Working in the BBC - a different perspective

The BBC really tries to be as diverse an organisation as possible but it's not easy. Part of my role here is to champion diversity across the Operations division and as such I try to understand diversity by looking from different perspectives.

How can I do this effectively and yet make it useful for others? Well, as luck would have it, I have been able to recruit the support of a very bright and sparky young lady, Meera Modi, who has agreed to do some guest blogs with me.

Meera joined the W1 team below on an Extend placement scheme recently and she is quite a special lady as she has not let her deafness hold back her ambition. I'm delighted that I have persuaded her to share her story with us and I hope this will give us a better understanding of how a deaf person gets on with their life.

For those of us with the use of all our faculties we have no idea of how life is for somebody who doesn't. We may feel awkward when faced with dealing with somebody who is deaf or blind or may not be able to use their limbs. What do you do? How do you react? What do you say? How do you avoid making a faux pas or, as I would say, putting my size tens in?

Well, over the next few weeks, Meera and I are going to have a chat via the blog - an experiment in communicating which enables us to overcome the barrier of not being able to hear. I'm going to learn more about how to communicate and Meera will be able to bring out a range of interesting experiences and opinions from her perspective.

Why don't you join in and ask questions you have been meaning to ask for yonks but never had the opportunity or the gumption before? We all may learn a little about how diverse this world of ours really is.