Talking Vision is Vision Australia Radio’s flagship program, discussing the latest news and issues from a blindness and low vision perspective.
This week we take a moment to pay tribute to braille music teacher, transcriber and camp trailblazer Dorothy Hamilton OAM, who sadly passed away recently at the age of 97.
Dorothy was greatly admired and respected by many who had the pleasure of knowing her, such as Gary Stinchcombe, a long time colleague of Dorothy’s at the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Gary spoke with broadcaster Glen Morrow a number of years back as part of Glen’s feature on Dorothy, entitled “Meet Dorothy Hamilton”, which originally aired in full on Talking Vision in 2015, and again following Dorothy’s inclusion in the Australia Day Honours for her lifelong dedication to braille music in 2018.
“Dorothy is a trailblazer, no doubt. That’s why when people tell me these days “you can’t do something” I never say “can’t do” anything, and I think Dorothy’s indicative of that. She really had to work very hard but she did it with absolute grace,” Gary said.
“Dorothy had lots of common sense ideas and things like that, she actually put things like blindness and low vision in a broader perspective and thought about them in a very practical way,” he said.
Listen to the full interview here or in the player below:
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