Doing Business as a Speccer

I’ve decided to come clean. After two years of running my copywriting service, WriteWords Editorial and delivering creative writing classes, I thought it was about time I shared with you what it is like to do business as a visually impaired person – or speccer as I like to call myself. Most of the time, my sight loss doesn’t impinge on my work. All I need to run my business is a computer with a magnifier, Internet access and change for taxis.

Still, I had an experience this week that I think neatly illustrates both the advantages and the disadvantages of doing business as a speccer. I was invited to speak to a women’s network. I needed to get a taxi to the hotel, as like many of these business meetings, it was held in a place more accessible to cars than pedestrians.

As it was my home town, I knew the taxi driver and knew his car was silver. So when I saw a silver car, I opened the door to find it wasn’t him. When I got to the hotel, the entrance had a glass door. I put my hand out to open it and groped empty air.

The talk itself went well. I always use PowerPoint, even though I can’t read the slides, since I know people like to have something to look at. And because I have to learn off my notes, I look really brainy. Since faces are a blur, I don’t feel subject to the crowd’s laser-beam stare, so that reduces the fear factor considerably.

I talked about public speaking being more feared than spiders or death and my slide had a picture of a spider. Moments later, I heard muffled laughter. And one of the women informed me that a spider was hovering in front of me. It was probably fortunate for the spider that I didn’t see him; he would have met a grisly death.

On the way home, having lurched my way down a landmine step that materialised just outside the entrance of the hotel, the taxi driver apologised for teasing me. Then he did something worse. He said he felt sorry for me.

Since I have x-ray vision in speccer terms, it’s easy for me to forget that my visual impairment does affect me at times. If I did speak up about it, the people I meet would know why I seem to blank them, or can’t immediately lay my hands on where things are. And it would help them see that people with disabilities of all kinds can make a useful contribution to the business environment.

This blog also appears on www.kanchi.org, an organisation which promoted employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

A Writerly Year

As this will be my last post for 2010, I thought I would share my year’s highlights, lessons learned and hopes for the future. This is a time of year when people reflect on where they are, so I think this post is timely.

So here are my writerly highlights

Creative Writing

• Finishing my novel and being in a position to send it out to agents
• Delivering creative writing classes in schools
• Delivering my first-ever creative writing workshops for adults.

WriteWords

• Fruitful collaborations with Samantha Clooney of The Virtual Office and John Jordan of Next Chapter.
• Proofreading the bestselling book Blow it Up Ref! for Brian Kennedy
• Helping Vince Doherty of Adikat, a mobile-phone marketing company, to secure media coverage twice in the Sunday Business Post, in the Irish Examiner and on 4FM.
• Securing local media coverage for Karen Frampton of Frampton Career Solutions, Peter Jones of Foot Solutions and Claudio Cavaliere of Espresso.
• Helping John O’Connor of Red Oak Tax Refunds get a 25% increase in the hit rate to his landing page.
• A successful marketing campaign targeting wedding businesses.

Journalism

• Continued articles in Irish Medical Times and Irish Skipper
• A new column with the Munster Express, in association with Home Instead Senior Care.

Lessons Learned

• There is no substitute for hard work
• My work for businesses is at its most effective when combined with the work of other professionals who have similar skills.
• Other people have different ways of learning, so it is important to be flexible to accommodate those
• To take a more methodical approach to my work and pay more attention to detail.
• Persist, persist, persist in securing media coverage.
• It’s okay sometimes to fake it until you make it.

Hopes for 2011

• To expand the number of creative writing classes I offer, in schools and to adults.
• To find a publisher for my novel.
• To further my existing collaborations and to build new ones, particularly with Bryan Corden of Hedgehog Video Productions, who plan to launch in January.
• Conrad Howard of Market Lane Restaurant in Cork has approached me to write a blog for his restaurant. When his new website has been fully revamped, I will ensure that his blog will win many followers.
• To continue delivering service in style to my WriteWords customers, my editors and my creative writing students.

Feel free to share your own highlights for 2010 and hopes for 2011.

Despite the downturn, this has been a year of growth for me. For those of you who found 2010 tough, you have my deepest sympathy and here’s hoping 2011 is a better year for all of us. Meantime, I would like to thank all my customers and students for their custom throughout the year and to wish them a Merry Christmas.

 

Cystic Fibrosis Campaigners, Reluctant Media Heroes

Yesterday, the new cystic fibrosis unit at St Vincent’s Hospital was given the green light after more than a decade of delays and bureaucratic bungling. Thanks to the tireless media campaigning of people with cystic fibrosis, we are all aware of the fallout of these delays. Of course, there is the fallout on their health. But what about the fallout on the campaigners themselves?

In order to achieve their goal of a dedicated unit, people with cystic fibrosis have had to perform an uneasy dance with the media. Their dignity and eloquence touches the heart and gives them a compelling media presence. Yet when they speak, you can hear an undercurrent of unease that they have to speak in the first place. In order to achieve their goals, they have to sacrifice some of that dignity and pride and expose parts of their lives that ought to remain hidden. And they have had to allow themselves to be defined by their illness.

No doubt, they feel that the end justifies the means. But they shouldn’t have had to do this. They shouldn’t have to be describing the colour of their mucus to Joe Duffy on Liveline. This is another way that they have been let down by the Government and the Health system. Where are the HSE spokespeople? As usual, they are hiding behind a wall of paper. No fear that they’ll put themselves on the line the way people with cystic fibrosis have.

The media has done great work in highlighting the issue. But it also bears a responsibility to these campaigners. The media can’t resist heroising people (see my previous blog post, http://bit.ly/9gsod9), because it’s more newsworthy. Even the language they use ‘cystic fibrosis sufferers,’ is problematic. Cystic fibrosis does cause a lot of suffering, but people who have it have learned to adapt and live full, ordinary lives.

It’s about time media coverage reflected the reality of life with cystic fibrosis. Hopefully with the announcement of the new unit, the media will let people with cystic fibrosis get on with the business of breathing, If they do have to give the Government the nudge, that the media will give a more rounded portrait of the cystic fibrosis campaigners.