The VIP Pod: The Visually Impaired People Podcast

In this episode, Emma talks to Bee Price who has Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Bee is 87 years old and discusses growing up during World War 2 as well as working as a teacher during her life.

Bee talks about starting to lose her sight around age 55 before being diagnosed with glaucoma and later on with Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS). CBS causes people who have lost a lot of vision to see things that aren’t really there – medically known as having a hallucination.

This episode was recorded remotely in September 2020.

Do feel free to get in touch with the team with feedback or future guest suggestions by emailing [email protected]

Interviewed by Emma Martins

Produced & Edited by Michael Wordingham and Rupert Mountjoy



Podcast artwork by Jimmy Scofield

Website: www.jimmyscofield.com

Contact: [email protected]

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Intro music is "Ghost Byzantine" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive.

Interlude and Outro music is "Dead River" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the third episode of the second series, Emma talks to Benjamin Wilson who is a visually impaired actor, and is passionate about making theatre more accessible for the blind and visually impaired, promoting the wider use of audio description. He comes from Yorkshire and currently works as Associate Director in various theatres in the north of England. He lost his sight in his 20s although this had been diagnosed since he was aged 8.

This episode was recorded remotely in April 2022.

Do feel free to get in touch with the team with feedback or future guest suggestions by emailing [email protected]

Interviewed by Emma Martins

Produced by Emma Martins

Recorded & edited by Film, Television & Media students at the University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, NR4 7TJ



Podcast artwork by Jimmy Scofield

Website: www.jimmyscofield.com

Contact: [email protected]

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Intro music is "Ghost Byzantine" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive.

Interlude and Outro music is "Dead River" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the final episode of series one, Emma talks to Jesse Dufton who is a blind rock climber. He is the first blind person to lead climb the Old Man of Hoy, which is the focus of Alastair Lee’s multi award winning documentary ‘Climbing Blind'. You can watch a trailer for the documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcB39nBSv3Y

In their conversation, Emma and Jesse discuss his diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and rod-cone dystrophy which is a genetic condition. He was born with approximately 20% of central vision and has no peripheral vision. Despite this, Jesse has been climbing from the age of 2 with the help of his father. Jesse talks about the difference between indoor and outdoor climbing as well as the vital roles of the ‘leader’ climber and ‘second’ climber. Jesse also touches on his use of 3D mental mapping which helps him visualise his surrounds when ascending.

You can rent the documentary 'Climbing Blind' as mentioned Emma and Jesse's conversation, here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/climbingblind/361804553

You can also find out more about Jesse and his upcoming climbs at his website: https://jessedufton.com/

This episode was recorded remotely in June 2020.

Do feel free to get in touch with the team with feedback or future guest suggestions by emailing [email protected]

Interviewed by Emma Martins

Produced & Edited by Michael Wordingham and Rupert Mountjoy



Podcast artwork by Jimmy Scofield

Website: www.jimmyscofield.com

Contact: [email protected]

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Intro music is "Ghost Byzantine" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive.

Interlude and Outro music is "Dead River" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the seventh episode of the second series, Emma talks to Mandy Redvers-Rowe, who had many operations throughout her teenage years. Registered blind at 16, she went to an all-Girls school for the Blind. She now has very little vision and uses her profile to campaign for Disabled People. Mandy has two children, lives in the Wirral and writes for television, radio and stage.

This episode was recorded remotely in April 2022.

Do feel free to get in touch with the team with feedback or future guest suggestions by emailing [email protected]

Interviewed by Emma Martins

Produced by Emma Martins

Recorded & edited by Film, Television & Media students at the University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, NR4 7TJ



Podcast artwork by Jimmy Scofield

Website: www.jimmyscofield.com

Contact: [email protected]

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Intro music is "Ghost Byzantine" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive.

Interlude and Outro music is "Dead River" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first episode of the second series, Warren talks to Dr Sarah Leiter who is a British Paralympian in the sport goalball, and has achieved her ambition of becoming a doctor, despite having a rare eye disease. We speak with Sarah about her career and how she manages her visual impairment to be able to excel in her career. We speak about her childhood and family life and how this provided her with fantastic support to set her off in the direction of becoming a doctor and how Sarah navigated education to get to the point she is at now. At the end of the podcast Sarah offers the opportunity for people to get in touch with us at The VIP Pod who might be young, visually impaired and looking for a similar career to Sarah, so please do get in touch with us if this is you, or you are the parent of someone who fits this description. Please contact us on [email protected]. Many thanks to Sarah for her time. Perhaps next time Sarah and I will talk about her sporting goalball exploits!

This episode was recorded remotely in March 2022.

Do feel free to get in touch with the team with feedback or future guest suggestions by emailing [email protected]

Interviewed by Warren Wilson

Produced by Emma Martins

Recorded & edited by Film, Television & Media students at the University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, NR4 7TJ



Podcast artwork by Jimmy Scofield

Website: www.jimmyscofield.com

Contact: [email protected]

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Intro music is "Ghost Byzantine" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive.

Interlude and Outro music is "Dead River" by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License via the Free Music Archive

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.