a face for radio

[cosmolinguist]

Here's a little clip of me and Gary from the BBC Breakfast twitter account.

Why is the employment rate among disabled people (46.7%) so much lower than for non-disabled people (80.3%) and how can the gap be closed? pic.twitter.com/6se7ITFW2u

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) November 28, 2016

I've had lots of nice messages from friends, family and even the people from Scope I talked to on Friday about this. Most of them have been about Gary.

I'm a bit sad my own family can't see me on TV -- while also kind of glad because they Don't Think of Me as Disabled and I'd worry they'd think I was complaining -- but I thought maybe I'd see about finding some nice stills from the video and getting them printed as proper photos for my family's Christmas presents. Seems a bit self-absorbed but I'm sure they'd like it. They don't have many pictures of me anyway. And none of the dog!

Comments

[po8crg]

I'm not letting you get away with that headline.

Your face is lovely on TV.

[cosmolinguist]

Aw, that's kind of you. :) I'm not overly impressed with my appearance, but I'm not arguing.

[jesse_the_k]

You look highly authoritative. A+++ would believe again :,)

[cosmolinguist]

*grins* I'm delighted to hear this! So kind of you to say.

[nanila]

What's the saying about never sharing the stage with children or animals? :)

It's a good clip. Thanks for packing so many points into such a short space. You are wonderfully articulate.

[cosmolinguist]

I didn't say them all together; thank the BBC editors for that. :) But thank you.

Getting the dog to do the same things twice, so they could be filmed from different angles, was...a challenge to say the least. Again, clever editing made it look good!

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm totally bowled over! It's so nice to see you in (almost real life) and I absolutely love Gary.

In answer to all your worries, you look and sound extremely confident, intelligent and articulate. You have a lovely speaking voice. Your house looks like the kind of house I'd like to visit. Your kitchen looks like a kitchen where people wash the dishes and feed the (gorgeous) dog.

And they used your anecdote.

They couldn't have chosen somebody better to speak for disabled people.

[cosmolinguist]

Your house looks like the kind of house I'd like to visit.

Thank you for reminding me that I'm forever saying I felt more comfortable visiting friends whose houses aren't immaculate than the ones that are (the one I grew up in was too...though my mom always talked as if it was barely acceptable rather than immaculate, but that's another story).

And thank you for all your other kind words, too. I certainly tried hard to do my best for all the disabled people, we're such a broad church. :)

[benicek.livejournal.com]

Brilliant interview! Can't believe they wouldn't give you an HCA job. There is a deaf HCA in my hospital who lip reads the patients. Surely someone with partial sight but good hearing could do the job just as well.

[cosmolinguist]

They did give me the job eventually, but I had to fight for it. It was a horrible situation: I'd gotten it at a time we were desperate for money, and delaying my start date by even a week would've been such a crisis. I had to do a formal complaint. The whole thing was so scary and stressful.

[cosmolinguist]

Oh and I think it made a difference because it was a job on a psychiatric ward and I suffered from the public's stereotypes about mentally ill people being dangerous. They said I might have things thrown at me and not see them; nothing like that ever happened in the two or three years I did the job.

[barakta]

You were good in the clip I saw off your twitter. Gary totally stole your show tho! ;)

You said sensible things, didn't do 'poor me' but did show that people undermining you, DOES damage you psychologically cos messages... The shoelace story I hadn't heard, told my partner who asked if you accidentally kicked them... Sadly I know kicking them wouldn't have helped but grrr.

[cosmolinguist]

Well quite. She mentioned, and tied, the shoelace right at the end (I'd already noticed it myself -- and said so when she pointed it out, if I remember correctly -- but I'd figured it was doing no harm while I was sitting down and I didn't want to do anything about it while they were talking at me) and by that point I was so anxious and scared (see above comments re how very much I needed this job to work out!) that I just wanted out of the situation.

[cosmolinguist]

Plus, this story is several years old now (you won't have heard it cos it's before I knew you) and I was not the assertive/stroppy (one of those irregular words isn't it: I'm assertive, you're stroppy, he's aggressive...) crip that you know now...partly because it's knowing you that's helped make me more confident and more aware of what I can expect and what I shouldn't put up with! Oh I was so different in my mid-20s...

I was fairly new in the UK too -- been here about a year I think -- and so was generally less confident in my interactions with people, more used to being clueless or being perceived as such. More used to feeling beaten-down by the unfamiliarity of everything.