The bionic Eye: Diverse Opinions are Just as Valid

Kelsey

When signed up to BBC school Report in mid-January, a project aiming to get 11-16-year-old school children interested in reporting on current news, I didn’t expect to have a 20 minute program, a 3 minute regional news item and a live interview to my name just two months later. The story about my alternative opinion on the bionic eye which I paraphrased in early February led to an interest at the BBC and a resulting trip to , .

Recent scientific developments have resulted in the creation of a bionic eye, a retinal implant, aiming to restore some useful vision for totally blind people. It is currently being used in clinical trials, with the first successful operation completed in January. Such a huge breakthrough in this medical research resulted in a major media story, focusing on how the bionic eye would change blind people’s lives.

I am a completely blind 14-year-old student, and have had no sight for 8 years. After some research into the bionic eye, and after reading quotes from those involved in the clinical trials, I began to consider how the bionic eye could change my life. Due to medical limitations, the current technology is not suitable for me; my eyes are too severely damaged for the retinal implant to work. However, if given the opportunity to have some of my sight restored, I would refuse the offer, on the basis that I’m happy leading the life I lead as a blind teenager.

Many sighted people consider blindness as a negative: losing their vision is often an unimaginably frightening concept. So, when I get asked the common question, “IF you had the chance, would you want to see again?”, people are stunned by my response.

“No, I wouldn’t.”

I am used to living the way I live, and although I often do everyday tasks in a slightly different way, I don’t see my life as any more of a challenge than a sighted person’s life. I think that the reason sighted people fear blindness is because it’s so wildly different from the way they live their lives . People rely on sight each and every day, and taking away vision would be like taking away my hearing – they’d be lost without it.

After thinking about how I feel in regards to the bionic eye, I decided that my BBC News School Report piece could focus on my opinion, as it differed to the opinion publicised in the media. I showed a BBC journalist [who was in school for the afternoon] and received some useful

constructive criticism on my piece, with some tips on how to develop it. I took this advice and used it to explore more areas relating to the bionic eye, including other people’s opinions, facts about the science behind it and how the bionic eye could affect blind people in different ways.

A week later, I received an email from my form tutor at school, advising me that BBC Radio 4 had been in touch, and were interested in allowing me to interview Professor Robert Maclaren, the surgeon behind the first successful retinal implant, on the In touch program. Of course, I accepted this amazing opportunity and on 7th March, I visited BBC Broadcasting House in London, both to record the interview and to complete a short regional TV segment for BBC London News. Additionally, my local BBC radio station, BBC Radio Three Counties, interviewed me on the 10th of March.

I’ve had an interest in journalism for a number of years, and wish to be a journalist when I leave school. The opportunity to interview a professor and to have a story of my own discussed on radio was one I couldn’t resist. I wasn’t really sure what to expect when making the radio piece, as I’ve always been primarily interested in written journalism. I approached it with an open mind, and was ready to learn all I could from the experience. The first part of the radio piece involved a producer coming into school, to record a segment about my average day. Although I didn’t admit it, I was extremely nervous about this, but as I discovered throughout the day, I was, as usual, worrying unnecessarily. Despite my concerns, the day was just another day at school, with nothing out of the ordinary, nothing weird or different.

By making the radio piece, I was able to interview many of the LSAs, or Learning Support Assistants, who work to prepare my classwork in an accessible format like Braille. These interviews taught me a lot about how this team works, and what the process is like from receiving teachers’ lesson plans to handing me the work in the classroom. It also gave me an opportunity to talk to classmates about how it is to work with a blind student like myself in lessons, and some of the things that they sometimes have to help with.

At Broadcasting House, I interviewed the professor, as well as being interviewed by the presenter of the Radio 4 show. Here, I learnt how to relax and speak naturally when on the radio, and how to successfully interview someone. With an interst in journalism, it took me quite a while to comprehend that I was in BBC Broadcasting House, one of the buildings in which I dream to work in. Once I was over that however, I managed to take in so many new pieces of information, including writing and broadcasting tips, and the discovery that the BBC canteen sell amazing flapjacks!

BBC London expressed an interest in my School Report story and just a week after the day of recording at school, the cameras arrived at my front door at 07:15 – my alarm that morning was far

too early for my liking! Besides some organised shots which I had to repeat several times, my day was just another normal day, just as it had been the week before. I participated in all lessons, chatted to friends at lunchtime and essentially went about my day as usual, just with a camera behind me and a microphone clipped to my blazer. Despite not being able to see the caeras, I think I was more scared about the TV filming than the radio recording, which isn’t particularly logical.

With a desire to become a journalist, the experience of having a story of my own developed first into a BBC News School Report article, then a 20 minute radio piece and then a 3 minute regional news segment is a dream come true. I have learnt so much from this experience, including techniques for writing and broadcasting, that diverse opinions are just as valid and that the BBC canteen have an outstanding range of food on offer. But most importantly, I have learnt that despite being blind, I’m happy leading the life I lead, and although I sometimes have to go about things in a different way, I’m really just the same as everybody else.