S1: From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
S1: your host Sam Colley.
S2: Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
S2: for the next half hour we talk matters of blindness
S2: and low vision.
S3: The thing that I can remember being embarrassed by was
S3: at one time, I was at a social function with
S3: my parents, and one of my dad's friends asked me, Hey, Ian,
S3: do optometrists grind the lenses themselves? And I thought, I
S3: have no idea. Here I am in the second year
S3: of optometry program officially, and I didn't really know what
S3: optometrists did, whether they did this or did that. But
S3: I started taking things really seriously and became an energetic
S3: and enthusiastic optometry student after that.
S2: Welcome to the program. This week we feature part one
S2: of my conversation with Ian Bailey, optometrist, lecturer, researcher, and
S2: low vision pioneer who was here to chat to me
S2: all about his career in optometry. Starting off this week
S2: with his early life and career leading up to his
S2: move to London in the early to mid 60s. That
S2: conversation is coming up very shortly, so make sure to
S2: stick around. And then after we hear from Ian this week,
S2: Liz Dalakouras is back to give us an update on
S2: the latest from foyer information, otherwise known as FYI. I
S2: hope you enjoy this week's episode of Talking Vision. This
S2: week we feature part one of my conversation Association with lecturer, optometrist,
S2: researcher and low vision pioneer Ian Bailey. I caught up
S2: within a couple of weeks ago to chat about his
S2: career in optometry. Leading up to where he's still currently
S2: working at the University of Berkeley in the Bay Area
S2: of San Francisco. And it's my great pleasure to welcome
S2: in right now, Ian, welcome to Talking Vision. It's an
S2: absolute pleasure to have you today.
S3: And I'm pleased to be here now.
S2: Ian, let's start off at the beginning with the formative
S2: years and how you got into optometry in the first place.
S2: I'm sure there's a story there.
S3: Yeah, it's a it's a pretty weird story, though, that, um,
S3: I went to Coburg High School and I was a
S3: bit of a a Class clown. Sort of a bit
S3: of a troublemaker at school. Um, I used to get
S3: pretty good grades. Um, didn't work very hard. It was
S3: more fun being a naughty boy at the back of
S3: the classroom than I'm working hard. But I did pretty
S3: well with my grades and, um, had no particular career
S3: thoughts or direction. Um, when I was in 11th grade,
S3: my mother, um, took me to, um, a careers exhibition
S3: at the exhibition hall. Um, and she made me go.
S3: And I got some material from, um, organizations that were
S3: related to science things. And so I had engineering and chemistry, and, um,
S3: and I picked up some brochures for optometry. I didn't
S3: know really what optometry was at that stage. My parents
S3: had never seen an optometrist. I'd never spoken to an optometrist. Um,
S3: just didn't know anything about it. But I filled in
S3: a lot of forms and applied for scholarships or traineeships
S3: for different scientifically related um organizations, and optometry was one
S3: of them. And I thought, if I get a scholarship
S3: and what I could do is even if I didn't
S3: want to do optometry, if I got the money, I
S3: could give it back when I decided that I wasn't
S3: going to do optometry. So I thought I'd, you know,
S3: I was just taking a bit of a bit of insurance. Well,
S3: when I did matric, I did moderately well. Um, at matric,
S3: it's 12th grade. Used to be called matriculation. In those
S3: days I did reasonably well and I got the best
S3: matriculation grades of of the the small number of people
S3: that wanted to get into optometry. Commentary. And so I
S3: got this scholarship, and I think it was worth something
S3: like £370. They had pounds in those days at £375.
S3: I don't know whether it was a year or total.
S3: And I was admitted to university. I got a Commonwealth
S3: scholarship and for the first year of university, um, for
S3: any of the science courses that were related to biology,
S3: and that would include dentistry and medicine and, and physiology, zoology,
S3: anything like that. You did basically the same course. You
S3: did physics and chemistry and um, and zoology and math.
S3: And so I did that for my first year and
S3: I had this scholarship. I put the money in the
S3: bank and thinking that I could give it back, um,
S3: if I decided not to do optometry when I really
S3: had to make the decision at second year because I could,
S3: I would have been or would have been a possibility
S3: for me to transfer to medicine or or or something else.
S3: And so at first year uni, I played more cards
S3: than I played with my textbooks and sort of got through,
S3: but I basically wasn't really pursuing my studies seriously or
S3: with great seriousness or. Um, and I wasn't really pursuing
S3: a career. Um, and, um, I passed my first year, um,
S3: and going to the second year, that's when I had
S3: to sort of sign up for optometry. Um, and so
S3: I said, hey, I don't know what else to do.
S3: I may as well give this optometry a go. Um,
S3: I didn't quite know what optometry was started. Um, at
S3: the at the School of Optometry, which was then in a, um,
S3: a building on Collins Street. It was the College of Optometry.
S3: It was an affiliated college of the Melbourne University. It
S3: wasn't a degree giving, um, institution. And there was a
S3: small group of us, um, actually five, as it turned out, um,
S3: starting how real optometry program, which was at our second
S3: year of university and we had another two more years
S3: to go after that, and I started to learn what
S3: optometry was, um, as course went along. I was a
S3: thing that I can remember being embarrassed by was at
S3: one time, I was at a social function with my parents,
S3: and one of my dad's friends asked me, Hey Ian,
S3: do optometrists grind the lenses themselves? And I thought, I
S3: have no idea. Here I am in the second year
S3: of the optometry program, officially. Um, and I didn't really
S3: know what optometrists did, whether they did this or did that,
S3: but I started taking things really seriously and became an
S3: energetic and enthusiastic optometry student after that. And so, um,
S3: it was sort of partway into my second year of
S3: the program that I became an enthusiastic optometry student. And
S3: the at the time, the, um, head of the optometry
S3: program was Barry Cole. And he was about five years
S3: or six years, actually seven years older than me. So
S3: he would have been in his late 20s, and he
S3: was the only full time faculty member at the school.
S3: All the others were part time and some coming from
S3: the university, some I'm coming from private optometric practice. And
S3: Barry Cole was just really enthusiastic. And he had a
S3: real emphasis on the science underlying optometry. It wasn't how
S3: to learn the methods. It was to understand the science
S3: that underpinned the methods. And then you would get the
S3: methods under control. And so we had an extraordinary emphasis
S3: coming from Barry Cole on getting to know the science.
S3: And it really was extraordinary. There were five of us
S3: that ended up graduating with that class. Two were New Zealanders,
S3: and the other two ended up in academic life and
S3: are really distinguished vision scientists. Tony Adams, who's dead, became
S3: the dean of optometry at the University of California, Berkeley,
S3: which is the best school of optometry in the world,
S3: and nobody would argue with that. And Don Mitchell ended
S3: up having his career as a professor of psychology in Canada,
S3: in in Nova Scotia, the University of Dalhousie. And so 60%
S3: of the class had distinguished scientific and academic careers. I
S3: should have mentioned that during my final year of high
S3: school and during the four years of optometry program, I
S3: had a girlfriend who is now and still my wife.
S3: We started going together when I was in high school,
S3: and when I graduated or completed the optometry program at
S3: the end of 62. Um, we married a few weeks later.
S3: We married in February of 63. And, our plan was
S3: to go into private. I was going to go into
S3: private practice. We were going to start to put some
S3: money together to buy a house, and we wanted to
S3: start having kids pretty quickly.
S2: And Sam Kelly and you're listening to Talking Vision on
S2: Vision Australia Radio, associated Stations of Reading Radio and the
S2: Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed the first half
S2: of my conversation this week with Ian Bailey. If you
S2: missed any part of that conversation with Ian or you'd
S2: love to hear it again, talking vision is available on
S2: the podcast app of your choice, or you can also
S2: find it through the Vision Australia library. One other place
S2: where you can find all episodes of Talking Vision is
S2: the Vision Australia Radio our website. At VA radio, that's
S2: VA radio. All one word.org. But for now, back to
S2: the program and the second half of my conversation with Ian.
S3: I worked for a leading Melbourne optometrist at the time. Um,
S3: his name was Bruce Beasley. He had he was the
S3: president of the Australian Optometric Association. He was very important
S3: in optometric politics. And he had offered me a partnership
S3: with really, really good terms. You know, I, you know,
S3: and I was with him for the year of 1963.
S3: And he said, um, after Christmas, we'll talk about arrangements
S3: we'll need to make about getting together as business partners
S3: or practice partners. Contact lenses at the time were really
S3: quite new. Soft lenses hadn't hadn't been invented. And, um,
S3: most of the lenses being fitted were corneal lenses, um,
S3: made out of perspex or plexiglass?
S2: Yes. Very hard, very uncomfortable.
S3: Yeah, yeah. Um, and we were not well trained in
S3: contact lenses. I saw a couple of patients, and I
S3: felt so inadequate and felt that I was, you know,
S3: all bloody patients having to deal with somebody as incompetent
S3: as me. So I was feeling uncomfortable about my optometric skills.
S3: And also I thought, do I really want to marry
S3: Bruce Besley? Do I want to be linked to Bruce Besley,
S3: the whole of my professional career? Because that's that's the
S3: way it looked like it was going for a while.
S3: And I decided I didn't want to do that, so
S3: I didn't bring up the subject of, um, talking about, um,
S3: partnership arrangements. And I was feeling antsy and insecure about my, um,
S3: quality of optometric care because I really wanted to be good.
S3: During my second year in private practice, I was practicing
S3: in Moonee Ponds, and I was managing the practice, and
S3: there was myself as receptionist and, um, an optical workshop guy, and, um,
S3: that I was also going into the School of Optometry
S3: to teach in the clinic one day a week. Um,
S3: and when I was at the School of Optometry, I
S3: went to the library and was flicking through some journals
S3: and saw that England, um, was um, or in England,
S3: they were offering night time classes for continuing education optometrists
S3: teaching them about contact lenses. So I thought that would
S3: be a a good thing to do. And then I
S3: had to persuade my wife, um, my new wife, um, that, um,
S3: would be a good thing to go to England so
S3: I could get some contact lens experience. Um, and it
S3: took me a while to persuade her. Um, I was
S3: helped in the persuasion by, um, Pete Seeger, the singer.
S2: Oh, my goodness.
S3: Now, who? Well, he had a song called Little Boxes.
S3: Little boxes, little boxes, all made out of ticky tacky.
S2: Yes. Of course.
S3: And so every time that that that was on the
S3: radio in those days, and I would turn it up
S3: full volume whenever it came on. So I don't know
S3: whether it was Pete or me, but my wife agreed to, um,
S3: come to England. So, um, at the end of 64, um, um,
S3: on New Year's Eve, we, um, got on an Italian ship,
S3: the Galileo. Um, and, um, took off for England. We
S3: took we went by ship because it was cheaper than
S3: air flight in those days. Um, it took 23 days
S3: to get there, and it was fantastic. We went, um, Adelaide, Perth, Singapore,
S3: Bombay when there was a town called Bombay, um, Aden,
S3: when there was a place called Aden, it's now Yemen. Um,
S3: and then the boat went through the Suez Canal while we,
S3: we were, um, part of a day trip to Cairo. Um, um,
S3: stopped at Messina and we got off the ship in Naples, um,
S3: and went on to, um, And went on to England.
S3: In England. I got a job in the first couple
S3: of days there. Um, and, um, it was in Kensington,
S3: a sort of inner suburb of London. Um, and my
S3: intention was that I was going to work in practice, um,
S3: and go to the night, um, the night classes when they,
S3: when they started up, um, and, um, the, at that practice, um,
S3: I had to work all day Saturday, but I had
S3: all day Thursday off. Um, my wife got a job, um,
S3: working in a legal office, and, um, um, on the
S3: first Thursday after we'd got our jobs, um, I had
S3: a day all to myself while my wife was at
S3: work at her work. And so I went to the
S3: School of Optometry in London, where the where the contact
S3: lens classes were going to be held. Um, um, I
S3: was just sniffing around in the library, um, and a
S3: guy came up to me who. And he turned out
S3: to be the head of department. His name was Bob Fletcher.
S3: He asked me who I was, and I told him
S3: that I was an optometrist from Australia. I had two
S3: years of optometric, of real practice, optometric experience. Um, I'd
S3: had a little bit of experience teaching in the clinic
S3: in Melbourne. Um, and he said, would you like to
S3: be a graduate student instructor here at the City University?
S3: And I said, what would be involved? And, um, he
S3: told me what I'd have to do. Um, and I
S3: had to do some research. I had to take some classes,
S3: but I had to do some teaching, and some of
S3: the teaching I would be helping with was in the
S3: contact lens clinic. And so, um, even though it was
S3: a little less money, um, for than I was getting in, in, um,
S3: clinical practice, I, um, I took the job, um, and
S3: worked in the same practice on Saturday. So I ended
S3: up coming about even with the amount of money I
S3: was receiving. I just had to work a six day
S3: week rather than a five day week. Um, and there, um,
S3: I picked up a lot of optometric skills very, very quickly. Um,
S3: the City University London had the best contact lens, um,
S3: crew in the world. They had, um, the best experts
S3: in contact lenses anywhere. And I worked with all these
S3: people and I could work where they made the contact lenses. Um,
S3: they had a contact lens technician, a full time contact
S3: lens guy who made the lenses for the school. Um, and, um,
S3: I just loved being in contact lenses. I also did
S3: a bit of research, um, because that was part of
S3: the obligation. And I did some, um, teaching. Um, and, um,
S3: when you learn more, when you have to teach than
S3: you do if you're on the student side of the lectern. Um,
S3: and so I ended up, um, working with a lot
S3: of instructors getting, um, um, getting very personalized guidance. Um, but, um,
S3: because you're worried of, you know, if you're going to
S3: teach you so, so much worried about being found out
S3: for your deficiencies, that you work hard on covering your ass. Um, and,
S3: and so you end up getting to know your subject
S3: very well. And so I learned about a lot about
S3: contact lenses. Um, and in all, I was in London
S3: for going on two years.
S2: Happy financial New year. But you know what that means.
S2: It's time for a few updates to a series of programs,
S2: such as the NDIS, and to have a chat with
S2: us about that, as well as a few other updates
S2: from elsewhere in the blind and low vision community. It's
S2: my great pleasure to welcome back to Talking vision. Editor
S2: of for Information Liz Dalakouras. Liz, welcome back to Talking Vision.
S2: Great to have you.
S4: Great to be here.
S2: First off, Liz, we've got quite a bit of important
S2: info about the NDIS. Quite a few changes, a bit
S2: of uncertainty for people out there. So help our listeners
S2: minds at ease and give us some info about the NDIS.
S2: That's just come up.
S4: A lot of change happening in the sector next to
S4: impossible to keep up with everything that's going on because
S4: something will get said and the next week it's different.
S4: It's the same in both NDIS and my aged care.
S4: So that's exactly why we started a new resource series,
S4: and it's a series of articles about the NDIS and
S4: the changes that you'll be seeing recently. So in this
S4: latest edition of FYI, we talked about the NDIS supports
S4: and if you've noticed that suddenly that yours have changed
S4: or they've disappeared off your plan, you are not alone.
S4: So there are new rules that mean supports must now
S4: directly relate to the impairments that were listed in your
S4: original NDIS access request. And so many people are feeling
S4: the impacts of this. So we've written an article to
S4: help you better understand what's going on there.
S2: And as I understand it, Liz, there has also been, um,
S2: some new pricing arrangements and there's updates around that as well.
S4: Yeah, there is just to add even more changes to
S4: it all. Sam. So the Ndia has officially now released
S4: the new 2025 to 26 pricing arrangements, and that does
S4: include some minor changes to some of our services as
S4: in Vision Australia services. So there have been changes in
S4: pricing to certain therapy types like psychology and physiotherapy. And additionally,
S4: there's been a minor increase in pricing for recreation and
S4: NDIS employment services. but provide a travel price limits have
S4: been reduced. So in some good news for us and
S4: you guys, travel caps for therapy services will still apply
S4: but are now billed at 50% of the hourly rate.
S4: So all these changes have clicked in now as of today,
S4: the 1st of July, and the Ndia will index participants
S4: plans to match the increases, but they won't reduce the
S4: funding for your therapy price cuts. So within FYI, there's
S4: a link to take you directly to the NDIS website
S4: to help you better understand that process as well.
S2: Okay, and Liz understand Uber's been quite busy with a
S2: new transport subsidy trial. Tell us a bit about that one.
S4: Yeah, absolutely. They have. I mean we know how important
S4: Ubers are for the blind and low vision community. Sam.
S4: So Uber is launching a trial to advocate for provider
S4: neutral transport subsidy schemes. And that's to move beyond what
S4: is currently the taxi only model. So this new initiative
S4: aims to demonstrate, through real world data, the benefits of
S4: offering people with disability a greater choice in their transport services.
S4: Uber will fund the equivalent subsidy and mirror existing schemes
S4: in each state to gather the insights and support the
S4: government policy needs for the reform. And Uber themselves have
S4: come up with a survey that you can complete and
S4: have your say.
S2: Perfect. And Liz, a new accessible game has just landed,
S2: so that's quite exciting.
S4: Yeah, it really is. It's it's so cool. Sam and
S4: the man who developed the game, he's actually going to
S4: be a part of our Telelink Winter webinar series, which
S4: I'll talk about a little bit later. But a new
S4: game has landed. It's called The Land of Libya. It's
S4: a phone and iPad game that was designed for people
S4: who are blind or have low vision. And it's up
S4: for a 2025 Apple Design Award. Very, very cool. So
S4: whether you yourself are new to gaming, or you're just
S4: curious about sussing out a new game for your phone,
S4: The Land of Livia offers a relaxed, accessible experience that's
S4: filled with rich storytelling and simple controls. All you need
S4: to play this game is your imagination. Just visit the
S4: App Store and have a try.
S2: Sounds fantastic. And let's jump into that telling discussion now.
S2: There's quite a few special interest groups that are just
S2: kicking off as we speak.
S4: Yeah, absolutely. They're starting very, very soon within the next week.
S4: So there's still time to register. There are going to
S4: be four stories with four powerful messages. So our Telelink
S4: webinar series is always a very popular series. We do
S4: them in the summer and the winter, and this winter
S4: it's shaping up to be a great series. So we
S4: have an incredible lineup that feature a professor, a businesswoman,
S4: a gaming developer, the man who did Land of Livia,
S4: and an educator. Their stories are just so cool. They're
S4: filled with inspiration, how they overcame challenges and their triumphs.
S4: You can visit us online and go straight to the
S4: Telelink webpage to learn more about that.
S2: And to find out anything more about those sort of things,
S2: and a lot more as well. You can of course,
S2: sign up to the FYI mailing list by heading to
S2: the Vision Australia website. Vision Australia and search for. For
S2: your information. To get your name onto the mailing list
S2: and have the latest issue of FYI emailed to you
S2: every two weeks. Liz, thank you so much for your
S2: time today. Great to catch up with you as always
S2: and hear about all the exciting things in this issue
S2: of FYI.
S4: Thank you for having me Sam, and we will chat
S4: again in two weeks.
S2: And that's all the time we have for today. You've
S2: been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision
S2: Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the
S2: show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you.
S2: So please get in touch anytime on our email at
S2: Talking Vision at Vision Australia. That's talking vision all. One
S2: word at Vision Australia. But until next week it's Sam
S2: Corley saying bye for now.
S1: You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
S1: business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 74
S1: six or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.