David Hume

00:30

S1

This is Studio one on Vision Australia Radio.

S2

Our guest this week has, as you might understand, for someone in his 70s led a very full life. The funny thing about this interview was the things we left out. So the promos Talk of David Hume's long career in marketing, employment relations and the media and some fun on boats, but we didn't really even cover the band, the family life or... well, just so much more. But frankly, as someone who identifies as blind, it has been a lot of fun researching David and an honor to have a chat. Maybe next time we'll cover the rest or maybe the listener do what I did.

UU

And read the book. Hello, I'm Matthew.

S2

And I'm Sam.

S3

And this is Studio One, your weekly look at life from a low vision and blind point of view here on Vision Australia Radio.

S2

On this week's show, I talked to David Hume. David lost his sight shortly after he was born. That has not stopped him from leading a remarkable life. This includes a career in marketing and competing twice at the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

S3

Interesting, As we always say at this point, please do get in touch with the show. Whether you have experience of any of the issues covered in this episode of Studio One or if you think there's something we should be talking about, you never know. Your story and your insight may help somebody else who is dealing with something similar.

S2

You can email Studio One at Vision Australia. Org, That's Studio one at Vision Australia-dot-org. 

S3

We also accept complaints and heckling through the medium of Twitter Vision Australia Radio can be found at at Radio Network and I can be found at twitter.com slash whingeing pom. Hello there, Sam.

S2

Hello there, Matthew. I could ask you about the weather, but I think it's a pretty sore point.

S3

I came here to get away from 30 degree heat. I feel betrayed.

S2

I've actually been over there during your supposed waves. Oh, it was. It's always lovely outside, but it's always inside that it lets it down.

S3

Oh, God. It's just, yeah, it's been a stinker. I'm actually with west-facing skylights, so this place is going to become like an oven this afternoon. So unfortunately, this means you've been doing more of the work. You've been doing more of the heavy lifting. And who have you brought to meet us this week? Sam Yeah.

S2

I can't really describe it properly because I mean, yes, in the introduction I sort of gave a nice little thumbnail, but it's kind of like saying that, yes, Matthew Layton did a little bit of radio once.

S3

Well, and again, we all want to be remembered as more than that, don't we? So, you know.

S2

Indeed. So I mean he's Australia's longest user of a guide dog, for example. He started in the early 60s, so that was one of his items. He's basically has done this to promote his book that has now become available through the Vision Australia Library. And also, yes, you can get it at Amazon and places where all good books are sold.

S3

We shall put links in the description, of course. All right, Sam, should we let the interview roll?

S4

I'd always enjoyed interviewing people for the range of personalities and their exploits is wondrous. Why? Well, I'm not sure. Perhaps being blind, I instinctively felt they could give me pictures of lives I'll never see.

S2

I've long said that in our vision impaired and blind community, there is no such thing as a normal person. And this is definitely the case with David Hume. A nurse diagnosed David's loss of sight when he was a one year old at the age of five. He was packed off to a live-in special school in rural New South Wales, but completed his education to Year Ten at Muswellbrook High School, a mainstream school. Since then, he has worked in marketing the media, the wine industry, human resources and even tried his hand at sailing. David, Would you call it a full life?

S5

I've been very, very lucky, Sam. I've had three superb mentors: my Aunt Alison, who turned 101 last month. As a child, I had my first boss who got me into service clubs and rostrum for the International Public Speaking Club... and also Ron Campbell my radio boss, who would not accept the fact that a blind person could not be successful in radio - and through his sound engineer, they made all sorts of gadgets and devices, which allowed me to monitor the very complex business of radio transmission.

I applied for job after job. I became so desperate I even applied to the Ford Motor Company for work on their production line, where I would be rejected on safety grounds. In addition, I was also becoming fed up with employment agents. I thought many were blinder than me. They could not see past my handicap to give proper weight to my credentials. Besides, I became aware of faults in their recruiting strategies. One evening. The black cloud shrouding my mind lifted long enough for one bright idea to beam from my subconscious. If you think you could do better as an employment consultant, why not become one?

06:08

S2

Often we have a choice in our work life. We look at what we can do or pursue what we want to do. You've kind of done both.

S5

I've been lucky. As I say, I've had these these three mentors and I've been presented with various opportunities. And particularly in my sales career, I've developed some fairly sophisticated telephone techniques selling intangible services in particular, and I've placed people millions of dollars worth of recruitment business all around the world, having in many cases never met these people, but done so by phone because most of my selling techniques are done on what I call mine site. Mind Sight is the blind person's term for that which you use your mind to deal with insight, hindsight and foresight.

S2

I've always thought blind and vision impaired people had a natural advantage in the sound only medium. We can pick up vocal tics and take advantage of that.

S5

And if you want to reverse that, sighted people find it much more difficult on the phone because they can't see the people.

S2

So you were not born blind, were you?

S5

I was born with sight, but being put into an incubator as a premature baby took my sight away. My other four siblings were all born with sight, and they they they had no problems. And it wasn't till I was one year old that the clinical nursing sister found out that I was blind because I didn't look in her direction.

I was born during World War Two amidst all the restrictions it imposed on a nation and its people, in spite of all this, premature and blue babies were being saved with the use of incubators and a supply of oxygen. It was not until over a decade later, 1954, that an American doctor successfully proved that pram blindness was caused by excess oxygen. 50 years later, medical researchers were still arguing that it wasn't only oxygen. Other factors were probably at play. Exactly why I am without eyesight, I'll possibly never know. I do know I was one of the earliest in an epidemic that left over 10,000 babies sightless.

My mother made a very courageous decision at five years of age to send me to a boarding school at Blind Children 300km from home. At that stage, I was totally dependent on sighted people. I couldn't even do up my shoelaces or get dressed and felt that I was thrown in the deep end. But the beautiful part of that is that if you believe you're a fighter, you come out of it with independence and competitiveness.

Somehow teachers at high school levels that were taught all subjects, unlike normal high schools. She encouraged me to learn typing so I could write my examinations on equal terms with non blind students. She went further. She must have sensed greater potential in me, obviously more so than I did. She then backed her judgement that I could succeed at a public high school and began the process of ending my nine years at Warung a special school. If only she knew how justified was her assessment. Although perhaps she always knew. Not bad for a blind lady.

S2

On this show, we've talked about the difference between special education and integration. What are your thoughts?

S5

It has its ups and downs because we're younger. Blind school was for blind and partially sighted kids. The blind people were in part that one part of the world. But the sighted people were. They were neither sighted or accepted by the blind blind world. And that created its own problems in terms of bullying and other less less nice aspects. But look, I had some very, very good people from the sighted world as our as our teachers, our supervisors who were also, you know, very, very kind. But I think that the one thing I learned out of nine years of boarding school was independence and the need to build my own life because I then went to a sighted school for two years. And when I walked into the classroom, you would have you could have heard a pin drop sighted, but decided kids were very, very good to me. They were they were set up to help me to become my friends. And I benefited mightily in terms of confidence and self-assurance. From two years at a at Muswellbrook High School.

10:22

S4

If you've ever heard of Perkins Brailler being used, you remember its distracting noise. I therefore refrain from using mine while the teacher was speaking. Consequently, I had to develop very good concentration and retention of details so I could type my lesson notes during lunch and play periods. It was not easy, but forcing my brain to concentrate for long periods has delivered a lifelong asset so as not to distract others during tests and exams. I was placed alone with the supervisor who read me the questions and I responded to my clattering brailler. This dependence on a retentive memory arose in yet another way, whereas sighted students had their textbooks, mine often came late or not at all because of the delay in transcribing texts into Braille. To compensate, I took more notes and when the books arrived I would start again matching my notes to the book. Looking back, it was often valuable revision, but of course the rest of the class did not wait for me to catch up. In addition, the carrying of bulky Braille books plus my Perkins was always an impediment, especially as I was now determined to show my scholastic ability.

S2

So you would say the mix of special education and integration were just about right for you?

S5

Yeah, I'd say so. Look, don't get me wrong. I have a number of blind people that I have great respect for, but I haven't allowed my life to be centered on the blindness community because I haven't had time. I've been in the business world and other areas like wine and sport and so forth. And I haven't had time, but the few blind friends that I do have, I treasure. Yes.

S2

When reading your books, something that stood out to me was something one of your uncles said to you, and it made quite an impression.

S5

Yep. He's my Uncle Jim. God rest his soul, said to me, David, you realize that you will almost certainly never get married or have children and you'll spend your life working in a sheltered workshop. We'll have news for him. I mean, I've been married twice, eight children and 20 grandchildren later. They're not all my children. By the way, the second marriage, I was a merger with a lady with five other kids, but I had three children of my own. She had five. And when I marry my current fiance, that will those numbers will raise from 11 children to 26 grandchildren.

S2

So you would say it helped to spur you on in what you did?

S5

Oh, yes, of course. Look, he was a he's a great guy and a good, good friend of mine, Uncle Jim. But he meant well. But he was speaking from a from the point of view of little, if any experience with a blind person.

S2

You have not gone on this journey alone, have you?

S4

I was still a very inexperienced 17 year old when some muscle Brooke Apexes bid me safe trip on a flight west to Victoria Park, Western Australia. I was to start training After just a night's sleep. I understood the program would be rigorous, but never so intense. The concentration demanded of me was unremitting and exacting, but deep in my emotions. The possibilities were thrilling me. My trainer, Tom Blair, welcomed me at Perth Airport and delivered me to the Royal Guide Dogs, rather humble accommodation and headquarters.

S2

Can you tell us about your four legged partners?

S5

In 1961 I got my first guide dog at the age of 17, which was being trained in Perth. That was my first air flight to Perth and since then I've had seven future other guide dogs. And honestly, the independence and the freedom that they've given me in life and of course the enjoyment of having having a staunch companion, a staunch, loyal companion has been fantastic, have a lot to guide dogs. I was on Guide Dogs Victoria as a board member for 15 years. I was the vice president of Royals, the Australian body, for a number of years and I've got to say I owe guide dogs a great deal.

It's a mental jolt when told to risk yourself to the senses, mind and paws of a dog, I had to muster my courage in my willpower to accept the strength of Perry's training in matters such as safety. Perry had to know I trusted him, and I had to place my confidence in what was being transmitted to me via his harness. This was a transforming moment and one many people cannot clinch. Tom said that we had to become a unit with our dog. Perry and I did develop a semblance of teamwork. We were told Your dog is the pilot, you are the owner and navigator. Heedless reliance on a guide dog is to court disaster.

14:46

S2

Someone out there would think a guide dog is some type of angel, the perfect animal that is always in its best behaviour. Now, of course, no, no, don't we?

S5

My first guide dog, I used to call him my mongrel because. Excuse the word, but the fact is that Perry was a Labrador kelpie cross. He had a mind of his own and he embarrassed me on several occasions in lifts in the city by sticking his nose up ladies dresses in the middle of winter, etcetera. So, yeah, it's most of the guide. Dogs in the latter stages were better trained because they were bred, whereas initially dogs were given to guide dogs to train and there was no control over their pedigree.

15:29

S2

The issue with looking up women's dresses wasn't the only bit of naughtiness from Perry, was it?

S5

Another time I was crossing the road in in Mudgee and because what I didn't realise that there was a cat across the road and the dog was attracted by that and they now they're not. They're trained to be cat cat averse. Whereas initially the dogs that. Were given to guide dogs were. Just normal dogs who were trained. But by the way, that same dog who stuck his nose up women's dresses et cetera. Saved my life twice. When I was being trained in Perth, a truck burst through the lights and my dog just. Stopped me in time. On another time I was I was walking down to the radio station to going across a level crossing and a train coasted down without its motor. Lewis Horn on the crossing. And my dog threw itself across my legs to save my life. It was the morning I got my first taste of alcohol because when I got to the radio station shaking, my boss gave me brandy in my coffee.

S2

Is there any advice you would give to a new guide dog user?

S5

Learn from your trainer and trust your dog. But be aware that the fact is that they are dogs. They're not they're not human because even humans make mistakes and guide dogs can as well.

S2

So back in the day, a Perkins Brailler, a white cane and a guide dog were the main pieces of kit for a blind person. Is there anything you envy the younger generation for having now that you would have given anything to have back then?

S5

My speech stimulated computer. It's made the whole world different. It allows you to read emails. It allows you to put together documentation in such a way as it's far more and to utilize the internet. Mind you, the internet for many blind people is like being thrown in the. Into Central Park at midnight without lights. It's still a very, very, very difficult environment because the people like Microsoft and Apple, who developed their systems, obviously don't or don't accept the fact that what they do accept the fact, rather, that the the blind side of the market is a very small one. Yes, I've noticed.

S2

A technological divide. It seems to go from people who are my age and younger being able to adapt and then a generation afterwards have mixed issues with technology.

S5

The kids today are technology natives. People like me have come into technology later. We're technical, technical migrants and have problems accordingly.

S2

Do you have any advice for someone who is older or say has just lost their sight and it's all too difficult?

S5

I think the first thing somebody who loses their sight later in life has to understand that they can go back to. As a platform to go forward to what they did in life, how they did it, and use their imagination to factor those those those activities into how you would would do them as a blind person. And that's why I said to you, Mind Sight for a blind person is so important because what it does is transcend the gap between sight and blindness, and bring things on to a far more level playing field.

S2

One of the most useful skills I've picked up over the years from totally blind people like yourself is a thing called mental mapping. It means I see the world in my head and learn to ignore the things that, well, basically don't move.

S5

Yes, because when you read a book, you read that the sky is blue, the grass is green. You gain pictures from the game world pictures which take the place of the vision.

Our love of sailing stemmed from a chat on a hot, windy day at Lake Brendan. I was waiting for my turn to ski when Terry Eldridge sidled up beside me. Terry had sold me the speedboat gondola. We were talking when he exclaimed, What you've never tried out on a sail board? Try mine. It'll test you for sure. It surely was a test, but it was also rapture. At first glance.

I used to own a ski boat and I learned to ski quite well. And one morning my friend and I skied 30km down from the Grand River to Brandon Dam. I was actually skiing one day with my with my friends and the bloke who sold me the boat said, David, I want to take you out on a sail board. Uh, because I think you'd like sailing because it's. It's very different from what you're doing on skiing. So he took me out on a sail board, and it was like the speed and the tranquility and the smoothness of a whole episode won me over. And later, I've described sailing as like, you know, sailing in the sky. The fact that you, the freedom and the excitement of yachting really took control of me. And I bought two boats. One was a 16 foot Corsair, which I saw with my first wife, but was Fletcher Christian and she was the original captain blind. So I didn't want a Flying Dutchman, which was a the fastest monohull boat in the world, and Olympic class boat. And I sailed it with my friend Barry, and then I got into travel yachts for 25 and did very well in that and ultimately got out of sight, out of mind with a psychologist friend of mine. And we did two Sydney Harbour.

20:57

S2

And that included one of the more famous, or should we say infamous, Sydney to Hobart yacht races...

S5

Yes, not only for Hobart was at that time the roughest on record, only superseded by the one in 1998. I was responsible for recruiting the crew, training them and making sure that we had compatibility on and off the water. We became a great team leading up to the Hobart. We were competitive and at times very, very successful. Then came the great day. 152 boats jostle for position at the start line and it was veritable mayhem. The noise, the confusion and the jostling for position was adrenaline inducing. Eventually we got out the heads, put up the spinnaker and headed south for Hobart. 

Later that afternoon, the wind conditions changed and we and a fierce storm developed. In fact, it was the roughest race on record to that time. 60 knots of wind speed across the deck, coupled with 12 metre seas, turn the ocean into a witch's cauldron. Assisted by the clash of New South Wales coastal currents and the wave action of Bass Strait halfway across the Bass Strait. Radio schedule placed us in second spot when disaster struck. A rogue wave hit the boat and we were swamped. The engine was disabled and we had no generator, radio lights or navigation equipment. Approaching the Tasmanian coast at night that was flying too blind, even me. Sadly, we had to retire and return. 

But in the second Hobart we made it and finished in a respectable place despite being carved off the coast. But I tipped the boat over because my friend and I agreed on on board. The only ones on board and the other seven guys were below. And I held on to the spinnaker too long and the boat tipped over. Greg and I would drive the other two seven blokes up to their chest in water trying to right the boat. And I wasn't very popular that day.

S2

Now, all this is in your book, Blindness Without Boundaries.

S5

I've been told by people who read the book that it will be motivational for blind people. That's that's their call. And also that it would help transcend the gap between how sighted people see themselves and how they might be able to do outside if they have to. The book has been recorded by the senior audio producer Rob McGrath at Vision Australia, and it is on the catalogue and can be accessed by blind people if they choose to.

S2

I've read the audio edition. What did you think of it?

S5

The book was done with sensitivity, the feeling and in a very racy style. I thought it was. It was. It was a good yarn. So Blind Without Barriers is available for people who wish to access it. Also, it is on sale through Amazon in audio, print and e-book form. And yeah, the book is available for people who wish to buy it.

S2

Part of what you've been trying to make people see is where you came from and what you've done. Any thoughts on the future?

S5

I've been lucky, Sam. I've seen things come from zero ranking in terms of what was available to blind people to now with the technology and and even an improved attitude from sighted people. It's fantastic.

24:42

S2

Actually. And finally, to somebody who has not been able to see conventionally for most of his life, how do you see the world?

S5

I see the world as a wonderful place, which I am privileged to live in. It's constantly. Moving, constantly changing, constantly challenging. But if you work at it, you can get to a stage whereby you can be comfortable in your environment. You have to seek help at times and you have to use your imagination. But you can be successful in what is a fast moving and constantly changing world.

25:27

S3

Pretty works. What a pleasure to meet David. Great interview. Right. That's your lot for this week. A big thank you to David Hume. David's book, Blind Without Barriers is available at the Vision Australia Library and also through Amazon and all other good and bad places where you can buy books, link in the description.

S2

And of course, thank you for listening.

S3

Next week Employment. Would you give a job to a blind person?

S2

Between now and then? Please do get in touch with the show whether you have experienced any of the issues covered in this episode of Studio One or if you think there's something we should be talking about. You never know. Your story and your insight may help somebody else who is dealing with something similar.

S3

You can email Studio one at Vision Australia.org. That's Studio One at Vision Australia-dot-org - and you can find us on Twitter. The radio station can be found at at Radio Network and I can be found at twitter.com slash whingeing POM or around the table somewhere.

S1

Vision Australia Radio gratefully acknowledges the support of the Community Broadcasting Foundation for Studio One.

26:42

S3

I came here to get away from 30 degree heat. I feel betrayed.