December 31, 2024 • 28 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
“Happy New Year!”
Lizzie and Sam brush off the cobwebs from new years eve and bring you the send holiday special. We look at the latter half of 2024, and reflect on the return of a certain orange head-of-state to an unnamed superpower…
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:05):
This is studio one on Vision Australia Radio.
S2 (00:15):
Hello, I'm Sam and I'm Lizzie, and this is Studio One,
your weekly look at life around low vision and blind.
Point of view here on Vision Australia Radio on the.
S3 (00:23):
First show for 2025.
S2 (00:25):
Yes, it's New Year's Day where we break through the
fog of the night before and look at the later
part of 2024.
S3 (00:34):
As we always say at this point, please do get
in touch with the show whether you have any experience
with 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 (00:50):
You can email us Studio One at Vision Australia. Org.
That's studio number one at Vision Australia.
S3 (00:55):
Org or perhaps you can drop us a note on
our Facebook page. Just go to facebook.com slash VA Radio Network.
S2 (01:04):
Well happy new year.
S3 (01:06):
Happy new year. I believe you're not even in Australia
at this point, are you?
S2 (01:11):
No, I'm halfway between New Zealand and Brisbane. All things
going well?
S3 (01:16):
Yes, and I'm getting ready to go to Western Australia
for the road National championships, so this should be fun.
Of course.
S2 (01:22):
Between now and then, things could change. We should. We
can see. I mean, you may break a leg or
something like that, and I may miss the boat, but
we shall see. This is our second week of, well,
best ofs, really. And this is the first time we've
ever podcast these as well, because we've usually got to
find something to fill these two gaps when we're not
(01:44):
actually here working. So this is usually what happens for
the radio. But for the first time, yes, we're podcasting
it as.
S3 (01:50):
Well because we're just that good.
S2 (01:52):
Oh yes we are. Yes. Oh, shucks. See, I mean,
as I said, we can present something like this while, um,
one of us is off to Brisbane and one of
us is on a boat. Perth. Perth. There we go. Perth. Uh,
Are opposite ends of the country. There we go. I'll be.
I'm on my way to Brisbane. That's right. Yes. Anyway,
let's not get things mixed up. So we're covering the
(02:14):
later part of 2024.
S3 (02:16):
And what a whirlwind it has been, Sam.
S2 (02:21):
Yes. Well, I mean, the thing is, is this this
is when you started finding your own voice and started
doing a lot of vox pop interviews and finding finding
people to talk to. And, well, it got a lot busier,
didn't it? It did.
S3 (02:36):
And we had a lot of interesting conversations and talk
to a lot of met a lot of interesting new people. Um,
and it's been interesting.
S2 (02:45):
And yes, we had that election as well, which. Yes.
Which well, it's sort of surreal. We live in this
completely different world now. Um, the guy hasn't even taken
up the presidency yet, and yet he's still doing some
weird stuff, and I'm not even going to bother saying
his name.
S3 (03:03):
So I don't think it needs to be said, does it?
S4 (03:05):
No no.
S2 (03:06):
No. The orange American president.
S3 (03:08):
Yes. Oompa-loompa.
S2 (03:09):
Yes. But anyway. So from the later part of this year,
as you were the one that did a lot of
the heavy lifting, this, this, this half of the year,
what actually stood out to you?
S3 (03:19):
Well, Sam, I think the Blind Barbie episode was probably
one of my favorite, just because I got to carry
this pretty little Barbie doll around with me for a
whole week and get people's responses. But also Braille music.
Camp felt a bit nostalgic doing that episode because I
used to attend the camp myself, and I would have
to say noble me and the shopping episode.
S2 (03:41):
Well, the highlight for me probably was catching up with
Jody and Shayne. So that was during the Paralympics there.
It was just nice to catch up with two people
and suddenly realize that 30 years seems like it was
only yesterday. Really. So that was pretty much the last
time I'd sort of had spent time with either of
those guys.
S3 (04:00):
And Amar Latif, of course, that was a great, great show.
And travelers.
S2 (04:04):
And yes, he and he loved to talk. And this
is what we love when we have people that love
to talk. It's nothing's worse when you sort of run
out of things to say. So yes, it's always good
to have something like 40 minutes worth of material to
edit down to a 28 minute show.
S3 (04:20):
And you know, I know we always say this in
the intro and outro, but it bears repeating. We really
do want to hear from you, the listener. If you've
got any experiences, if you've got any stories, we really
do want to hear them. We want to share them
and give you a platform to share them.
S2 (04:36):
And that is actually what makes us different to the
other shows out there is we don't just talk to
guests and that we have well, we like to hear
from our listeners and if possible, we like to have
you on and talk to you as well. But we're
not about talking just to people out there. We're about
talking to you. We're supposed to be a talkback show.
S3 (04:55):
And the thing is, I've heard somewhere from someone I
don't remember who, but the experts are the people with
lived experience, which, of course, is you. So, you know,
you are our experts.
S2 (05:06):
So without any further ado, let's catch up with a
later part of 2024. I'm welcoming to studio One the
one and only Jeffrey Lim. G'day, Jeffrey.
S5 (05:21):
Hello, Sam. How are you?
S2 (05:23):
So this is a first I've got to say, because
you contacted us knowing hardly anyone uses our mailbox. And
all of a sudden, this big surprise there. What prompted
you to get in touch?
S5 (05:34):
I had actually been a beneficiary of some Vision Australia
work before, and I'm a big fan of Vision Australia
and everything it does, and I thought that maybe I
could give back somehow. And this might be one way.
S2 (05:45):
Well, yes. I mean, you've had quite the journey. Really.
Your claim to fame in some ways, if I might
put it that way, is that you've been on TV
a few times as a dancer, but I'm guessing that
goes way further back. What made you decide that this
was going to be your life? That dancing was going
to be what you did?
S5 (06:04):
Oh, there wasn't anything in particular. It was more just
a knowing realization over time. So I am a child
of immigrant parents, refugees of war, and like many, uh,
first generation immigrants, they want, you know, their children to
(06:26):
be better off than they are and have a better life.
And so, you know, my parents wanted me to go
to university, get a really good job, earn lots of
money and all that sort of stuff. And I started
dancing in high school, and really all I wanted to
do was just dance. And so there was always that
little bit of conflict within the family, and I did
(06:48):
succumb to my parents wishes. Initially. I did go into
the corporate world for a good eight years, but what
I realized was throughout that whole period, I could never
stop thinking about dancing. And at every pedestrian crossing I'd
be dancing. I would watch dance videos every day I
would go to dance events all the time, and I
(07:08):
always felt like I wanted to come back into the
dance world. So it's been a long time coming, but
I have finally come back from the TV world to
the corporate world, and now back into the dance world.
S2 (07:19):
As I mentioned before, so you've been on television a
few times. Do you want to elaborate? How did how
did you get the gig? Yeah.
S5 (07:26):
So I think my first television appearance was on the
first season of Australia's Got Talent. Um, way back. And
I entered as a solo dancer and did reasonably well.
I made it to the semi-finals and then didn't make
it into the finals for that season. And then the
following years I was on So You Think You Can
(07:47):
Dance both seasons one and two, and that was so
much fun, just being surrounded by all of Australia's best
dancers and just everyone inspiring each other. And then a
couple years after that, I was on another TV show
on Network Ten called Everybody Dance Now.
S2 (08:03):
When did you start noticing you were starting to lose
your sight.
S5 (08:05):
Oh, I would say from about age ten. Actually, so
very early on, I realized that I couldn't see in
the dark. And I'll never forget the moment I told
my parents, mom, dad, I'm having trouble seeing. I can't
really find my way to the front door. And the
reason I remember it is because they took me seriously.
(08:25):
They didn't think that I was complaining or just being annoying.
They actually sat me down and listened to me like
they'd never listened to me before. And it was only
later that I realized that I had some other family
members with the condition. And so they thought that maybe
I might have the same thing, which is called retinitis pigmentosa.
So it's night blindness. It's tunnel vision. It's a whole
(08:48):
range of other things. So at age ten, and probably
throughout most of school, I didn't really notice that it
had too much of an impact on my life. And
that was primarily because I didn't go out at night,
I wasn't out partying or anything. I just went to
school and then came back home at nighttime. But it
was only until after I started going to uni and
(09:08):
started trying to socialise that I realised there were some limitations. Um,
so yeah, it's been a couple of years since then
the condition has degenerated quite a fair bit and I
only just started this year, just started using the mobility cane.
So um, I should have been using it ten years ago,
but I'm now, um, yeah. In that world of using
(09:31):
a mobility cane and all of the, like, great things
that that unlocks for me, actually.
S3 (09:40):
I think the problem is they want you to like
when they when they do the assessment and they ask
the questions. The way that I've had it explained to me, uh,
through by support coordinators and other people in the know,
is that they want to know how you function on
your worst day, but there's a couple of things they
don't realise. And the biggest one of them being that
(10:02):
as people with a disability, our natural, um, fallback is to, okay,
this is going to be a bad day, but how
can I adapt it? So, I mean, I think it's
a weird thing to ask, you know, about your worst day.
It's certainly not a good benchmark of what we need
in our day to day lives.
S6 (10:22):
Yeah, it's got to be said differently. That's exactly right.
And my worst day is shut the curtains. I'm going.
I'm having a mental health day and bring me chocolate. Yeah, exactly. That's.
What are you doing? That. That is. What can the NDIS.
S3 (10:37):
Do to support.
S6 (10:38):
You? Yeah, exactly. I mean, unless you were.
S3 (10:41):
Willing to function to fund my chocolate budget.
S6 (10:44):
That's it. Exactly. And come and rub my feet and
tell me I'm pretty. That's. You know, the problem is
that people are.
S7 (10:52):
Making the decisions. Have absolutely no idea about people with disability. No.
And that that leads into one of my comments about, um,
you know, the guide dog doesn't help me do shopping.
In my last plan, I had to take to the art.
They took away my community. Community involvement one. Oh, no.
And they said, oh, well, you got the dog. And
(11:13):
I'm like, the dog does. Doesn't help me find the
baked beans on the shelf. The dog gets me from
point A to point B. It is a replacement for
my cane. It is not a replacement for a human. And, um,
then they also said to me, oh, well, you can
go do online shopping instead, because they weren't they didn't
want to fund somebody to help me shopping. This is
basically what they wanted to do. And I said to them,
(11:35):
what happened to choice and control? Somebody who is able
bodied can choose whether they want an online shop or
go in person shop. And their response was, yeah, but
that's their choice. I said, exactly, why don't I have
the choice? Why does my disability take away this choice?
And I'm sitting there going like, you know, there are
things that I can't do online shopping. I can't look
(11:57):
at a picture and say, yes, I like that dress.
That's something I have to do in person. Of course,
I like to choose my own groceries, like my fruit
and veg, because I want it at my standards, not
somebody else's standards. There are those sort of things. And
I said, it's not fair just because I have a
disability that you don't want to find somebody to help
me do something that you can do on your own.
I said, that's the whole point of NDIS, to help
(12:18):
me do things that I would normally do without my disability.
S3 (12:23):
So we are talking to Ashley, Cheyenne and Nevaeh and
they are currently at Braille Music camp as we speak.
Hello to all of you!
S8 (12:32):
Hello. Hi.
S3 (12:34):
Tell us a bit about what's going on.
S8 (12:36):
So we've been doing a lot of choir. We just
came back from senior choir, and there's a lot of
braille music theory lessons. It's been pretty fun. Yeah, definitely
got a lot going on at the moment. There is
an orchestra happening and a songwriting workshop. We're going to
have another another full choir practice after afternoon tea. And
(12:57):
then after that we have a rock band. So there's definitely,
definitely something for everyone here.
S3 (13:04):
So, Ashley, could you tell us how is the camp run,
for example? Could you tell us how all of that
Braille music is created and brought up to the boarding
school at Mittagong? And who's involved?
S8 (13:16):
So something like this doesn't run without a lot of
incredible people. All of our staff are volunteers. Your question
about music. So we have Peter Lee and actually the
entire Vision Australia transcription staff have joined us this year.
So we have a wonderful catalogue of music that's already
been put from print into Braille. And we draw on
(13:40):
that for a lot of our, a lot of our choir,
our full choir stuff. We're also incredibly fortunate to have
both staff and students who who are arrangers and composers
in their own right. This year, one of our students,
Anthony Abrashi, has arranged a piece for the choir. A
couple of our staff and music directors, Nelson Rupert and
(14:03):
Ben Clark, Clarke have also arranged. So, um, the short
answer is that Peter and his team put everything together,
embossed everything into into booklets up in Sydney, um, and
very generously drive it and all their equipment down and
basically put themselves at our disposal for the week, which
(14:24):
is very kind. But yeah, there is an incredible cohort
of staff here doing everything from from supervising, supervising kids, people,
people like myself who are, you know, disability support workers
working on independence building. And then we have our we
have our music team, our transcription team. And it's definitely
(14:45):
a big team effort.
S3 (14:46):
We'll move to Cheyenne and Nevada here. What's been your
favorite part of the camp so far? I know we're
only halfway through, but if you could give us some
insights into what your favorite activities have been.
S8 (14:57):
There's a lot.
S3 (14:59):
But I really enjoyed.
S9 (15:00):
Choir and just getting to see all the people who
I haven't seen in a While, like all my friends
back at camp and it's just the best thing ever.
I think for.
S10 (15:09):
Me, I've enjoyed choir as well. I probably my highlight
has been band because it is, you know, it's a
bit of fun and and an opportunity to socialise and
see friends as well.
S3 (15:19):
So just do you still do the concerts, Ashley? Do
you still do the concerts on Friday night at the
end of the camp?
S8 (15:26):
Yeah, so we've got we have small nightly concerts for
the staff and students of the camp each night, and
from those nightly concerts, as well as what we've been
preparing in our ensembles and our full choir, we have,
we call it a showcase of of the work that
we've done throughout the week.
S3 (15:45):
As far as the actual teaching of the Braille music goes,
who's involved with teaching the younger students? Is it people
from Vision Australia or is it older, you know, students
or staff members who does all the music theory teaching?
S8 (16:02):
We have a mixture of of teachers who make up
our Braille music staff. Some of them are people like
myself who I, I started, I think this is my
16th Braille music camp. I started as a as a student,
and now I've come back as a teacher. So it
might be it might be some of our some of
our blind, blind staff, most of who are professional musicians
(16:26):
or educators in their own right. We also are very
fortunate to have Braille teachers from several states who teach Braille.
Some of the Vision Australia transcription team are also teaching
basically anyone with an aptitude and the knowledge of Braille music.
Who we've worked with is, is, um, you know, task
(16:46):
tasked with, with the privilege of teaching these young people
and being taught by these young people, which is which
is very often the case in the teaching in the
teaching relationship. Like this.
S1 (16:58):
This is studio one.
S2 (17:01):
It's always something that fascinates me when someone has an
acquired disability is that when we're born into this world. So,
I mean, what would you have thought of, um, blind
or visually impaired people when. Well, when you were able bodied, uh.
S11 (17:14):
Anything because I, I used to see people with a
white cane and I thought, wow, these people are amazing.
They're vision impaired, but they're still able to get out
and about. And also, you know, seeing people with guide
dogs and of course, uh, guide dogs are like children.
You know, you basically you want to go up and
say hello and have a chat to them. You really
want to have a pet of the dog. So I
(17:35):
guess that was that was sort of reasonably peripheral. Other
than that, I knew not much about what blindness or
low vision was going to do in terms of impacting
on someone's lives.
S2 (17:45):
Okay, so let's fast forward now to okay, when did
you lose your sight? And it's an idea of, well,
what led up to it? What happened?
S11 (17:54):
I lost my sight in two parts, so I had
to have some operations on my eyes, and I first
operated on my right eye in 2014. That very quickly
turned into, uh, inflammation. A bit worried about it might
have been more than that. So they put me into hospital.
I had three operations on my right eye, and I
(18:15):
went blind in that eye within about four weeks. And
that was it wasn't catastrophic because I still had sight
in my left eye. Um, so I was still able
to drive. I was probably had, but I was sort
of able to drive and do most of the other
things that I did before that operation.
S2 (18:33):
Therefore, originally, I mean something routine, or.
S11 (18:38):
It was, uh, it was I don't normally mention this
because I don't want to stop people doing this operation.
It was for cataracts. And as I say to everybody else,
my partner said both are cataracts. Done. And I know
many people would have had cataract operations. It's one of
the most successful operations you can have. But for me,
there were some special circumstances as to why that happened
(18:59):
to me. So after my operation in 2014, It was interesting.
There was a lot of gnashing of teeth and trying
to work out why I had gone blind in my
right eye. And so many specialists, eye specialists, nose and
throat specialist, immunologists, allergists, um, they tested all the antibiotics
that they used and my eye on the skin, nothing
(19:21):
came up. So when I had to have my second,
I had done in December of 2014, 15. Uh, everybody said, well, uh,
have the operation. You shouldn't have any worries. So I
had the operation in December 2014. Uh, I had 2020
vision for about three days, and then the inflammation came
(19:44):
up again. They were worried, so they sent me to hospital.
I said I didn't want to have any operations. I
wanted to basically try and work through other ways of
saving my sight, because it appeared as if that was
going to follow my right eye. So they tried everything.
They sent out an all points bulletin, uh, both around
Australia and overseas to try and understand the characteristics of
(20:08):
me losing my sight, but nothing came back that helped
me so gradually. In 2015, I was declared legally blind.
Around about my birthday in January. And then I went
from there to being totally blind by about June of
that year.
S3 (20:24):
You have recently taken a massive trip to Spain, and
you've completed one of the longest like walking trails in Spain,
and I believe that you did it with some other
vision impaired people. So tell us, where did you go
and how far did you walk?
S6 (20:41):
I was speaking to a girlfriend who said she was
going to do the Camino, and I actually didn't know
what the Camino in Spain was and, uh, did lots
of googling and realised it was a pilgrimage. There's lots
of different Camino routes, but this particular one is called
the Camino Francés, and it's a pilgrimage that the entire
pilgrimage is 700km. And it's a walk. Um, it's a
(21:03):
walk from Saint John in France, right across to Santiago
de Compostela in Spain. Now, I couldn't afford the time
to do the 700km, so I decided I was going
to do one of the shorter walks. Not that any
of them are really short, but, uh. So I started
finding out how I could do this as a visually
impaired traveller and, uh, um, and it, it just talk
(21:26):
about those things just popping up and, and appearing in
your life, and they were meant to be, because I
couldn't believe it. I was scrolling through everything and up
came a, um, a company called Traveleyes. They're a UK
based company, I believe they've branched out into America, and
they support adventures for vision impaired travellers all over the
(21:48):
world and all different types of things. And you wouldn't
believe it. Within the time that I was googling it,
it came up just on my Facebook feed and they
were doing a Camino walk and I just went, wow,
they hadn't done one back since Covid, and they bring
1 in 8 weeks time. And that I just went.
That's just too, too bizarre. I was supposed to find this,
(22:11):
so that's amazing.
S12 (22:13):
Yeah, I.
S6 (22:14):
Know, it was just I just thought, well, not only
have I found a supported Camino walk, I've found one
for visually impaired travellers, and I had heard of travellers before.
So at my time working at Vision Australia, I had
colleagues that had done travellers um, tours. I had clients
that had done travel eye tours. So I knew of
them and I knew that they were reputable. I also
(22:36):
knew this company was, um, headed up by someone who
was totally blind, a gentleman who's totally blind. And, um,
they were getting some pretty good reviews about their adventures
across the world. So I thought, this is for me,
I'm doing this. So I did the walk from Sarria
to Santiago. It was 120km. There were three, four, five
(22:56):
vision impaired travellers and they have a few more sighted travellers.
I think on that particular one they had uh, nine.
It's just so added. Travellers can also have days off,
if you like, from doing the guiding. But the five
vision impaired travellers there were two with low vision like
me and myself and another sorry. And then the other three, uh,
(23:20):
were totally blind. And their extraordinary, extraordinary women, we're all women.
There was only one, um, sighted travel, who was a man,
and the rest of us were women from all over
the world.
S13 (23:37):
After seven years in the corporate world as an accountant
heading up commercial finance in British Telecom, I thought that
something was missing in my life. And that something was
the travel bug that I'd caught all those years ago
in Canada. But when I approached mainstream group tour operators,
they refused me travel on a group holiday because they
(24:00):
said that I needed to bring a carer with me.
And I just thought, like, I'm young and, you know,
I just want to go places and I don't want
to rely on friends and family. And they said that
even if I did bring somebody with me, that I
wouldn't be able to do any of the fun, adventurous things,
you know, like going walking holidays or sailing holidays or skiing.
(24:22):
And these restrictions left me feeling powerless, and I started
to actually feel blind again in myself. But this time,
this was met by a strong urge to build on
what I had already achieved. So I realised that if
you want something that doesn't exist, you have to build
it yourself. And if I wanted travel to work for me,
(24:42):
I had to change the way travel works. And in
2004 I was inspired to set up Travel Eyes. And
travel eyes is for people who don't know what it is.
It's all one word travel e e s. It's an
international travel company that takes groups of adventurers all over
the world on holiday, and we bring them back home
(25:05):
to you.
S2 (25:05):
Don't just leave us wandering around somewhere.
S14 (25:07):
Yeah, exactly.
S13 (25:09):
Um, but the big difference about travel lies is that
half the group are visually impaired, or VIPs as they
like to be called sometimes, and half the group are
fully sighted. And most people that come on the trips
don't know each other. For example, 80% of the sighted
travelers never met a blind person before, and the vice
often come on their own, or with their partners and
(25:32):
our sighted travelers in return for guiding and describing the
sights to our VIPs, get to travel for a reduction
in price.
S2 (25:40):
That'd be quite an experience, really, and not only for
the sighted guides, really, but I mean, it would be
a bit of a culture shock really, for some people,
if especially if they've never met a visually impaired person before.
S13 (25:53):
Absolutely. I mean, you know, it makes them reflect on
their life. They get so much out of it because
they look at, you know, in their eyes, they think,
oh my God, look at these VIPs. And they're halfway
across the world and they can't see. But yet they're
out here and they're not letting anything stop them. What's
happening with me in my life? And it's kind of
(26:16):
like to say the cliché inspires them, you know, it
kind of moves them to doing things with their life.
And they often say that being a sighted traveler with
travel eyes makes them see the world in a different way. And.
S2 (26:40):
That is a wrap for this week. A big thank
you to everyone who has contributed to the show in
the last 12 months. And of course, well, thank you
for listening next week. Well, we have got a Braille
Week special, so if you are listening to us via podcast,
the podcast will drop on, well, what's National Braille Day?
S3 (27:01):
Again, it's world Braille day.
S2 (27:02):
General braille. Yes. January the 5th. But we will be
back the following Wednesday.
S3 (27:07):
Yes we will.
S2 (27:08):
And who are we talking to with the with this
special episode?
S3 (27:12):
We're talking to Kelly Phelan from whale House. And we'll
probably hear from a couple of you about your experiences
with Braille and what Braille means to you.
S2 (27:20):
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 somebody
else who is dealing with something similar.
S3 (27:35):
You can contact us via email at studio One at
Vision Australia. Org that's studio number one at Vision australia.org.
Or perhaps you can drop us a note on our socials,
whether that be Facebook, Instagram or X. Just look for
us at VA Radio Network. We want to hear from you.
S2 (27:53):
Happy New Year everybody.
S3 (27:54):
Happy new year.
S1 (27:57):
Vision Australia Radio gratefully acknowledges the support of the Community
Broadcasting Foundation for Studio One.
This is studio one on Vision Australia Radio.
S2 (00:15):
Hello, I'm Sam and I'm Lizzie, and this is Studio One,
your weekly look at life around low vision and blind.
Point of view here on Vision Australia Radio on the.
S3 (00:23):
First show for 2025.
S2 (00:25):
Yes, it's New Year's Day where we break through the
fog of the night before and look at the later
part of 2024.
S3 (00:34):
As we always say at this point, please do get
in touch with the show whether you have any experience
with 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 (00:50):
You can email us Studio One at Vision Australia. Org.
That's studio number one at Vision Australia.
S3 (00:55):
Org or perhaps you can drop us a note on
our Facebook page. Just go to facebook.com slash VA Radio Network.
S2 (01:04):
Well happy new year.
S3 (01:06):
Happy new year. I believe you're not even in Australia
at this point, are you?
S2 (01:11):
No, I'm halfway between New Zealand and Brisbane. All things
going well?
S3 (01:16):
Yes, and I'm getting ready to go to Western Australia
for the road National championships, so this should be fun.
Of course.
S2 (01:22):
Between now and then, things could change. We should. We
can see. I mean, you may break a leg or
something like that, and I may miss the boat, but
we shall see. This is our second week of, well,
best ofs, really. And this is the first time we've
ever podcast these as well, because we've usually got to
find something to fill these two gaps when we're not
(01:44):
actually here working. So this is usually what happens for
the radio. But for the first time, yes, we're podcasting
it as.
S3 (01:50):
Well because we're just that good.
S2 (01:52):
Oh yes we are. Yes. Oh, shucks. See, I mean,
as I said, we can present something like this while, um,
one of us is off to Brisbane and one of
us is on a boat. Perth. Perth. There we go. Perth. Uh,
Are opposite ends of the country. There we go. I'll be.
I'm on my way to Brisbane. That's right. Yes. Anyway,
let's not get things mixed up. So we're covering the
(02:14):
later part of 2024.
S3 (02:16):
And what a whirlwind it has been, Sam.
S2 (02:21):
Yes. Well, I mean, the thing is, is this this
is when you started finding your own voice and started
doing a lot of vox pop interviews and finding finding
people to talk to. And, well, it got a lot busier,
didn't it? It did.
S3 (02:36):
And we had a lot of interesting conversations and talk
to a lot of met a lot of interesting new people. Um,
and it's been interesting.
S2 (02:45):
And yes, we had that election as well, which. Yes.
Which well, it's sort of surreal. We live in this
completely different world now. Um, the guy hasn't even taken
up the presidency yet, and yet he's still doing some
weird stuff, and I'm not even going to bother saying
his name.
S3 (03:03):
So I don't think it needs to be said, does it?
S4 (03:05):
No no.
S2 (03:06):
No. The orange American president.
S3 (03:08):
Yes. Oompa-loompa.
S2 (03:09):
Yes. But anyway. So from the later part of this year,
as you were the one that did a lot of
the heavy lifting, this, this, this half of the year,
what actually stood out to you?
S3 (03:19):
Well, Sam, I think the Blind Barbie episode was probably
one of my favorite, just because I got to carry
this pretty little Barbie doll around with me for a
whole week and get people's responses. But also Braille music.
Camp felt a bit nostalgic doing that episode because I
used to attend the camp myself, and I would have
to say noble me and the shopping episode.
S2 (03:41):
Well, the highlight for me probably was catching up with
Jody and Shayne. So that was during the Paralympics there.
It was just nice to catch up with two people
and suddenly realize that 30 years seems like it was
only yesterday. Really. So that was pretty much the last
time I'd sort of had spent time with either of
those guys.
S3 (04:00):
And Amar Latif, of course, that was a great, great show.
And travelers.
S2 (04:04):
And yes, he and he loved to talk. And this
is what we love when we have people that love
to talk. It's nothing's worse when you sort of run
out of things to say. So yes, it's always good
to have something like 40 minutes worth of material to
edit down to a 28 minute show.
S3 (04:20):
And you know, I know we always say this in
the intro and outro, but it bears repeating. We really
do want to hear from you, the listener. If you've
got any experiences, if you've got any stories, we really
do want to hear them. We want to share them
and give you a platform to share them.
S2 (04:36):
And that is actually what makes us different to the
other shows out there is we don't just talk to
guests and that we have well, we like to hear
from our listeners and if possible, we like to have
you on and talk to you as well. But we're
not about talking just to people out there. We're about
talking to you. We're supposed to be a talkback show.
S3 (04:55):
And the thing is, I've heard somewhere from someone I
don't remember who, but the experts are the people with
lived experience, which, of course, is you. So, you know,
you are our experts.
S2 (05:06):
So without any further ado, let's catch up with a
later part of 2024. I'm welcoming to studio One the
one and only Jeffrey Lim. G'day, Jeffrey.
S5 (05:21):
Hello, Sam. How are you?
S2 (05:23):
So this is a first I've got to say, because
you contacted us knowing hardly anyone uses our mailbox. And
all of a sudden, this big surprise there. What prompted
you to get in touch?
S5 (05:34):
I had actually been a beneficiary of some Vision Australia
work before, and I'm a big fan of Vision Australia
and everything it does, and I thought that maybe I
could give back somehow. And this might be one way.
S2 (05:45):
Well, yes. I mean, you've had quite the journey. Really.
Your claim to fame in some ways, if I might
put it that way, is that you've been on TV
a few times as a dancer, but I'm guessing that
goes way further back. What made you decide that this
was going to be your life? That dancing was going
to be what you did?
S5 (06:04):
Oh, there wasn't anything in particular. It was more just
a knowing realization over time. So I am a child
of immigrant parents, refugees of war, and like many, uh,
first generation immigrants, they want, you know, their children to
(06:26):
be better off than they are and have a better life.
And so, you know, my parents wanted me to go
to university, get a really good job, earn lots of
money and all that sort of stuff. And I started
dancing in high school, and really all I wanted to
do was just dance. And so there was always that
little bit of conflict within the family, and I did
(06:48):
succumb to my parents wishes. Initially. I did go into
the corporate world for a good eight years, but what
I realized was throughout that whole period, I could never
stop thinking about dancing. And at every pedestrian crossing I'd
be dancing. I would watch dance videos every day I
would go to dance events all the time, and I
(07:08):
always felt like I wanted to come back into the
dance world. So it's been a long time coming, but
I have finally come back from the TV world to
the corporate world, and now back into the dance world.
S2 (07:19):
As I mentioned before, so you've been on television a
few times. Do you want to elaborate? How did how
did you get the gig? Yeah.
S5 (07:26):
So I think my first television appearance was on the
first season of Australia's Got Talent. Um, way back. And
I entered as a solo dancer and did reasonably well.
I made it to the semi-finals and then didn't make
it into the finals for that season. And then the
following years I was on So You Think You Can
(07:47):
Dance both seasons one and two, and that was so
much fun, just being surrounded by all of Australia's best
dancers and just everyone inspiring each other. And then a
couple years after that, I was on another TV show
on Network Ten called Everybody Dance Now.
S2 (08:03):
When did you start noticing you were starting to lose
your sight.
S5 (08:05):
Oh, I would say from about age ten. Actually, so
very early on, I realized that I couldn't see in
the dark. And I'll never forget the moment I told
my parents, mom, dad, I'm having trouble seeing. I can't
really find my way to the front door. And the
reason I remember it is because they took me seriously.
(08:25):
They didn't think that I was complaining or just being annoying.
They actually sat me down and listened to me like
they'd never listened to me before. And it was only
later that I realized that I had some other family
members with the condition. And so they thought that maybe
I might have the same thing, which is called retinitis pigmentosa.
So it's night blindness. It's tunnel vision. It's a whole
(08:48):
range of other things. So at age ten, and probably
throughout most of school, I didn't really notice that it
had too much of an impact on my life. And
that was primarily because I didn't go out at night,
I wasn't out partying or anything. I just went to
school and then came back home at nighttime. But it
was only until after I started going to uni and
(09:08):
started trying to socialise that I realised there were some limitations. Um,
so yeah, it's been a couple of years since then
the condition has degenerated quite a fair bit and I
only just started this year, just started using the mobility cane.
So um, I should have been using it ten years ago,
but I'm now, um, yeah. In that world of using
(09:31):
a mobility cane and all of the, like, great things
that that unlocks for me, actually.
S3 (09:40):
I think the problem is they want you to like
when they when they do the assessment and they ask
the questions. The way that I've had it explained to me, uh,
through by support coordinators and other people in the know,
is that they want to know how you function on
your worst day, but there's a couple of things they
don't realise. And the biggest one of them being that
(10:02):
as people with a disability, our natural, um, fallback is to, okay,
this is going to be a bad day, but how
can I adapt it? So, I mean, I think it's
a weird thing to ask, you know, about your worst day.
It's certainly not a good benchmark of what we need
in our day to day lives.
S6 (10:22):
Yeah, it's got to be said differently. That's exactly right.
And my worst day is shut the curtains. I'm going.
I'm having a mental health day and bring me chocolate. Yeah, exactly. That's.
What are you doing? That. That is. What can the NDIS.
S3 (10:37):
Do to support.
S6 (10:38):
You? Yeah, exactly. I mean, unless you were.
S3 (10:41):
Willing to function to fund my chocolate budget.
S6 (10:44):
That's it. Exactly. And come and rub my feet and
tell me I'm pretty. That's. You know, the problem is
that people are.
S7 (10:52):
Making the decisions. Have absolutely no idea about people with disability. No.
And that that leads into one of my comments about, um,
you know, the guide dog doesn't help me do shopping.
In my last plan, I had to take to the art.
They took away my community. Community involvement one. Oh, no.
And they said, oh, well, you got the dog. And
(11:13):
I'm like, the dog does. Doesn't help me find the
baked beans on the shelf. The dog gets me from
point A to point B. It is a replacement for
my cane. It is not a replacement for a human. And, um,
then they also said to me, oh, well, you can
go do online shopping instead, because they weren't they didn't
want to fund somebody to help me shopping. This is
basically what they wanted to do. And I said to them,
(11:35):
what happened to choice and control? Somebody who is able
bodied can choose whether they want an online shop or
go in person shop. And their response was, yeah, but
that's their choice. I said, exactly, why don't I have
the choice? Why does my disability take away this choice?
And I'm sitting there going like, you know, there are
things that I can't do online shopping. I can't look
(11:57):
at a picture and say, yes, I like that dress.
That's something I have to do in person. Of course,
I like to choose my own groceries, like my fruit
and veg, because I want it at my standards, not
somebody else's standards. There are those sort of things. And
I said, it's not fair just because I have a
disability that you don't want to find somebody to help
me do something that you can do on your own.
I said, that's the whole point of NDIS, to help
(12:18):
me do things that I would normally do without my disability.
S3 (12:23):
So we are talking to Ashley, Cheyenne and Nevaeh and
they are currently at Braille Music camp as we speak.
Hello to all of you!
S8 (12:32):
Hello. Hi.
S3 (12:34):
Tell us a bit about what's going on.
S8 (12:36):
So we've been doing a lot of choir. We just
came back from senior choir, and there's a lot of
braille music theory lessons. It's been pretty fun. Yeah, definitely
got a lot going on at the moment. There is
an orchestra happening and a songwriting workshop. We're going to
have another another full choir practice after afternoon tea. And
(12:57):
then after that we have a rock band. So there's definitely,
definitely something for everyone here.
S3 (13:04):
So, Ashley, could you tell us how is the camp run,
for example? Could you tell us how all of that
Braille music is created and brought up to the boarding
school at Mittagong? And who's involved?
S8 (13:16):
So something like this doesn't run without a lot of
incredible people. All of our staff are volunteers. Your question
about music. So we have Peter Lee and actually the
entire Vision Australia transcription staff have joined us this year.
So we have a wonderful catalogue of music that's already
been put from print into Braille. And we draw on
(13:40):
that for a lot of our, a lot of our choir,
our full choir stuff. We're also incredibly fortunate to have
both staff and students who who are arrangers and composers
in their own right. This year, one of our students,
Anthony Abrashi, has arranged a piece for the choir. A
couple of our staff and music directors, Nelson Rupert and
(14:03):
Ben Clark, Clarke have also arranged. So, um, the short
answer is that Peter and his team put everything together,
embossed everything into into booklets up in Sydney, um, and
very generously drive it and all their equipment down and
basically put themselves at our disposal for the week, which
(14:24):
is very kind. But yeah, there is an incredible cohort
of staff here doing everything from from supervising, supervising kids, people,
people like myself who are, you know, disability support workers
working on independence building. And then we have our we
have our music team, our transcription team. And it's definitely
(14:45):
a big team effort.
S3 (14:46):
We'll move to Cheyenne and Nevada here. What's been your
favorite part of the camp so far? I know we're
only halfway through, but if you could give us some
insights into what your favorite activities have been.
S8 (14:57):
There's a lot.
S3 (14:59):
But I really enjoyed.
S9 (15:00):
Choir and just getting to see all the people who
I haven't seen in a While, like all my friends
back at camp and it's just the best thing ever.
I think for.
S10 (15:09):
Me, I've enjoyed choir as well. I probably my highlight
has been band because it is, you know, it's a
bit of fun and and an opportunity to socialise and
see friends as well.
S3 (15:19):
So just do you still do the concerts, Ashley? Do
you still do the concerts on Friday night at the
end of the camp?
S8 (15:26):
Yeah, so we've got we have small nightly concerts for
the staff and students of the camp each night, and
from those nightly concerts, as well as what we've been
preparing in our ensembles and our full choir, we have,
we call it a showcase of of the work that
we've done throughout the week.
S3 (15:45):
As far as the actual teaching of the Braille music goes,
who's involved with teaching the younger students? Is it people
from Vision Australia or is it older, you know, students
or staff members who does all the music theory teaching?
S8 (16:02):
We have a mixture of of teachers who make up
our Braille music staff. Some of them are people like
myself who I, I started, I think this is my
16th Braille music camp. I started as a as a student,
and now I've come back as a teacher. So it
might be it might be some of our some of
our blind, blind staff, most of who are professional musicians
(16:26):
or educators in their own right. We also are very
fortunate to have Braille teachers from several states who teach Braille.
Some of the Vision Australia transcription team are also teaching
basically anyone with an aptitude and the knowledge of Braille music.
Who we've worked with is, is, um, you know, task
(16:46):
tasked with, with the privilege of teaching these young people
and being taught by these young people, which is which
is very often the case in the teaching in the
teaching relationship. Like this.
S1 (16:58):
This is studio one.
S2 (17:01):
It's always something that fascinates me when someone has an
acquired disability is that when we're born into this world. So,
I mean, what would you have thought of, um, blind
or visually impaired people when. Well, when you were able bodied, uh.
S11 (17:14):
Anything because I, I used to see people with a
white cane and I thought, wow, these people are amazing.
They're vision impaired, but they're still able to get out
and about. And also, you know, seeing people with guide
dogs and of course, uh, guide dogs are like children.
You know, you basically you want to go up and
say hello and have a chat to them. You really
want to have a pet of the dog. So I
(17:35):
guess that was that was sort of reasonably peripheral. Other
than that, I knew not much about what blindness or
low vision was going to do in terms of impacting
on someone's lives.
S2 (17:45):
Okay, so let's fast forward now to okay, when did
you lose your sight? And it's an idea of, well,
what led up to it? What happened?
S11 (17:54):
I lost my sight in two parts, so I had
to have some operations on my eyes, and I first
operated on my right eye in 2014. That very quickly
turned into, uh, inflammation. A bit worried about it might
have been more than that. So they put me into hospital.
I had three operations on my right eye, and I
(18:15):
went blind in that eye within about four weeks. And
that was it wasn't catastrophic because I still had sight
in my left eye. Um, so I was still able
to drive. I was probably had, but I was sort
of able to drive and do most of the other
things that I did before that operation.
S2 (18:33):
Therefore, originally, I mean something routine, or.
S11 (18:38):
It was, uh, it was I don't normally mention this
because I don't want to stop people doing this operation.
It was for cataracts. And as I say to everybody else,
my partner said both are cataracts. Done. And I know
many people would have had cataract operations. It's one of
the most successful operations you can have. But for me,
there were some special circumstances as to why that happened
(18:59):
to me. So after my operation in 2014, It was interesting.
There was a lot of gnashing of teeth and trying
to work out why I had gone blind in my
right eye. And so many specialists, eye specialists, nose and
throat specialist, immunologists, allergists, um, they tested all the antibiotics
that they used and my eye on the skin, nothing
(19:21):
came up. So when I had to have my second,
I had done in December of 2014, 15. Uh, everybody said, well, uh,
have the operation. You shouldn't have any worries. So I
had the operation in December 2014. Uh, I had 2020
vision for about three days, and then the inflammation came
(19:44):
up again. They were worried, so they sent me to hospital.
I said I didn't want to have any operations. I
wanted to basically try and work through other ways of
saving my sight, because it appeared as if that was
going to follow my right eye. So they tried everything.
They sent out an all points bulletin, uh, both around
Australia and overseas to try and understand the characteristics of
(20:08):
me losing my sight, but nothing came back that helped
me so gradually. In 2015, I was declared legally blind.
Around about my birthday in January. And then I went
from there to being totally blind by about June of
that year.
S3 (20:24):
You have recently taken a massive trip to Spain, and
you've completed one of the longest like walking trails in Spain,
and I believe that you did it with some other
vision impaired people. So tell us, where did you go
and how far did you walk?
S6 (20:41):
I was speaking to a girlfriend who said she was
going to do the Camino, and I actually didn't know
what the Camino in Spain was and, uh, did lots
of googling and realised it was a pilgrimage. There's lots
of different Camino routes, but this particular one is called
the Camino Francés, and it's a pilgrimage that the entire
pilgrimage is 700km. And it's a walk. Um, it's a
(21:03):
walk from Saint John in France, right across to Santiago
de Compostela in Spain. Now, I couldn't afford the time
to do the 700km, so I decided I was going
to do one of the shorter walks. Not that any
of them are really short, but, uh. So I started
finding out how I could do this as a visually
impaired traveller and, uh, um, and it, it just talk
(21:26):
about those things just popping up and, and appearing in
your life, and they were meant to be, because I
couldn't believe it. I was scrolling through everything and up
came a, um, a company called Traveleyes. They're a UK
based company, I believe they've branched out into America, and
they support adventures for vision impaired travellers all over the
(21:48):
world and all different types of things. And you wouldn't
believe it. Within the time that I was googling it,
it came up just on my Facebook feed and they
were doing a Camino walk and I just went, wow,
they hadn't done one back since Covid, and they bring
1 in 8 weeks time. And that I just went.
That's just too, too bizarre. I was supposed to find this,
(22:11):
so that's amazing.
S12 (22:13):
Yeah, I.
S6 (22:14):
Know, it was just I just thought, well, not only
have I found a supported Camino walk, I've found one
for visually impaired travellers, and I had heard of travellers before.
So at my time working at Vision Australia, I had
colleagues that had done travellers um, tours. I had clients
that had done travel eye tours. So I knew of
them and I knew that they were reputable. I also
(22:36):
knew this company was, um, headed up by someone who
was totally blind, a gentleman who's totally blind. And, um,
they were getting some pretty good reviews about their adventures
across the world. So I thought, this is for me,
I'm doing this. So I did the walk from Sarria
to Santiago. It was 120km. There were three, four, five
(22:56):
vision impaired travellers and they have a few more sighted travellers.
I think on that particular one they had uh, nine.
It's just so added. Travellers can also have days off,
if you like, from doing the guiding. But the five
vision impaired travellers there were two with low vision like
me and myself and another sorry. And then the other three, uh,
(23:20):
were totally blind. And their extraordinary, extraordinary women, we're all women.
There was only one, um, sighted travel, who was a man,
and the rest of us were women from all over
the world.
S13 (23:37):
After seven years in the corporate world as an accountant
heading up commercial finance in British Telecom, I thought that
something was missing in my life. And that something was
the travel bug that I'd caught all those years ago
in Canada. But when I approached mainstream group tour operators,
they refused me travel on a group holiday because they
(24:00):
said that I needed to bring a carer with me.
And I just thought, like, I'm young and, you know,
I just want to go places and I don't want
to rely on friends and family. And they said that
even if I did bring somebody with me, that I
wouldn't be able to do any of the fun, adventurous things,
you know, like going walking holidays or sailing holidays or skiing.
(24:22):
And these restrictions left me feeling powerless, and I started
to actually feel blind again in myself. But this time,
this was met by a strong urge to build on
what I had already achieved. So I realised that if
you want something that doesn't exist, you have to build
it yourself. And if I wanted travel to work for me,
(24:42):
I had to change the way travel works. And in
2004 I was inspired to set up Travel Eyes. And
travel eyes is for people who don't know what it is.
It's all one word travel e e s. It's an
international travel company that takes groups of adventurers all over
the world on holiday, and we bring them back home
(25:05):
to you.
S2 (25:05):
Don't just leave us wandering around somewhere.
S14 (25:07):
Yeah, exactly.
S13 (25:09):
Um, but the big difference about travel lies is that
half the group are visually impaired, or VIPs as they
like to be called sometimes, and half the group are
fully sighted. And most people that come on the trips
don't know each other. For example, 80% of the sighted
travelers never met a blind person before, and the vice
often come on their own, or with their partners and
(25:32):
our sighted travelers in return for guiding and describing the
sights to our VIPs, get to travel for a reduction
in price.
S2 (25:40):
That'd be quite an experience, really, and not only for
the sighted guides, really, but I mean, it would be
a bit of a culture shock really, for some people,
if especially if they've never met a visually impaired person before.
S13 (25:53):
Absolutely. I mean, you know, it makes them reflect on
their life. They get so much out of it because
they look at, you know, in their eyes, they think,
oh my God, look at these VIPs. And they're halfway
across the world and they can't see. But yet they're
out here and they're not letting anything stop them. What's
happening with me in my life? And it's kind of
(26:16):
like to say the cliché inspires them, you know, it
kind of moves them to doing things with their life.
And they often say that being a sighted traveler with
travel eyes makes them see the world in a different way. And.
S2 (26:40):
That is a wrap for this week. A big thank
you to everyone who has contributed to the show in
the last 12 months. And of course, well, thank you
for listening next week. Well, we have got a Braille
Week special, so if you are listening to us via podcast,
the podcast will drop on, well, what's National Braille Day?
S3 (27:01):
Again, it's world Braille day.
S2 (27:02):
General braille. Yes. January the 5th. But we will be
back the following Wednesday.
S3 (27:07):
Yes we will.
S2 (27:08):
And who are we talking to with the with this
special episode?
S3 (27:12):
We're talking to Kelly Phelan from whale House. And we'll
probably hear from a couple of you about your experiences
with Braille and what Braille means to you.
S2 (27:20):
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 somebody
else who is dealing with something similar.
S3 (27:35):
You can contact us via email at studio One at
Vision Australia. Org that's studio number one at Vision australia.org.
Or perhaps you can drop us a note on our socials,
whether that be Facebook, Instagram or X. Just look for
us at VA Radio Network. We want to hear from you.
S2 (27:53):
Happy New Year everybody.
S3 (27:54):
Happy new year.
S1 (27:57):
Vision Australia Radio gratefully acknowledges the support of the Community
Broadcasting Foundation for Studio One.
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