‘Of course blind people can cha cha!’
It’s the biggest talking point of this year’s Strictly (well, apart from Paul Merson’s sparkling leopard print trousers from week two, which we need in our wardrobe). The show’s first blind contestant, comedian Chris McCausland, has been wowing viewers with his Saturday night moves, from knee slides to leaping off benches.
Social media is fascinated by how Chris's professional partner, Dianne Buswell, teaches him the complex dance moves. Apparently, it involves a lot of description and Chris getting down on his hands and knees to feel what Diane's feet are doing in the training room. On the night itself, Dianne is constantly talking to him and giving audio cues.
But while the response has been overwhelmingly positive, it's also shown there’s still a lack of understanding of what blind and visually impaired people can do, given the opportunity. As Chris himself has said, he wanted to do the show “more for everybody watching it who maybe isn’t exposed to somebody who’s blind in their life, who has got these antiquated views.
“It’s showing that we’re capable of more than people imagine.”
GH spoke to Lucy Edwards, a presenter, content creator and author who lost her sight at 17 due to a rare genetic disease named Incontinentia Pigmenti, about what it means to have a blind person breaking down the barriers – dressed head-to-toe in sequins – every Saturday night.
“I’m a massive Strictly fan,” she tells us. “I used to watch it before I lost my eyesight, and then there was a period when I couldn’t (it was ‘just music’ as Chris says), until audio description became available. Because I used to be an avid viewer, I'm able to piece it together with the description. I know the dance moves, so it’s fun for me to hear them.”
What has having Chris on the show meant to her? “I love dancing and Chris being on it,” she says. “Chris was actually the first person I interviewed as a journalist for the BBC, so I’m so proud of him.
“He’s being the representation we love to see. He's demystifying it. We lost our eyesight, not our ability to do anything else. Through no fault of our own, our eyes don't work, but we're okay. We just need to do things in a different way to achieve the same goal. Having footage of Chris with shin pads on, joking with Diane, it's just normal, isn't it? It's normalising blindness.”
Lucy has a combined social media following of over 2.8 million and her content has been viewed over one billion times. She first became known for her video series where she explains how she does everyday things as a blind person, from perfecting her signature winged liner and organising her wardrobe to how she cast her vote independently in the general election. Like Chris, she wanted to demystify the experience of blind and visually impaired people.
“Back when I lost my sight in 2014, there was no representation,” she recalls. “That’s why I started my YouTube channel. Then my TikTok blew up in 2020 during lockdown.
“People were just trying to understand how I manage my day to day life. We don't know anything about disability until we become disabled ourselves. But I wanted to show that it’s the world around us that needs fixing, not us as disabled people, we are absolutely fine. There’s this perception that we can't do things. That’s what Chris is demystifying, and that's what I do with my videos. I didn't stop being Lucy just because I lost my vision.”
As for whether she welcomes the questions, she’s ambivalent. “I do hope we can get to a place where we don't have to ask, “How does a blind person pour a cup of tea?”, or those kinds of things. Because everyone would have a baseline knowledge. But if someone has never come across a blind person, I’m happy that they ask. Because I didn't know it; I learned on the job.
“Then once you’re an ally, you educate yourself, so you’ll know that a blind person can dance, they can be the CEO or run their own company like me. They can do all of these things. Basically, once you know it, you should know it.
“People are still asking those questions, like “How do you read a menu?”, or “How are you going to be a good mother?”. (She’s currently on an IVF journey with her husband, Ollie.) “I think it’s because there is that fundamental knowledge gap.”
“We’re still seeing those ‘inspiration porn’ headlines about Chris, for example,” Lucy continues. Coined by disability activist and comedian Stella Young, ‘inspiration porn’ refers to instances where disabled people are portrayed in the media as inspirational for simply being able to live with their disability.
“Yes, he didn’t just get out of bed; he can dance and he is doing something groundbreaking as the first blind person on Strictly, but it's also just normal,” Lucy says. “I think what’s so amazing about Chris is that people are just seeing him as a cool guy, not as a blind person, and that's the whole point.”
Would she do Strictly? “1000 per cent! There have been chats,” she says coyly.
“I want to be the first blind person in heels on the Strictly dance floor!”
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