WEBVTT

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The voice is calm and confident.

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

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

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Twenty four year old Nas Campanella is blind.

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Not only that, she can't read Braille.

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

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through her headphones

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

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and then repeating what she hears..

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

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

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I am reading about a second or two behind.

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

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and it's a sort of computerised voice

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so there's that to contend with

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

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

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Operating the panel with the help of strategically placed velcro dots

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while listening to four different streams of audio.

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In the headphones I can hear myself.

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

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

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

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

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after reading five or six bulletins in a row

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

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What about you're brain?

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No the brain learns to deal with it.

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Well I think it's quite remarkable

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Heather Forbes is responsible for hiring and training

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ABC cadet journalists.

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Her brain can process that information in a nanosecond

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and if a sighted person tries to do it

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

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and I just couldn't do it.

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Nas Campanella lost her sight at 6 months of age

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

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

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Ben, but his sight was salvaged thanks to laser surgery

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which wasn't available to Nas.

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I think it's been a little bit traumatic

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for Mum and Dad, especially early on because,

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

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

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

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

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

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Work experience in community radio sparked a passion for broadcasting.

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and Nas Campanella went on to graduate with a journalism degree

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from the University of Technology in Sydney.

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

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

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

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

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

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It was a big no basically.

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And it was pretty heartbreaking.

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

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ten cadetships on offer at the ABC.

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

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and she's got curiosity

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

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beautiful brodcast voice

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

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

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

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There were tears. Pretty happy.

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

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

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work and I couldn't have asked for anything more

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During her cadetship, Nas Campanella reported in the field,

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

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newsroom, Bega, New South Wales.

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Nas Campanella is the first ABC cadet journalist who is blind

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

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

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

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hasn't got their sight.

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

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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.

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It's a dream come true really