On Gary O’Donoghue’s first day on the BBC, he was requested to bungee soar off Chelsea Bridge. That was 18 years in the past, as a junior reporter on the Immediately programme.
Now a extremely regarded political correspondent, O’Donoghue doubts if a modern-day producer would dare ask the identical of a blind individual: “Disabled individuals could be victims of our risk-averse tradition. Once I joined the BBC, I went to Macedonia in the course of the Kosovo conflict. Though there was all kinds of coaching, I’m unsure it will be fairly really easy now.”
The BBC – the place he has spent his whole profession, first at Immediately after which on the World Service – prides itself on its variety and anti-discrimination insurance policies. However O’Donoghue is the one blind broadcast journalist within the nation. Already a well-recognized voice on radio, he’s now presenting extra for TV information in addition to on the web. Even for a sighted journalist, working throughout three platforms could be demanding, however O’Donoghue is unfazed: “The expertise has come on loads prior to now 15 years. I used to must beg researchers to learn cuttings on to tape earlier than going residence to take heed to them. I’d at all times be half a day behind everybody else.”
Now he makes use of a chunk of software program on his laptop computer that interprets emails and textual content paperwork and reads them aloud in an artificial voice. Inevitably there are nonetheless obstacles – as pictures of textual content, PDF recordsdata can’t be learn, for instance. However the web has reworked O’Donoghue’s working practices. “Once I began, press releases would are available in on the fax machine, which is totally ineffective. I’m fairly bullish about it now when bits of paper are handed out. Quantity 10 did it the opposite day and I simply stated, ‘I’m sorry however I can’t learn it.’ They thought of it for a few minutes after which emailed it over.”
O’Donoghue was born partially sighted however had misplaced using each eyes by the point he was eight. Though mild-mannered and resolutely upbeat, he has needed to battle his nook. Final 12 months he was awarded a five-figure payout after complaining he had been unfairly discriminated towards when a producer gave one in every of his tales to a different correspondent to current on the Ten O’Clock Information. He declines to debate that episode after we meet, however speaks passionately on the under-representation of disabled staff within the media. “There aren’t many and there must be extra. There may be 66 per cent unemployment amongst blind individuals of working age. It’s an absurd determine.” Ought to quotas be set? “No, there is no such thing as a curiosity in over-promoting individuals who aren’t as much as it – that may be the worst doable factor you are able to do. However once you come throughout them then for goodness sake use them.”
One barrier to getting extra disabled individuals into the office is a insecurity, and O’Donoghue recognises that his training performed a big half in shaping his “sure we are able to” spirit. He comes, he says, from “fairly a working-class background”, however was despatched to a specialist boarding faculty for blind youngsters in Worcester, and was the primary individual in his household to go to school, studying philosophy and trendy languages at Oxford.
“The college was wonderful; we did all kinds of issues. It could not countenance the concept that issues weren’t doable. Soccer, ballroom dancing – we even went snowboarding.” (O’Donoghue performed soccer for the England blind staff –“a really violent sport”.) He continues: “In addition they taught us to drive. They might take us to a disused airfield in dual-control automobiles. It’s one thing you couldn’t get away with as of late – 4 blind youngsters and an teacher in a automotive charging spherical an airfield.”
O’Donoghue’s father was a semi-professional footballer earlier than changing into a taxi-driver, and his mom taught ballroom dancing earlier than marrying. “She had fairly a tough time of it after I was younger as a result of in these days there was not a whole lot of assist for fogeys with disabled or blind youngsters. You have been anticipated to reinvent the wheel your self the entire time. A few years in the past she informed me that when issues received actually dangerous, she significantly considered killing us each. I feel it’s a very courageous factor to say to your offspring. I feel it was fairly a darkish time.”
Now aged 40, O’Donoghue divides his time between a small London flat and Yorkshire, the place he lives along with his accomplice, Sarah Lewthwaite, and their seven-year-old daughter, Lucy. Throughout his profession he has lined tales in Africa, Asia, Europe and the US, however he appears most at residence in Westminster, the place he has been stationed since 2004. After we meet, he’s about to do a pre-record forward of presenting the Radio 4 present The World This Weekend for the primary time, which he hopes to do extra of.
“The factor about incapacity is that in some ways it makes life troublesome, nevertheless it may also be an asset because it makes you stand out a bit. There are people who find themselves ready to take an opportunity with me. That is the job I wished for fairly a very long time, and now I’ve received it. It’s as much as me to make the very best of it.”
