ABC journalist breaking new ground

Nas Campanella is the first blind cadet journalist employed by the ABC. Now she\'s pioneering a novel way of presenting and producing radio news.

The voice is calm and confident.

But what Triple J listeners across the country don't know

Is that this newsreader can't see one word of the script she's delivering.

Twenty four year old Nas Campanella is blind.

Not only that, she can't read Braille.

So Nas Campanella presents 3 minute news bulletins on the hour by listening to an audio translation of copy

through her headphones

[Screen reader] The New South Wales policeman who blew the whistle..

and then repeating what she hears..

"Senior New South Wales policeman who blew the whistle on allegations of a coverup of

"child sexual abuse has admitted he lied to colleagues because he was suspicious of their motives."

I am reading about a second or two behind.

It's hard because the speech program has an American accent

and it's a sort of computerised voice

so there's that to contend with

and it pronounces things, sort of incorrectly most of the time.

She doesn't just present the bulletins but produces them as well.

Operating the panel with the help of strategically placed velcro dots

while listening to four different streams of audio.

In the headphones I can hear myself.

I can hear the speech program telling me what to say.

I can hear the audio grab that I have to play on air.

and then on top of that I can hear a clock telling me how much time I've got left to go

It's fine usually during bulletin but at the end of the day

after reading five or six bulletins in a row

my ears are a bit kind of sore and it's all a bit much, so.

What about you're brain?

No the brain learns to deal with it.

Well I think it's quite remarkable

Heather Forbes is responsible for hiring and training

ABC cadet journalists.

Her brain can process that information in a nanosecond

and if a sighted person tries to do it

you just cant. I don't know how she does it because I've tried it myself

and I just couldn't do it.

Nas Campanella lost her sight at 6 months of age

when blood vessels burst at the back of her eyes, damaging the retinas.

It was due to a genetic condition that also affected her younger brother

Ben, but his sight was salvaged thanks to laser surgery

which wasn't available to Nas.

I think it's been a little bit traumatic

for Mum and Dad, especially early on because,

I guess they never really met someone with a vision impairment.

Had no idea about what I'd be capable of doing.

Or what services were out there in order to get me through life

but they've always been really supportive. They've never wrapped me up in cotton wool.

I've always had to do everything like, you know my brother or my cousins

Work experience in community radio sparked a passion for broadcasting.

and Nas Campanella went on to graduate with a journalism degree

from the University of Technology in Sydney.

It was difficult to find a job, any job, at all.

Because you know, I looked good on paper in terms of all the voluntary experience I had in the industry

and my resume looked great, the samples of work I had looked great.

But it wasn't until I got to the interview stage when they found out I had a vision impairment

it was like, all of a sudden, they just changed their attitude.

It was a big no basically.

And it was pretty heartbreaking.

In 2011 her luck changed and she beat a field of 700 applicants to win one of

ten cadetships on offer at the ABC.

She had determination and she doesn't take no for an answer.

and she's got curiosity

She can write very well, she's got a beautiful voice

beautiful brodcast voice

and in the end I said to myself "If I was her and I didn't have sight and I wanted to be

a journalist I'd want the cadetship." So there was absolutely no reason to not give her the cadetship.

How did you feel when you got the phone call to tell you had been given a cadetship?

There were tears. Pretty happy.

They were willing to take a chance I guess when no one else was

and they've done everything they possibly could to make it

work and I couldn't have asked for anything more

During her cadetship, Nas Campanella reported in the field,

became proficient at court reporting and spent a year, like all ABC cadets, working in a regional

newsroom, Bega, New South Wales.

Nas Campanella is the first ABC cadet journalist who is blind

and she's breaking new ground in the way she delivers the news.

I just think it's fantastic and I think, you know, she's a great

role model for anyone else out there who wants to be a journalist and

hasn't got their sight.

But Nas Campanella isn't trying to a role model, just the best journalist she can be.

I just like it. At the end of the day I go home and I feel good about my job and I look forward to it the next day.

It's a dream come true really