did do. We we were very firm, in our opinion,
with the agencies, but we were respectful and, um, we
didn't charge out willy nilly. We were quite responsible. And
they reacted to that, and we invited them to present
to our people. And, um, in doing that, we were
(15:42):
able to present back to them. And I think they
were the sort of things that we were able to do.
and we had enough respect for people in our organization
to carry that through. And that was something we learned.
There's no good to bashing your head against the brick wall.
I mean, you have to work hard at getting people along. Yeah,
(16:03):
and that's how we did it. And, um, we had
some very strong minded people in the organization who could
do that.
S4 (16:10):
And I think, David, at one of the important things too,
was our policy work. Like with the we got the
audible traffic signals developed in, in Melbourne and Sydney and then, uh,
in Melbourne, for instance, it was around the Or and
New South Wales to the International Year of Disabled Persons 1981.
So governments were looking for some projects that they could
(16:32):
do to hang their hats on and say, well, we,
we help the people with disabilities and the audible traffic signals,
the technology breakthroughs sort of came at the right time.
And then we needed the support of the agencies like
Royal Victorian Institute for the blind. Royal Blind Society, because
they had O&M instructors who could go out and look
(16:52):
at the crossings and say, yeah, that's a good one,
where we'd put a signal and that's another one. We
got these. Lists of crossings from the government and said,
you know, which ones do you want signals on? Well, yeah,
to some extent we had no idea really, because we
only know the ones near you. You know, I didn't
know the crossings in Footscray. I didn't know the crossings
somewhere else. So we needed help from those people to
(17:15):
do that. We also did some very good work on
library services, liaising with the National Library and also the
people at the blindness agencies, particularly John Berryman in Sydney
and Bill Byrne in Sydney. James Mark Nielsen in Victoria
were very open minded and not threatened. These ones in
(17:36):
particular were not threatened by the existence of blind citizens. Australia.
Sometimes like their, um, the chief executives or members of
their board felt a bit threatened and they were very
supportive and engaged very well with us. And so we
did do some really good work there.
S5 (17:53):
The respect of government to bill, that was the other
factor that we we were very in. What we put
to government was very well received mostly.
S4 (18:03):
Yes. That's right.
S2 (18:04):
The thing is, I mean, a lot of what you're
talking about are things that nowadays are just completely taken
for granted. I mean, especially the, um, the audible, um,
road signals. I mean, I personally can remember when they
first came in, in Perth, for example. But I mean,
prior to that, you pretty much just had to, well,
wait till other people crossed the road. Really? I mean,
if you that was the other thing. But I mean,
(18:25):
you're talking about library services. I mean, what let's expand
on that a little bit more. I mean, I can remember, um,
large print books there, but I mean, is that what
we're talking about, or is there is there more to that?
S7 (18:33):
Well, there was large print books initially.
S4 (18:34):
Then there was, uh, then there was cassettes, but there
was a number of organisations producing talking books, but there
was no national catalog. So you could get a situation
where a book was narrated in Sydney, and another version
of it was narrated in, uh, in Melbourne. The National
(18:56):
Library did a lot of good work to develop a
national catalogue of, of, um, talking books. And that was
a bit tricky because some organisations didn't want to contribute
to it because of the murky arrangements around getting copyright
clearance for actually producing the audio books. It's pretty easy
(19:17):
with Braille. People weren't worried about Braille impacting the copyright holders,
but there was more concern with, uh, the audio. So
getting the organisations to have the confidence to contribute to
the catalogue was a bit complicated. And I think we
did some good work there. And in fact, one of
the early people that we recognised as a real contributor
(19:38):
to the blind community through the Blind Citizens Australia. David
Blythe Award was in fact Barbara Sattler, who was the
the founder of Hero Book Service in Tasmania and Hero
Book Service. They narrated audio books for public libraries, and
they were actually producing more audio books there for a
(19:59):
number of years than all the other producers put together.
They did it. They did a power of, of, uh,
of work, but it was in a different genre. It
wasn't through the the Blindness Agency system. It was right
out there in the, in the public libraries.
S5 (20:13):
Bill, I think the other thing we did with the
library is, um, the book producers were getting a subsidy
to produce talking books and Braille. And we convinced them
to give 1% of that to the round table so
it could do its work. And that lasted for quite
a number of years. And that was an initiative from us, too,
(20:33):
because I was chairman at that time.
S4 (20:35):
Yes, that's right David. So that was the round table
on information access for people with print disabilities that was
formed in 1981. Yeah, it was around the time I
was working up in Sydney for the Institute for Deaf
and Blind Children and managing their computerized braille production. So?
So we worked in different areas and, and, uh, you know,
brought the different strands together. I was working there and
(20:58):
also involved in BCA. David was, um, involved through the
roundtable or so. Um, then in on the board of
the Braille and Talking Book Library and also, you know,
president and a leader of of Blind Citizens Australia. So
we worked in different orbits, I suppose you could say to,
to maximize our, uh, pressure and our effect.
S5 (21:19):
If you really think about it in that five year
period from, well, say, six, seven year period from 75,
we went from no representation virtually to we could almost
put a name somewhere in that. We did have a
remarkable success early.
S7 (21:36):
We did.
S4 (21:37):
And there were there were other contributors like Graham Innes
and Joan Letterman, who also did a wild ball and
who also did a terrific amount of work. Maxine Hewitt
was another one.
S2 (21:49):
It actually speaks volumes that the the young, um, innovators
of 1975, um, you're all still around, are still raising hell.
I mean, that's, I think, an inspiration to all of us, really.
S5 (22:00):
There were a few rebels around at the time, and
a bit later on we had to moderate them a
little bit. I think, um, you know, the Penny group,
they were a very radical group for a while, and
we negotiated with them and helped them to realize that
there are better ways of doing things than camping out
(22:20):
on Saint Kilda Road.
S4 (22:23):
Yes. The penny stood for people for equality, not institutionalisation.
And and I think there was Martin Stewart and Steve
Herd and a couple of others involved in that. So
some of their activism was towards the the Blind Workers
factory at the at the Arbib in Melbourne. But also, um,
you know, in a mainstream sense, it was one of
(22:46):
those members who, um, with his radio scanner got onto this, um,
recording after an election towards the end of the 1980s between, uh,
recording between conversation between Jeff Kennett and Andrew Peacock and
they were, uh, they were not very happy little vegemites
(23:06):
because they'd just lost the federal election. And, of course,
Andrew Peacock had lost the leadership of the Liberal Party
to John Howard. And then he quite made the news, this, uh,
recording that this, uh, this guy from a member of
this organization got and, uh, created quite a, quite a
stir in the, in the public arena.
S5 (23:27):
To negotiate for those cars and help them. And they
helped us. I mean, that's right. We had a an
interesting role when you think of it, because we came
in as a, as a, an advocacy group and we
stayed that, of course, but we also advocated amongst ourselves
as well as towards the general public and and general community.
S4 (23:49):
I think that's right, David. In in those years, the
the blind citizens Australia was very significant in the broader
movement of organisations of people with disabilities. Our outreach to
other organisations and uh, in the 1990s there we led
the um, that coordinated a project, um, of disabled people's
(24:11):
organisations providing a feedback and consultation on the standards for
the Disability Discrimination Act and also on telecommunications services and, uh, reform.
And they were cross-disability projects that we had. And some
of that outreach work we did culminated really in, in
our hosting of the World Blind Union General Assembly in
(24:35):
the year 2000. In Melbourne. David had been president of
the World Blind Union back in 92 to 96. And
then we had the General Assembly in Melbourne. But we
did make a lot of contributions outside of BCA. But
we learnt so much. People or people like me. Maryanne Diamond,
(24:55):
Graeme Innes learned so much from our time. Our formative
years as active members of of Blind Citizens Australia.
S5 (25:04):
The other one we did Bill was um, we took
a leadership role in the setting up of DPI here
in Australia. Graeme Innes and a couple of others were
very much involved in that. I was involved in the formation,
but I dropped out and I think Graeme stayed on
as chairman on one stage.
S4 (25:19):
Yes he did. He was, I think, the first.
S5 (25:22):
Cross-disability organisation, which we assisted them to get themselves organised.
S2 (25:28):
So we've covered a lot of the big ticket articles.
Is there anything like, really small? I mean, I'll give
you one example. In Australia helped to negotiate between the
tax department, the Department of Social Security and a number
of blind people in Northern Territory who were getting about
to have to pay back a whole lot of money
because we had not been informed properly how to fill
(25:49):
out a tax return. So are there any small things
that over the years either of you are particularly proud
of that maybe didn't make the headlines but made a difference?
S5 (25:59):
I mentioned one at the convention. I think what BGA
has done is that it's it's encouraged and made the
platform available to blind people to advocate for themselves. And
I referred to um, Lindley Barber in Up in North Queensland,
(26:19):
who ran a campaign about getting a disabled parking sticker
for blind people in Queensland. And she got strong support
from VCA and uh, and VCA BCA members throughout Australia
because of the list that she put it on. And
I think that that sort of thing is, to me,
is one of the great things that BCA has done
(26:41):
is that so many blind people now are comfortable in
advocating not only for themselves, but for other people as well.
S8 (26:48):
I think that's a really good.
S4 (26:49):
Point, David. The other thing that I think has where
there are a number of little wins was through the
individual advocacy service when I was the executive officer of
BCA back in the late 90s, our chief advocate was
Aileen McFadzean, a young lawyer. She was a very feisty
(27:10):
advocate and did a lot of really good work for
a number of our members individually. And that work is
carried on these days by Martin Stewart, where people often
contact BCA when they have an advocacy problem to sort out.
I remember in in my day, a lot of them
were to do with, um, access to the disability support pension,
(27:32):
the blind pension or to different aspects of the benefit
and allowances. And there might have been other work related, uh,
issues and so on that they're kind of noted in
general terms in the annual report. But because of, you know,
people's right to privacy, they're not not, uh, shouted from
the rooftop. But there has been some, uh, terrific work
(27:56):
in that domain that's been done over the years that
I personally am very proud of.
S3 (28:01):
So from the original founding members back in 1974 or 75,
are there any that are still, you know, working within
BCA or like, you know, main members of the organisation?
S5 (28:14):
Well, three of the first five council members are still
alive and are here, and that's Bill, John Mason and myself.
Quite a few of the original members that attended the
first meetings are still around.
S7 (28:26):
And there was a few of them.
S4 (28:27):
Came to the 50th anniversary. Not in leadership positions in
BCA now, but they're, um, you know, long time stalwart members. Uh,
Stephen Jolly would be, uh, an example of, uh, of that.
Graeme Innes was there not quite at the start, but
pretty close to it. We were talking to him at
the start. You know, the people like Sue Thompson and and, uh,
(28:50):
Michael Janes have been around for a very long time. Uh,
but broadly speaking, you know, we have to move aside
a bit and, uh, uh, make room for the, uh,
the younger ones with greater energy and fresh ideas and, um,
who are more tuned in to today's world, obviously, than
us old people are. So there's there's a strong commitment
(29:10):
and belief in the organization, but there's been a pretty
good I think there's 95 or 96 people that have
served on the board of BCA over those years, which
is a pretty it indicates a pretty good rate of, uh,
that inclusion, I think.
S5 (29:26):
And we've also had a very strong involvement internationally. Hugh Jeffrey,
one of our founding members, wrote the original charter for
the blind in the Old World blind.
S4 (29:37):
International Federation of the blind. Yeah.
S5 (29:40):
And we adopted that in the World Blind Union and
with a bit of change. And then they adopted it
with DP with a few more changes. So, you know,
we've had a pretty big involvement. We've produced two world
presidents from BCA and no other country or organization. The
world has done that. So we we're all along just
(30:02):
doing our job.
S4 (30:03):
So those two presidents, as you, David and Mary Anne Diamond,
who for Philadelphia.
S5 (30:08):
Yeah. Mary Anne was the architect of the.
S7 (30:12):
The Marrakesh.
S4 (30:13):
Treaty.
S5 (30:13):
Treaty. So that's a fantastic thing that's happened. And we're
very much a part of it. So basically I It's
one of those organization now that's just doing its job,
and no one seems to see anything marvelous about that
because we expected.
S2 (30:31):
Well, yeah, we will be talking to, um, a couple
of luminaries from the organization's current, um, board next week. So, um, yes,
we'll be, uh, quite happy. I'm sure they'll be quite
happy to, uh, say what they have been up to.
David Blythe and, um, Bill jolly, thank you so much
for sharing your memories with us and, well, telling us
(30:53):
all about an organisation which some people really don't even
know about nowadays or take for granted. So, um, thanks guys,
for for your stories.
S5 (31:01):
Thank you for the opportunity.
S4 (31:03):
Thanks for having.
S5 (31:04):
Us.
S2 (31:04):
That's a wrap for this week. A big thank you
to David and Bill, and an extra big thank you
to Deb from Blind Citizens Australia.
S3 (31:11):
And of course, thanks to you for listening. That includes
our listeners on the Reading Radio Network. You can find
a podcast of this program, including some extra content on Apple, Spotify,
Google or your favorite podcast platform next week.
S2 (31:26):
The story continues. What is Blind Citizens Australia up to now?
What are some of the hot button topics that are
pushing the organization forward, and what have we got to
look forward to in the future?
S3 (31:37):
But between now and then, please do get in touch
with the show. Whether you have experience of any of
the issues covered on this week's episode of Studio One,
or if you think there's something we should be talking about.
You never know. Your story and insight may help someone
who's dealing with something similar.
S2 (31:51):
You can email us Studio One at org, that's studio
number one at org.
S3 (31:57):
Or of course you can find us on all the
good social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram by searching
for VA Radio Network.
S2 (32:06):
Studio one was produced in the Adelaide studios of Vision
Australia Radio. It was made possible with the support from
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
S3 (32:14):
Find out more at.
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