Going in Blind by Megan Hill

Going in Blind

Interview with Megan Hill for City, University of London's alumni magazine XCity 

On Gary O’Donoghue’s first day at the BBC he was asked to bungee jump off Chelsea Bridge for the Today programme. A leap of faith for most, for O’Donoghue this was a step further: a literal leap into the dark. As the UK’s first blind broadcaster he broke stigmas and proved that having a disability shouldn’t stop anyone from pursuing a career in journalism. Now the Washington correspondent for the BBC, O’Donoghue and other blind journalists Peter White and Sean Dilley are paving the way for visually impaired broadcasters. Among them is 22-year-old Mohammed Salim Patel.

Patel has retinitis pigmentosa, which has slowly reduced his vision since he was born, causing him to be registered as legally blind aged just nine. He now has only slight vision in his right eye. Despite this, since graduating from the University of Central Lancashire in 2015 Patel has built up an impressive CV working across online, radio and broadcast platforms. He is currently at BBC Radio 5 live. “The Blind Journalist” also runs a blog and a YouTube channel under the same name, where he talks about his own struggles with his disability and how he overcame them. Patel sees the blogs as a platform to inspire others. He says: “I can show people that I might be blind but this is my journalism. I can still do it.”

Day to day work
I don’t have a guide dog as I’m scared of them, but at work I have a support worker provided by Access to Work for me. His role is to provide sighted guide so that I don’t make a prat of myself by walking into something. He is my eyes. If there is anything visual going on he will explain to me what’s happening.
I also have a programme on my laptop called JAWS that reads anything on the screen back to me. When I’m court reporting I’ll ask to take in a dictaphone or my laptop so I can touch type. I touch type all my stories as it’s much quicker and easier. I’ve tried dictation with Siri but it doesn’t work with a Lancashire accent.
As I’m a broadcaster I do a lot of presenting and pieces to camera. People always say that my eye-line is straight down the barrel or that I’m looking exactly at the person. I don’t know how I do it but I’ve been told that I do it quite well. I make use of little techniques to help me. For example, sitting up straight will give you the correct eye-line with someone.

Treatment at work
I’ve never had an issue. They allow me to take my equipment into courtrooms because they have to make that reasonable adjustment. At the end of the day, if I’m covering a court case on the press bench, then people aren’t going to have a problem because I’m there to do my job. People are quite inquisitive because they wonder how I’m going to make notes or conduct an interview, but I like that. It opens up a conversation and gets rid of small talk. Mainly, I think people respect you more in these situations because you are doing something and not letting any weakness or hindrance you’ve got stop you.

Doubts
I never doubted my ability to be a journalist, but there were people who doubted me. A prime example of that was when I applied for university. I originally applied for a broadcast journalism course, but I was told by the university that the course wasn’t appropriate as it was very visually demanding and one of the core components was shorthand. At the time I accepted what they told me and applied to the more print based, non-shorthand reliant, international journalism course. Looking back it should’ve affected me more but I was determined, if changing course was what I had to do then I was willing to do it. Graduating with a first class degree is something I’m really proud of. Not even for myself but for others, it’s putting that message out there; if you think you can’t do something, think again.

Stories
There is no story that I’ve wanted to do but couldn’t. There never will be because I won’t let that happen, I’d think of a way around it.
The story I’m doing at the moment is a story about Goalball UK [a sport specifically designed for visually impaired players where the aim is to roll a 1.25kg ball with bells in into the opposing team’s net] receiving funding to find the next Team GB stars. The visual aspect could have stopped me covering the story, but I haven’t let it. I came up with the idea of having GoPros on the players, as well as the shot list and the treatment of how I’d like it to visually work. It might sound ironic, but I think visually. I’ve always had an eyesight impairment but it has deteriorated over time. I can remember, from when I had decent sight, where an eye-line should be held and what things look like or how things should be, and use that for reference.
It doesn’t bother me that I might not be able to see what it actually looks like now, I can still envisage it and put that idea forward. I don’t think not having sight hinders my ability to be a journalist. I can do the work and get the end result that you probably would, but I’ve gone about it in a different way.

Advantages
There are many. I’ll give you a different perspective, not only on the day to day things, but I’ll bring you stories that people might not know of. That’s purely because my perspective is from someone who has a disability and is also Asian and Muslim — these are areas that are probably underserved. I cover stories that other people are scared to cover, can’t get the contacts for, or quite frankly don’t have the balls to do. I have done documentaries about the stigma some Asian families have towards disabilities and their unwillingness to talk about them.
My wide range of contacts is another definite advantage of my disability. I make acquaintances with people who have disabilities through my blog, and this means that if we need someone to speak on a particular issue I can get someone on air straight away.

The Future
My eyesight is deteriorating. At the moment I can still make things out, not to the kind of detail everyone else can, but it’s still something. When that completely goes and it goes black... I’ve not thought that far ahead. I say now I’m prepared for it, but am I? Only time will tell.
I’ve accepted my condition, I know it’s going to happen.  How on earth I deal with it when it does I don’t know. Is it even going to be practical for me to continue as a journalist? I hope so. I don’t think in terms of employment or support it would be, it’s just me psychologically and mentally. I’d still be the guy that I am, I’d still want to cover the stories I do now, I think I’d just need a bit more time to come to terms with it.