December 9, 2025 • 29 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
“How Much can you see... Really?”
How often do you get asked “How much can you actually see?” and how do you feel when someone asks you that question? We asked a few friends this question, with mixed results – mostly positive – it turns out most of us simply want to be understood... even when we don’t really know how to answer the question.
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.
You may also be interested in joining our choir of angels and telling your story.
EMAIL: studio1@visionaustralia.org or leave comment on the station’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/VARadioNetwork
A special thank you to Anthony; Lily; Maddie; Sammie C and Stephen.
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 (00:13):
I kind of got used to it. But, you know,
when I was younger, I was like, oh, that same
old question again. How much can you see?
S2 (00:19):
This is Studio One with Sam Rickard and Lizzie Eastham
on Vision Australia radio.
S3 (00:30):
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.
S4 (00:37):
This week, how many times have you been asked how
much can you see?
S3 (00:41):
What does it say about the human condition that we
get asked this question on a regular basis.
S4 (00:46):
And indeed, that no one can come up with a
decent answer?
S3 (00:49):
As we always say at 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 somebody else who is dealing with something similar.
S4 (01:03):
You can email us at Studio One at Australia. That's
studio number one at Vision Australia. Or of course, you
can drop us a note on our Facebook page by
going to facebook.com.
S3 (01:20):
Hello, Lizzie.
S4 (01:21):
Hello, Sam.
S3 (01:22):
So it's, uh, this is a topic I feel we've
covered an awful lot, but I suddenly realized not that
long ago that we haven't covered it since you came
on board.
S4 (01:31):
Yeah, well, I think, I mean, we've covered, you know,
you don't look blind and overly helpful people. And I
think that both of these subjects or both of these
questions also stem from the how much can you see question.
So whilst we may have not directly addressed this question,
we have spoken about it, uh, when talking about adjacent topics.
(01:54):
So yeah. Yeah. So don't blame me for feeling that way.
S3 (01:58):
So as someone who's totally blind, do you get to
ask this question at all?
S4 (02:02):
Yes, I do actually quite a lot. Uh, but for mine,
it's quite easy. It's just I'm totally blind. And as
for how do I feel when they ask me that question?
It doesn't bother me because in my opinion, it helps
them to gauge how much help they need to give
me or how much they need to describe things. And generally,
(02:23):
people come at it from a place of genuine curiosity.
S3 (02:28):
Well, I think you might find it a little easier
to answer the question, because I really don't have a
clue how much I can see. It's because you need
to be able to compare it to what a normal
person or inverted commas normal person can see. And from
what I can gather, they can see a damn sight
more than I can.
S4 (02:48):
Yeah. And again, I think that's on a spectrum too,
because people who you would consider to have perfect vision
may not actually have 2020 perfect vision.
S3 (02:57):
Well, the thing is, is I find that full sight,
as it might be, is some sort of superpower, which
I really just can't wrap my head around. The ability
to see something a fairly long distance away is just
completely beyond my imaginings.
S4 (03:13):
Yeah. Me too. I can't say that. It's something I
think about a lot, though, to be honest, I.
S3 (03:19):
Yeah. As I said, it's just just a strange superpower. Anyway. Um,
so our first guest is new to studio one. Um,
you talk to, uh.
S4 (03:29):
Another Anthony.
S3 (03:30):
Another Anthony. That's right. Not to be confused. So, yes,
we've spoken to Anthony Clark, and now we can have
more Anthony or Anthony more.
S4 (03:38):
Woo!
S5 (03:39):
Ha ha ha! You're clever.
S6 (03:43):
I'm actually okay with that. I've got like, perception. But
that's it. So I'm fully blind for some reason. And
no one's been able to work out why. But I've
got my retinas in the light. So I've disclosed I've
detached retinas, yet I can still distinguish light and dark.
It's actually a good question to ask, particularly if someone
is genuine about it as well, if someone's actually being
(04:05):
genuine and respectful about it, I have no problem with
that at all.
S4 (04:08):
Yeah, I guess, and it helps them to gauge like
how much they need to help you or give you
input as to what's going on as well, right?
S6 (04:15):
Absolutely.
S4 (04:17):
It's like I just said, isn't it, that, uh, some
of us don't mind the question because, uh, depending on
the context of where it's being asked, depends on how
much feedback and input we get from people.
S3 (04:28):
One of the more useful definitions of blindness I actually
encountered was during one of my coaching courses, I've got
to say, and the way it was described was, okay,
close your eyes. That's kind of what light perceptions like.
Then put both hands over your eyes. That's total blindness.
(04:48):
So I think that's probably the best way of putting it.
But asking a totally blind person what they can and
can't see might not necessarily be easy, because especially if
you've never actually had sight the first place.
S4 (05:00):
No, it's pretty easy. It's pretty easy because you just say, well,
I can't see anything. You try blindfolding yourself with something
that blocks it out completely, and that's what it's like.
I mean, it doesn't it's not a hard question to
answer to be honest.
S3 (05:14):
Mhm mhm indeed. All right. Here's another friend of the show.
Um we asked her this question quite some time ago.
So some of the references might be a little bit
out of date, but otherwise uh, Lily has always got
a lot to say about a lot of things. And
it's always very thoughtful. So over to you, Lily.
S7 (05:33):
I have less than ten degrees of central vision left.
I have no peripheral vision. When I say less than
ten degrees, we're talking more around maybe 5 to 7. Um, uh,
it's better on the left than the right. And it
is not got amazing clarity. So I can function in
(05:57):
very familiar areas, but as soon as somewhere is not
familiar to me, I, I need, uh, to have tele
with me or a cane or support. What was the
second part of that question?
S8 (06:07):
How do you feel when strangers ask you that question?
S7 (06:10):
It's confusing because my light, my vision, is so dependent
on light. I've had people say to me, what can
you see? You seem to be okay when you're walking
around your home. I'm watching you and you're fine, but
at night you're bumping into things. It's because. And I said,
that's what I need you to understand is it's almost
(06:30):
like two different scenarios is that I, um. The light
allows me to be functional. As soon as I lose light,
I'm gone. I'm blind. Um, so I don't feel offended
when people ask me. In fact, I like them to
ask me because at least then they want to know.
And they want to, uh, they know how to help.
(06:51):
I've had situations where I. I've tried to be really
independent and then I've bumped into something or something and,
and they'll say, well, if we'd known, we would have
helped you. I tell a story about I tried to
hold on to my vision for such a long time,
be so fiercely independent. And I was at a university
reunion in Byron Bay I on the north coast of
(07:13):
New South Wales, and there was a bunch of us.
We were staying in a house there for the weekend, and, uh,
it was a reunion of all my uni friends. Now,
I was almost fully sighted at university, so they knew
my night vision wasn't great, but they didn't know how
far a couple of them had been with me over
the years. So they saw it deteriorate, but a couple didn't,
and I had no cane or Tilly, um, up there.
(07:34):
And I was just trying to be the girl. I
was at university and I stepped out onto the road
and nearly got hit by a car. One of the
guys grabbed me and pulled me back and tore me
a new one. Um, uh, he was. I'm sorry for
that phrase, but it just means he was cranky. Yeah,
that night at the. I went to have a shower
(07:56):
when we got back after that day and we were
all sitting in this villa I went to, had a
shower come back down, and everyone was sitting there almost
like in a circle, and I was I joked and went,
are we going to? We used to have séances here
at university. Yeah. Oh, we did some strange things back then,
but um, I said we're having a seance. And he said, no,
we're having an intervention. I said, what, what? Who's someone
(08:20):
on drugs or, you know. He said, no, we're having
an intervention for you. And I went, oh, God. And
I knew exactly what they're about to do. And they
they did. They read me the riot act, and they said,
we can't help you unless you tell us what you
can and can't see. We didn't know it had gone
this far. We had no idea. But clearly you didn't
see that car that nearly hit you. And we don't
(08:42):
want you to die. And that was the turning point
for me. I think that was where I realized I
need to identify as a visually impaired person. Now. I
can't hide behind. I can't hide anymore. And I say
to people, I was a pretender, I was a pretender.
I pretend I can see, you know, people say, can
you think like, yeah, I can see that I can't.
(09:04):
So yeah, it's a, I think rpe, uh, retinitis pigmentosa.
And there's a lot of the listeners may have it
or know of it. Anything that's a degenerative eye condition,
I think it's harder than being born blind because you
you have to adjust to your world changing so rapidly,
(09:27):
and you want so dearly to hold on to what
you have, but you have to be brave enough not
to not to to identify with it and disclose. It's
almost like coming out. Right. And that's probably what what
that day was. It was a coming out for me. And, uh,
it's the best thing I ever did, you know? Uh,
because it I don't have to stress about it anymore.
I am who I am, and I'm, you know, I'm
(09:49):
proud to be this person, and I. I said to
someone the other day, um, it's almost like the vision
impairment has been a gift because. And they went. What?
And I said it has opened up doors and opportunities
for me that I would never have imagined. What I've
just done in the para para cycling, um, space. I
(10:11):
would never have done that before. I wouldn't have done that.
I don't know what I'd be. Someone asked me, what
would you be doing if you weren't? If you weren't
getting paid? What do you think you'd be doing? I
have no idea. I don't know. I would know, maybe
still teaching or sitting at a desk, I don't know,
but I wouldn't have had these opportunities, you know? Uh,
I wouldn't have just walked across Spain, you know? You know,
(10:35):
I wouldn't have had all those, so I do. It
sounds very weird, but I do see it as a blessing.
S4 (10:45):
It's funny, she was talking about that, um, you know,
the the degenerative eye conditions because we did an episode
just a couple of weeks ago about vision loss, where
we spoke to Annette and Valda about their experiences. And yeah,
both of them were very independent people. And I feel
like what Lily said about degenerative eye conditions being harder
(11:08):
to cope with emotionally than being born blind. I totally agree.
I've never had sight, and there's probably a great chance
that I'll never have sight. So this is all I've
ever known. Whereas someone who used to be able to
drive and used to be able to do all these
things that require full sight, then they lose that.
S3 (11:31):
They mostly have. Yeah, they have to basically be taught
how to live their lives again.
S4 (11:35):
Exactly. Yeah. And that's hard. It's hard to learn any
new skill at any age. But imagine having to relearn
how to live your entire life. Like how emotionally draining
and upsetting and turbulent would that be? So I really
admire and have a lot of respect for these ladies
that we've spoken to, and Lily as well, who can
(11:56):
step out in courage and do that.
S3 (11:59):
The other thing as well, though, is, I mean, RP
can be just so gradual, and even if you know
somebody and you see them on a day to day basis,
you don't necessarily notice that their eyesight's going because it
is so gradual. It's kind of like comparing it to, um, well,
my grandmother had dementia and I really wasn't noticing it,
(12:20):
but she was getting worse and worse, whereas my uncles
would be coming and going and they would notice it
straight away that she was getting worse and worse. So
that's kind of and this is what I used to notice, um,
going to national championships for the blind and things like
that is people who are losing their sight. You could
tell straight away. Yeah. Whereas those around them wouldn't necessarily
(12:41):
have noticed because it's yeah, it's the proverbial frog in
a pot that's slowly boiling.
S4 (12:47):
Yeah, exactly.
S3 (12:48):
Um, so yeah, I, um, I don't envy people with RP,
and I don't envy people with, um, vision loss. The
only thing I envy is the fact that they were
able to experience what they had before they lost it. Yeah. Anyway,
we have a nice short little coda. Well, short little
minuet from Maddie.
S9 (13:09):
Yeah, it's a question I get a lot. Um, it's
a hard question because I know what I can see,
but I don't know what everyone else can see. So
there's kind of it's hard to compare it to things,
but probably the best way I can describe it is like,
it's kind of like looking at a poor quality photo
that has less pixels. So, you know, like I can't
(13:30):
make out the details in a person's face or see,
like a sign what it says. Or if I've got
like a page in front of me, I have to
be looking really close to actually see what it says.
But I'm also really, like light sensitive as well. So
the brighter the lights are around me, inside or outside, um,
that reduces my vision even more.
S3 (13:55):
Ability to recognize people's faces. I find it very difficult. Uh,
I can see that somebody's got a face, and there's
a pair of eyes sticking out there. Telling the difference
between people is is quite hard. And also, it really
gets me when someone shows up out of context, as
it were. I'll put that inverted in inverted commas. Uh,
(14:18):
so you might have somebody who, you know, from say, um,
I don't know, the gym or something like that, and
all of a sudden you meet them out at a
pub and it's like, well, you're not supposed to be here.
I don't even recognize you because you're not supposed to
be here. So that's where I sit at the moment.
I mean, I do you understand what I'm saying?
S4 (14:36):
I mean, no.
S3 (14:37):
Uh.
S4 (14:38):
Because again, I don't I don't deal with this. I
don't I don't have to deal with this issue. That's
why I reckon that voice recognition is a really good skill.
Although then you get asked, do you recognize my voice?
Can you guess who this is? Exactly. And that just
annoys me to all get out. Yes, I know who
you are. If I didn't know who you are, I
(14:58):
would have clarified by asking the question of who you are.
S3 (15:02):
Well.
S4 (15:03):
People.
S3 (15:04):
That's why I've kind of learnt now as well. I'm
no longer polite with people. Is like, who's this? And
sometimes people get upset by it. By it. But you
know what? Too bad.
S4 (15:14):
You know what? I got to say? The worst. And
I'm sorry, family. Because I know a few of you listen.
But you are the worst. You will literally come up
to me and go, oh, hi. Do you know who
I am? Can you recognize your voice? Nah. I haven't
grown up with you for 31 years, and it's not
like you've never asked me that question before. Of course
I know who you are.
S3 (15:34):
Um.
S4 (15:35):
I would name names, but, um, maybe I shouldn't go
that far.
S3 (15:38):
Anyway, naming another name, here's Sam Crowley.
S10 (15:43):
In my left eye, I am legally blind. Like, in
an official sense, just on the cusp of legal blindness. Um, um,
I am 6 to 60, which, basically, um, just means
whatever people can see or whatever fully sighted person sees
from 60m. I can only see from six. Oh, no,
(16:06):
that's the other way around. Uh oh, I can't remember. Anyway,
point is, um, 10% in my left eye, but in
my right eye it's actually improved. It used to be, um,
6 to 24 and now it's 6 to 15. So
essentially what I like to do is, um, give it
(16:26):
as a percentage. It's a lot easier for people to understand, um,
even if it's not strictly accurate. So I'd say I've
got 40% vision in my right eye and 10% in
my left. So it averages out to 25%, which is
not amazing, but it's still certainly usable enough that I
(16:47):
can get I can get about in a regular, you know,
normal way, and people don't really catch up that like
they don't really catch on that I have low vision
and that also causes issues because I don't have a
reference point to understand. You know, what does a fully
(17:09):
sighted person, see, versus what I can see. So it's
hard for me to explain to somebody, you know, what
can you see and what can I see? When they
ask me that question, I sort of have to kind
of go back to them and say, well, you know, um,
I can't see this, but can you see that? And
(17:29):
you have to sort of, um, I guess, ask a
few follow up questions and, and get a bit of
an understanding there because, um, some people I've spoken to
for quite a while, they, um, they say they don't
really understand what I can and can't say, and it's
hard for me to tell them because I don't really
have a standpoint where I can say, oh, you know,
(17:52):
this is what I can see. But yeah.
S3 (17:59):
Now, dear listener, Sam wasn't turning into a Dalek.
S4 (18:02):
Are you sure?
S3 (18:03):
But, um. Yeah, the sound broke up a little bit,
and then the wonderful AI that I put through there
seems to have made it worse. So anyway, he had
a couple of things to say though. And again, there's
no reference point. Um, we can only guess what what
normal sites like. And, um, yeah, I mean, it completely
blows your mind when you sort of try and try
and think what it would be like and what it
(18:24):
would be like to actually suddenly get it. I think
that it would take a long time to adapt to it,
but we've done shows about that in the past as well.
Blindness is a spectrum, and one of the things that
I do find interesting is that the fully sighted world
likes things to be simple.
S4 (18:44):
Mhm. Amen.
S3 (18:46):
So if one person is blind, the assumption would be
that that's what everybody else is like.
S4 (18:53):
Yeah I have a feeling people either think that you're
totally blind or fully sighted. Quite often it's not an
on off switch people. No, it's more like a dimmer.
S3 (19:02):
And dare I say it, sometimes there are advantages to
actually not having any sight at all, because.
S4 (19:08):
There totally are.
S3 (19:09):
There. You're not distracted.
S4 (19:11):
For one thing, I don't have to look at your.
I mean, no no no no no, I wasn't saying
this to you directly, but for one thing. Sorry.
S3 (19:20):
So we're finishing up with Stephen, and you only spoke
to him about this, um, at, uh. Well, a couple
of hours ago. Really?
S4 (19:27):
Wasn't it 10:00 this morning? I caught him unawares as
he just got out of bed, and he was surprisingly coherent. Sorry, Stephen.
S3 (19:35):
It's. Sometimes it's a good time to to talk to somebody. Yeah.
You're a fresh out of bed. You're thoughtful, and you're
probably wishing you were back in bed. But anyway, it's
over to you, Stephen.
S1 (19:48):
Ah, that old question. Well, I don't know exactly what
the measurements are. I don't know all the technical stuff.
I don't even know what conditioning I have. But I
say to people, I can see on a good day
about 25% of what the average person can see on
a bad day, about 10%.
S8 (20:04):
So what's a good day for you?
S1 (20:05):
Overcast, uh, winter type days because the sun is further away.
What people don't understand is during summer, the summer months,
the sun is a lot closer. So it makes the
earth or makes the atmosphere a lot brighter. So during
the winter months I can walk around without sunglasses. During
the summer months I'm pretty buggered. I get about 15%
(20:27):
at the most.
S8 (20:28):
And I know that you have difficulty with stairs. So
what's the issue there.
S1 (20:35):
With my condition? I see things sort of in 2D,
not 3D, so that makes things very difficult with depth perception.
For example, when I went away to Glenelg Towers and
we were like 11 storeys in the air, when I
was leaning over the balcony to look down, I don't
get like dizzy or nothing because it feels like the
(20:57):
cars and everything down that far. I can just reach
out and grab it because it feels like it's right
in front of me. So with stairs, I have a
hell of a bad time with that. Especially going down.
Going up is not so bad, but going down. I
can't see how far to put my foot down. I
haven't gotten used to it or I'll never get used
(21:17):
to it. But yeah, I don't. I don't know how
far I got to put my foot down. So a
lot of the times I ended up spraining the ankle
or whatever.
S8 (21:24):
Next question is, uh, how do you feel when people
ask you that question?
S1 (21:28):
It can get a bit annoying. I don't know, I
kind of got used to it, but when I was
younger I was like, oh, that same old question again.
How much can you see? What's your eye condition? It's like,
what difference does it make to you? You're not going
to remember it anyway. And I can't compare it to
it because people say, well, what if you could see normally,
(21:49):
would you rather that? And I'd say, well, I don't know,
because I couldn't compare it to, to, uh, I never
saw normally so I wouldn't have anything to compare it to.
So I only wear it again.
S4 (22:03):
Well.
S3 (22:04):
Okay. There's a there's a couple of things to unpack here.
So first, yes, we haven't really talked talked about. Yes,
you can see differently during certain times of the day. Now,
my eye condition is odd in the fact that, um,
it's partly connected with the rods and cones in the
back of the eye. And in fact, I've got the
(22:25):
rods that help for night vision. They're all normal. It's
just that, um, some of the cones, the blue cone
in particular, doesn't work. So I can actually see slightly
better at night than I can during the day.
S4 (22:39):
That's crazy.
S3 (22:40):
It is. But also, yes, the color vision also is
completely skewiff. I wouldn't call myself colorblind because I can
see certain colors. I just get some of them mixed up.
S4 (22:48):
Well, Steven is colorblind, so it is very difficult when
I have a colored item that I want to ascertain
what color it is, and he can't tell me, he
says it looks blue to him.
S3 (23:01):
It would be fun to have the pair of you
going out and clashing colors. And just because he's picked
the outfits for the day.
S4 (23:08):
Well, he sometimes does pick one. Well, for example. Sam,
can you see my nails?
S3 (23:12):
Yes, I can see that. You got.
S4 (23:13):
Nails. Can. Okay, good. Good one. Smart aleck. Can you
see what color they are?
S3 (23:18):
Not really. Uh, to me, they'll probably be, uh. What?
Pinkish or flesh colored?
S4 (23:22):
Yes. Correct. The baby pink. He thought they were bright green.
S3 (23:26):
Ah, yes.
S4 (23:27):
They're not even close to bright green.
S3 (23:29):
Well, I my that was my guess, really. And this
is something that, uh, I think happens a lot in the, um,
blindness community, especially the vision impaired community is someone like
me will take an educated guess at something. And, and
that basically means that we are either going to be
completely wrong or, bizarrely, right. And if that's the case,
(23:52):
I mean, you're, uh, the colors seem to blend in
with your skin and human beings. We're not white. We're
sort of a pinkish color.
S4 (23:59):
Well, they are a baby pink. They're not like a
skin tone pink. They're very light pink, but definitely better
than Stevens. Bright green.
S3 (24:08):
So the other thing he was talking about though was stairs.
S4 (24:11):
Yes, yes. I've actually been, uh, on a hiking trail
with him, and it even extends to things like rocks
or tree roots.
S3 (24:19):
Oh, yeah.
S4 (24:19):
Like the amount of times he won't see a rock.
And I will have to go ahead of him and
tell him that there are. It's bizarre if you see it.
You know, there's a fully blind chick with a guide
dog seeing eye dog on the hiking trail, telling somebody
who has sight that there's a rock and how tall
it is. But that's how we used to hike together.
(24:41):
It was very slow going, but at least we got
the job done.
S3 (24:44):
It's possible to rely on your eyes too much, and
that's kind of. That's actually what, uh, running taught me. Really?
Because if I would run at a certain pace and that's,
I mean, my cruising pace would be around about a three,
four minute, one case. If I look down, then the
ground would be completely flat. It would be like glass.
So my eyes are not really that much used to
(25:05):
me with that kind of thing, which basically meant that yes,
occasionally I would get injured. I'd twist my ankle or
run over something or fall down a hole or something
like that. But it meant essentially using your brain. Now,
also with a flight of steps. We're lucky in this
country is that a lot of the buildings are fairly modern,
(25:26):
and there is a standard height for your average flight
of stairs.
S4 (25:31):
Yeah, height. And like the length as well.
S3 (25:33):
Exactly. So if you know that you can do the
mental calculation to that. So I can actually zip down
a flight of steps quite comfortably because I've already measured
that in its you can run up and down a
flight of steps because you measure your own gait.
S4 (25:47):
Yeah. I mean, I've also been on the other side
of it where people say that I look like I can't.
I can see because especially when hiking and things I
rarely ever fell over because, you know, my foot would
sense that there's a rock there, and I would just
automatically be able to go up and over it like,
I don't know Why I have developed this skill. But
(26:12):
I can walk slash hike without falling over. I know
a lot of blind people that fall over quite a bit,
especially when it comes to lips in the path and stuff,
but I don't know if it's because of the way
I grew up and the fact that, you know, we
did a lot of crazy things and or what it was.
But I have developed this supernatural skill of being able
(26:32):
to hike treacherous trails and not fall over.
S3 (26:36):
It's actually called proprioception. So if you get the slightest
hint of something, chances are you will react to it quickly.
That's again a kind of thing that they teach you
when you are in training as an athlete. So that's
it's a handy skill to have. Um, the other thing
is something I like to call Blinky breaks. That is
the ability to stop really, really fast. I think we've
(26:58):
all got that one. It's like I stop and it's like,
one step. We're stopped.
S4 (27:04):
Yep. Oh, yeah.
S3 (27:05):
That says saved me from injury and from all kinds
of things, because sometimes you'll spot something at the last
minute or something someone else will spot something at the
last minute. And you need you can't just afford to
just go. Well, a couple of more steps to slow down. Nope.
You just stop there.
S4 (27:21):
Yep, yep. I mean, I've had Mackenzie and Lacey pull
me up short, and, you know, you can't just go
walk past your guide dog. You have to listen to them. So, yeah,
blinkie brakes are really important, but, uh, echolocation is another
thing as well. I've heard about that I love to use.
S3 (27:37):
And I think we should cover that in a future episode. But, yeah,
what we have to do right now is indeed stop
because we are out of time. That is a wrap
for this week.
S4 (27:46):
A big thank you to Anthony, Lily, Maddie, Sam, Collie
and Stephen.
S3 (27:52):
And of course, thank you for listening. That includes our
listeners on the Reading Radio Network and the other networks
that are nice enough to play our show.
S4 (28:01):
You can download a podcast to this program, plus some
extra content by going to Apple, Spotify, Google or your
favorite podcast platform.
S3 (28:09):
Next week we are joined by Mr. Chips himself. Children's
author David Burston talks about losing his sight, his many
adventures on porn trolls, and how all of that turned
into a series of books starring Dave the Decky.
S4 (28:22):
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.
S3 (28:37):
You can email us Studio One at. Org that's studio
number one at Vision Australia.
S4 (28:43):
Org or of course you can find us on Facebook
or Instagram by searching for VA Radio Network.
S3 (28:49):
Bye for now.
S2 (28:50):
Studio one was produced in the Adelaide studios of Vision
Australia Radio. This show was made possible with the help
of the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at.
I kind of got used to it. But, you know,
when I was younger, I was like, oh, that same
old question again. How much can you see?
S2 (00:19):
This is Studio One with Sam Rickard and Lizzie Eastham
on Vision Australia radio.
S3 (00:30):
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.
S4 (00:37):
This week, how many times have you been asked how
much can you see?
S3 (00:41):
What does it say about the human condition that we
get asked this question on a regular basis.
S4 (00:46):
And indeed, that no one can come up with a
decent answer?
S3 (00:49):
As we always say at 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 somebody else who is dealing with something similar.
S4 (01:03):
You can email us at Studio One at Australia. That's
studio number one at Vision Australia. Or of course, you
can drop us a note on our Facebook page by
going to facebook.com.
S3 (01:20):
Hello, Lizzie.
S4 (01:21):
Hello, Sam.
S3 (01:22):
So it's, uh, this is a topic I feel we've
covered an awful lot, but I suddenly realized not that
long ago that we haven't covered it since you came
on board.
S4 (01:31):
Yeah, well, I think, I mean, we've covered, you know,
you don't look blind and overly helpful people. And I
think that both of these subjects or both of these
questions also stem from the how much can you see question.
So whilst we may have not directly addressed this question,
we have spoken about it, uh, when talking about adjacent topics.
(01:54):
So yeah. Yeah. So don't blame me for feeling that way.
S3 (01:58):
So as someone who's totally blind, do you get to
ask this question at all?
S4 (02:02):
Yes, I do actually quite a lot. Uh, but for mine,
it's quite easy. It's just I'm totally blind. And as
for how do I feel when they ask me that question?
It doesn't bother me because in my opinion, it helps
them to gauge how much help they need to give
me or how much they need to describe things. And generally,
(02:23):
people come at it from a place of genuine curiosity.
S3 (02:28):
Well, I think you might find it a little easier
to answer the question, because I really don't have a
clue how much I can see. It's because you need
to be able to compare it to what a normal
person or inverted commas normal person can see. And from
what I can gather, they can see a damn sight
more than I can.
S4 (02:48):
Yeah. And again, I think that's on a spectrum too,
because people who you would consider to have perfect vision
may not actually have 2020 perfect vision.
S3 (02:57):
Well, the thing is, is I find that full sight,
as it might be, is some sort of superpower, which
I really just can't wrap my head around. The ability
to see something a fairly long distance away is just
completely beyond my imaginings.
S4 (03:13):
Yeah. Me too. I can't say that. It's something I
think about a lot, though, to be honest, I.
S3 (03:19):
Yeah. As I said, it's just just a strange superpower. Anyway. Um,
so our first guest is new to studio one. Um,
you talk to, uh.
S4 (03:29):
Another Anthony.
S3 (03:30):
Another Anthony. That's right. Not to be confused. So, yes,
we've spoken to Anthony Clark, and now we can have
more Anthony or Anthony more.
S4 (03:38):
Woo!
S5 (03:39):
Ha ha ha! You're clever.
S6 (03:43):
I'm actually okay with that. I've got like, perception. But
that's it. So I'm fully blind for some reason. And
no one's been able to work out why. But I've
got my retinas in the light. So I've disclosed I've
detached retinas, yet I can still distinguish light and dark.
It's actually a good question to ask, particularly if someone
is genuine about it as well, if someone's actually being
(04:05):
genuine and respectful about it, I have no problem with
that at all.
S4 (04:08):
Yeah, I guess, and it helps them to gauge like
how much they need to help you or give you
input as to what's going on as well, right?
S6 (04:15):
Absolutely.
S4 (04:17):
It's like I just said, isn't it, that, uh, some
of us don't mind the question because, uh, depending on
the context of where it's being asked, depends on how
much feedback and input we get from people.
S3 (04:28):
One of the more useful definitions of blindness I actually
encountered was during one of my coaching courses, I've got
to say, and the way it was described was, okay,
close your eyes. That's kind of what light perceptions like.
Then put both hands over your eyes. That's total blindness.
(04:48):
So I think that's probably the best way of putting it.
But asking a totally blind person what they can and
can't see might not necessarily be easy, because especially if
you've never actually had sight the first place.
S4 (05:00):
No, it's pretty easy. It's pretty easy because you just say, well,
I can't see anything. You try blindfolding yourself with something
that blocks it out completely, and that's what it's like.
I mean, it doesn't it's not a hard question to
answer to be honest.
S3 (05:14):
Mhm mhm indeed. All right. Here's another friend of the show.
Um we asked her this question quite some time ago.
So some of the references might be a little bit
out of date, but otherwise uh, Lily has always got
a lot to say about a lot of things. And
it's always very thoughtful. So over to you, Lily.
S7 (05:33):
I have less than ten degrees of central vision left.
I have no peripheral vision. When I say less than
ten degrees, we're talking more around maybe 5 to 7. Um, uh,
it's better on the left than the right. And it
is not got amazing clarity. So I can function in
(05:57):
very familiar areas, but as soon as somewhere is not
familiar to me, I, I need, uh, to have tele
with me or a cane or support. What was the
second part of that question?
S8 (06:07):
How do you feel when strangers ask you that question?
S7 (06:10):
It's confusing because my light, my vision, is so dependent
on light. I've had people say to me, what can
you see? You seem to be okay when you're walking
around your home. I'm watching you and you're fine, but
at night you're bumping into things. It's because. And I said,
that's what I need you to understand is it's almost
(06:30):
like two different scenarios is that I, um. The light
allows me to be functional. As soon as I lose light,
I'm gone. I'm blind. Um, so I don't feel offended
when people ask me. In fact, I like them to
ask me because at least then they want to know.
And they want to, uh, they know how to help.
(06:51):
I've had situations where I. I've tried to be really
independent and then I've bumped into something or something and,
and they'll say, well, if we'd known, we would have
helped you. I tell a story about I tried to
hold on to my vision for such a long time,
be so fiercely independent. And I was at a university
reunion in Byron Bay I on the north coast of
(07:13):
New South Wales, and there was a bunch of us.
We were staying in a house there for the weekend, and, uh,
it was a reunion of all my uni friends. Now,
I was almost fully sighted at university, so they knew
my night vision wasn't great, but they didn't know how
far a couple of them had been with me over
the years. So they saw it deteriorate, but a couple didn't,
and I had no cane or Tilly, um, up there.
(07:34):
And I was just trying to be the girl. I
was at university and I stepped out onto the road
and nearly got hit by a car. One of the
guys grabbed me and pulled me back and tore me
a new one. Um, uh, he was. I'm sorry for
that phrase, but it just means he was cranky. Yeah,
that night at the. I went to have a shower
(07:56):
when we got back after that day and we were
all sitting in this villa I went to, had a
shower come back down, and everyone was sitting there almost
like in a circle, and I was I joked and went,
are we going to? We used to have séances here
at university. Yeah. Oh, we did some strange things back then,
but um, I said we're having a seance. And he said, no,
we're having an intervention. I said, what, what? Who's someone
(08:20):
on drugs or, you know. He said, no, we're having
an intervention for you. And I went, oh, God. And
I knew exactly what they're about to do. And they
they did. They read me the riot act, and they said,
we can't help you unless you tell us what you
can and can't see. We didn't know it had gone
this far. We had no idea. But clearly you didn't
see that car that nearly hit you. And we don't
(08:42):
want you to die. And that was the turning point
for me. I think that was where I realized I
need to identify as a visually impaired person. Now. I
can't hide behind. I can't hide anymore. And I say
to people, I was a pretender, I was a pretender.
I pretend I can see, you know, people say, can
you think like, yeah, I can see that I can't.
(09:04):
So yeah, it's a, I think rpe, uh, retinitis pigmentosa.
And there's a lot of the listeners may have it
or know of it. Anything that's a degenerative eye condition,
I think it's harder than being born blind because you
you have to adjust to your world changing so rapidly,
(09:27):
and you want so dearly to hold on to what
you have, but you have to be brave enough not
to not to to identify with it and disclose. It's
almost like coming out. Right. And that's probably what what
that day was. It was a coming out for me. And, uh,
it's the best thing I ever did, you know? Uh,
because it I don't have to stress about it anymore.
I am who I am, and I'm, you know, I'm
(09:49):
proud to be this person, and I. I said to
someone the other day, um, it's almost like the vision
impairment has been a gift because. And they went. What?
And I said it has opened up doors and opportunities
for me that I would never have imagined. What I've
just done in the para para cycling, um, space. I
(10:11):
would never have done that before. I wouldn't have done that.
I don't know what I'd be. Someone asked me, what
would you be doing if you weren't? If you weren't
getting paid? What do you think you'd be doing? I
have no idea. I don't know. I would know, maybe
still teaching or sitting at a desk, I don't know,
but I wouldn't have had these opportunities, you know? Uh,
I wouldn't have just walked across Spain, you know? You know,
(10:35):
I wouldn't have had all those, so I do. It
sounds very weird, but I do see it as a blessing.
S4 (10:45):
It's funny, she was talking about that, um, you know,
the the degenerative eye conditions because we did an episode
just a couple of weeks ago about vision loss, where
we spoke to Annette and Valda about their experiences. And yeah,
both of them were very independent people. And I feel
like what Lily said about degenerative eye conditions being harder
(11:08):
to cope with emotionally than being born blind. I totally agree.
I've never had sight, and there's probably a great chance
that I'll never have sight. So this is all I've
ever known. Whereas someone who used to be able to
drive and used to be able to do all these
things that require full sight, then they lose that.
S3 (11:31):
They mostly have. Yeah, they have to basically be taught
how to live their lives again.
S4 (11:35):
Exactly. Yeah. And that's hard. It's hard to learn any
new skill at any age. But imagine having to relearn
how to live your entire life. Like how emotionally draining
and upsetting and turbulent would that be? So I really
admire and have a lot of respect for these ladies
that we've spoken to, and Lily as well, who can
(11:56):
step out in courage and do that.
S3 (11:59):
The other thing as well, though, is, I mean, RP
can be just so gradual, and even if you know
somebody and you see them on a day to day basis,
you don't necessarily notice that their eyesight's going because it
is so gradual. It's kind of like comparing it to, um, well,
my grandmother had dementia and I really wasn't noticing it,
(12:20):
but she was getting worse and worse, whereas my uncles
would be coming and going and they would notice it
straight away that she was getting worse and worse. So
that's kind of and this is what I used to notice, um,
going to national championships for the blind and things like
that is people who are losing their sight. You could
tell straight away. Yeah. Whereas those around them wouldn't necessarily
(12:41):
have noticed because it's yeah, it's the proverbial frog in
a pot that's slowly boiling.
S4 (12:47):
Yeah, exactly.
S3 (12:48):
Um, so yeah, I, um, I don't envy people with RP,
and I don't envy people with, um, vision loss. The
only thing I envy is the fact that they were
able to experience what they had before they lost it. Yeah. Anyway,
we have a nice short little coda. Well, short little
minuet from Maddie.
S9 (13:09):
Yeah, it's a question I get a lot. Um, it's
a hard question because I know what I can see,
but I don't know what everyone else can see. So
there's kind of it's hard to compare it to things,
but probably the best way I can describe it is like,
it's kind of like looking at a poor quality photo
that has less pixels. So, you know, like I can't
(13:30):
make out the details in a person's face or see,
like a sign what it says. Or if I've got
like a page in front of me, I have to
be looking really close to actually see what it says.
But I'm also really, like light sensitive as well. So
the brighter the lights are around me, inside or outside, um,
that reduces my vision even more.
S3 (13:55):
Ability to recognize people's faces. I find it very difficult. Uh,
I can see that somebody's got a face, and there's
a pair of eyes sticking out there. Telling the difference
between people is is quite hard. And also, it really
gets me when someone shows up out of context, as
it were. I'll put that inverted in inverted commas. Uh,
(14:18):
so you might have somebody who, you know, from say, um,
I don't know, the gym or something like that, and
all of a sudden you meet them out at a
pub and it's like, well, you're not supposed to be here.
I don't even recognize you because you're not supposed to
be here. So that's where I sit at the moment.
I mean, I do you understand what I'm saying?
S4 (14:36):
I mean, no.
S3 (14:37):
Uh.
S4 (14:38):
Because again, I don't I don't deal with this. I
don't I don't have to deal with this issue. That's
why I reckon that voice recognition is a really good skill.
Although then you get asked, do you recognize my voice?
Can you guess who this is? Exactly. And that just
annoys me to all get out. Yes, I know who
you are. If I didn't know who you are, I
(14:58):
would have clarified by asking the question of who you are.
S3 (15:02):
Well.
S4 (15:03):
People.
S3 (15:04):
That's why I've kind of learnt now as well. I'm
no longer polite with people. Is like, who's this? And
sometimes people get upset by it. By it. But you
know what? Too bad.
S4 (15:14):
You know what? I got to say? The worst. And
I'm sorry, family. Because I know a few of you listen.
But you are the worst. You will literally come up
to me and go, oh, hi. Do you know who
I am? Can you recognize your voice? Nah. I haven't
grown up with you for 31 years, and it's not
like you've never asked me that question before. Of course
I know who you are.
S3 (15:34):
Um.
S4 (15:35):
I would name names, but, um, maybe I shouldn't go
that far.
S3 (15:38):
Anyway, naming another name, here's Sam Crowley.
S10 (15:43):
In my left eye, I am legally blind. Like, in
an official sense, just on the cusp of legal blindness. Um, um,
I am 6 to 60, which, basically, um, just means
whatever people can see or whatever fully sighted person sees
from 60m. I can only see from six. Oh, no,
(16:06):
that's the other way around. Uh oh, I can't remember. Anyway,
point is, um, 10% in my left eye, but in
my right eye it's actually improved. It used to be, um,
6 to 24 and now it's 6 to 15. So
essentially what I like to do is, um, give it
(16:26):
as a percentage. It's a lot easier for people to understand, um,
even if it's not strictly accurate. So I'd say I've
got 40% vision in my right eye and 10% in
my left. So it averages out to 25%, which is
not amazing, but it's still certainly usable enough that I
(16:47):
can get I can get about in a regular, you know,
normal way, and people don't really catch up that like
they don't really catch on that I have low vision
and that also causes issues because I don't have a
reference point to understand. You know, what does a fully
(17:09):
sighted person, see, versus what I can see. So it's
hard for me to explain to somebody, you know, what
can you see and what can I see? When they
ask me that question, I sort of have to kind
of go back to them and say, well, you know, um,
I can't see this, but can you see that? And
(17:29):
you have to sort of, um, I guess, ask a
few follow up questions and, and get a bit of
an understanding there because, um, some people I've spoken to
for quite a while, they, um, they say they don't
really understand what I can and can't say, and it's
hard for me to tell them because I don't really
have a standpoint where I can say, oh, you know,
(17:52):
this is what I can see. But yeah.
S3 (17:59):
Now, dear listener, Sam wasn't turning into a Dalek.
S4 (18:02):
Are you sure?
S3 (18:03):
But, um. Yeah, the sound broke up a little bit,
and then the wonderful AI that I put through there
seems to have made it worse. So anyway, he had
a couple of things to say though. And again, there's
no reference point. Um, we can only guess what what
normal sites like. And, um, yeah, I mean, it completely
blows your mind when you sort of try and try
and think what it would be like and what it
(18:24):
would be like to actually suddenly get it. I think
that it would take a long time to adapt to it,
but we've done shows about that in the past as well.
Blindness is a spectrum, and one of the things that
I do find interesting is that the fully sighted world
likes things to be simple.
S4 (18:44):
Mhm. Amen.
S3 (18:46):
So if one person is blind, the assumption would be
that that's what everybody else is like.
S4 (18:53):
Yeah I have a feeling people either think that you're
totally blind or fully sighted. Quite often it's not an
on off switch people. No, it's more like a dimmer.
S3 (19:02):
And dare I say it, sometimes there are advantages to
actually not having any sight at all, because.
S4 (19:08):
There totally are.
S3 (19:09):
There. You're not distracted.
S4 (19:11):
For one thing, I don't have to look at your.
I mean, no no no no no, I wasn't saying
this to you directly, but for one thing. Sorry.
S3 (19:20):
So we're finishing up with Stephen, and you only spoke
to him about this, um, at, uh. Well, a couple
of hours ago. Really?
S4 (19:27):
Wasn't it 10:00 this morning? I caught him unawares as
he just got out of bed, and he was surprisingly coherent. Sorry, Stephen.
S3 (19:35):
It's. Sometimes it's a good time to to talk to somebody. Yeah.
You're a fresh out of bed. You're thoughtful, and you're
probably wishing you were back in bed. But anyway, it's
over to you, Stephen.
S1 (19:48):
Ah, that old question. Well, I don't know exactly what
the measurements are. I don't know all the technical stuff.
I don't even know what conditioning I have. But I
say to people, I can see on a good day
about 25% of what the average person can see on
a bad day, about 10%.
S8 (20:04):
So what's a good day for you?
S1 (20:05):
Overcast, uh, winter type days because the sun is further away.
What people don't understand is during summer, the summer months,
the sun is a lot closer. So it makes the
earth or makes the atmosphere a lot brighter. So during
the winter months I can walk around without sunglasses. During
the summer months I'm pretty buggered. I get about 15%
(20:27):
at the most.
S8 (20:28):
And I know that you have difficulty with stairs. So
what's the issue there.
S1 (20:35):
With my condition? I see things sort of in 2D,
not 3D, so that makes things very difficult with depth perception.
For example, when I went away to Glenelg Towers and
we were like 11 storeys in the air, when I
was leaning over the balcony to look down, I don't
get like dizzy or nothing because it feels like the
(20:57):
cars and everything down that far. I can just reach
out and grab it because it feels like it's right
in front of me. So with stairs, I have a
hell of a bad time with that. Especially going down.
Going up is not so bad, but going down. I
can't see how far to put my foot down. I
haven't gotten used to it or I'll never get used
(21:17):
to it. But yeah, I don't. I don't know how
far I got to put my foot down. So a
lot of the times I ended up spraining the ankle
or whatever.
S8 (21:24):
Next question is, uh, how do you feel when people
ask you that question?
S1 (21:28):
It can get a bit annoying. I don't know, I
kind of got used to it, but when I was
younger I was like, oh, that same old question again.
How much can you see? What's your eye condition? It's like,
what difference does it make to you? You're not going
to remember it anyway. And I can't compare it to
it because people say, well, what if you could see normally,
(21:49):
would you rather that? And I'd say, well, I don't know,
because I couldn't compare it to, to, uh, I never
saw normally so I wouldn't have anything to compare it to.
So I only wear it again.
S4 (22:03):
Well.
S3 (22:04):
Okay. There's a there's a couple of things to unpack here.
So first, yes, we haven't really talked talked about. Yes,
you can see differently during certain times of the day. Now,
my eye condition is odd in the fact that, um,
it's partly connected with the rods and cones in the
back of the eye. And in fact, I've got the
(22:25):
rods that help for night vision. They're all normal. It's
just that, um, some of the cones, the blue cone
in particular, doesn't work. So I can actually see slightly
better at night than I can during the day.
S4 (22:39):
That's crazy.
S3 (22:40):
It is. But also, yes, the color vision also is
completely skewiff. I wouldn't call myself colorblind because I can
see certain colors. I just get some of them mixed up.
S4 (22:48):
Well, Steven is colorblind, so it is very difficult when
I have a colored item that I want to ascertain
what color it is, and he can't tell me, he
says it looks blue to him.
S3 (23:01):
It would be fun to have the pair of you
going out and clashing colors. And just because he's picked
the outfits for the day.
S4 (23:08):
Well, he sometimes does pick one. Well, for example. Sam,
can you see my nails?
S3 (23:12):
Yes, I can see that. You got.
S4 (23:13):
Nails. Can. Okay, good. Good one. Smart aleck. Can you
see what color they are?
S3 (23:18):
Not really. Uh, to me, they'll probably be, uh. What?
Pinkish or flesh colored?
S4 (23:22):
Yes. Correct. The baby pink. He thought they were bright green.
S3 (23:26):
Ah, yes.
S4 (23:27):
They're not even close to bright green.
S3 (23:29):
Well, I my that was my guess, really. And this
is something that, uh, I think happens a lot in the, um,
blindness community, especially the vision impaired community is someone like
me will take an educated guess at something. And, and
that basically means that we are either going to be
completely wrong or, bizarrely, right. And if that's the case,
(23:52):
I mean, you're, uh, the colors seem to blend in
with your skin and human beings. We're not white. We're
sort of a pinkish color.
S4 (23:59):
Well, they are a baby pink. They're not like a
skin tone pink. They're very light pink, but definitely better
than Stevens. Bright green.
S3 (24:08):
So the other thing he was talking about though was stairs.
S4 (24:11):
Yes, yes. I've actually been, uh, on a hiking trail
with him, and it even extends to things like rocks
or tree roots.
S3 (24:19):
Oh, yeah.
S4 (24:19):
Like the amount of times he won't see a rock.
And I will have to go ahead of him and
tell him that there are. It's bizarre if you see it.
You know, there's a fully blind chick with a guide
dog seeing eye dog on the hiking trail, telling somebody
who has sight that there's a rock and how tall
it is. But that's how we used to hike together.
(24:41):
It was very slow going, but at least we got
the job done.
S3 (24:44):
It's possible to rely on your eyes too much, and
that's kind of. That's actually what, uh, running taught me. Really?
Because if I would run at a certain pace and that's,
I mean, my cruising pace would be around about a three,
four minute, one case. If I look down, then the
ground would be completely flat. It would be like glass.
So my eyes are not really that much used to
(25:05):
me with that kind of thing, which basically meant that yes,
occasionally I would get injured. I'd twist my ankle or
run over something or fall down a hole or something
like that. But it meant essentially using your brain. Now,
also with a flight of steps. We're lucky in this
country is that a lot of the buildings are fairly modern,
(25:26):
and there is a standard height for your average flight
of stairs.
S4 (25:31):
Yeah, height. And like the length as well.
S3 (25:33):
Exactly. So if you know that you can do the
mental calculation to that. So I can actually zip down
a flight of steps quite comfortably because I've already measured
that in its you can run up and down a
flight of steps because you measure your own gait.
S4 (25:47):
Yeah. I mean, I've also been on the other side
of it where people say that I look like I can't.
I can see because especially when hiking and things I
rarely ever fell over because, you know, my foot would
sense that there's a rock there, and I would just
automatically be able to go up and over it like,
I don't know Why I have developed this skill. But
(26:12):
I can walk slash hike without falling over. I know
a lot of blind people that fall over quite a bit,
especially when it comes to lips in the path and stuff,
but I don't know if it's because of the way
I grew up and the fact that, you know, we
did a lot of crazy things and or what it was.
But I have developed this supernatural skill of being able
(26:32):
to hike treacherous trails and not fall over.
S3 (26:36):
It's actually called proprioception. So if you get the slightest
hint of something, chances are you will react to it quickly.
That's again a kind of thing that they teach you
when you are in training as an athlete. So that's
it's a handy skill to have. Um, the other thing
is something I like to call Blinky breaks. That is
the ability to stop really, really fast. I think we've
(26:58):
all got that one. It's like I stop and it's like,
one step. We're stopped.
S4 (27:04):
Yep. Oh, yeah.
S3 (27:05):
That says saved me from injury and from all kinds
of things, because sometimes you'll spot something at the last
minute or something someone else will spot something at the
last minute. And you need you can't just afford to
just go. Well, a couple of more steps to slow down. Nope.
You just stop there.
S4 (27:21):
Yep, yep. I mean, I've had Mackenzie and Lacey pull
me up short, and, you know, you can't just go
walk past your guide dog. You have to listen to them. So, yeah,
blinkie brakes are really important, but, uh, echolocation is another
thing as well. I've heard about that I love to use.
S3 (27:37):
And I think we should cover that in a future episode. But, yeah,
what we have to do right now is indeed stop
because we are out of time. That is a wrap
for this week.
S4 (27:46):
A big thank you to Anthony, Lily, Maddie, Sam, Collie
and Stephen.
S3 (27:52):
And of course, thank you for listening. That includes our
listeners on the Reading Radio Network and the other networks
that are nice enough to play our show.
S4 (28:01):
You can download a podcast to this program, plus some
extra content by going to Apple, Spotify, Google or your
favorite podcast platform.
S3 (28:09):
Next week we are joined by Mr. Chips himself. Children's
author David Burston talks about losing his sight, his many
adventures on porn trolls, and how all of that turned
into a series of books starring Dave the Decky.
S4 (28:22):
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.
S3 (28:37):
You can email us Studio One at. Org that's studio
number one at Vision Australia.
S4 (28:43):
Org or of course you can find us on Facebook
or Instagram by searching for VA Radio Network.
S3 (28:49):
Bye for now.
S2 (28:50):
Studio one was produced in the Adelaide studios of Vision
Australia Radio. This show was made possible with the help
of the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at.
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