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Nas Campanella, ABC’s National Disability Affairs reporter, is changing the way we think about disability.
Joined by her husband, fellow journalist Thomas Oriti, on The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast, Nas speaks on the casual ableism she experiences every day as a vision-impaired person.
Who is Nas Campanella?
Nas Campanella has been a journalist for the ABC since 2011. She met her husband, ABC Sydney Drive presenter Thomas Oriti, during a cadetship in Bega. In fact, they met because she was taking over his job in regional NSW. Today, they share a 4-year-old son, Lachie.
The disability reporter has been sightless since she was six months old, due to a rare condition where the retina tears away from the eye. Nas also suffers from Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a neurological disorder that affects her motor and sensory neurons. This means she can’t read Braille.
Despite these physical and mental obstacles, Nas was the first blind newsreader in the world to read and operate the studio live on air.
What is ableism?
According to People with Disability Australia, ableism is “discrimination that favours ‘able-bodied’ people, or people without disability.”
While Nas Campanella has undoubtedly challenged ableist perceptions, she says the stigma has definitely affected how she has viewed herself as a working professional, wife, and mother.
On The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast, Nas shared that she didn’t think that she’d meet anyone who would fall in love with her, let alone want to have children with her, because of her disability.
“As someone, for me, who’s had constant ableism throughout my life… That’s what happens when you have that constantly thrown at you.”
How might you be doing it?
Speaking on the Love Stories podcast, Nas and Tom highlighted that most instances of ableism they experience as a family are not malicious. Instead, people usually express casual ableism because they are not used to talking to someone with a disability.
People constantly make assumptions about what Nas is capable of, particularly as a mother. Tom shared that people often assume he carries most of the parenting responsibilities simply because he is able-bodied.
This is one of the reasons that Nas feels stubborn about being out in public together as a family despite what others might think. “We need to be seen,” says Nas. “Otherwise, we’ll never change that stigma and that stereotype.”
Nas also said that she loved talking to children about her disability, and implored parents to let their kids come up to her and ask questions.
“Let them ask, let them look, let them be curious,” she says. “The minute you stop children from doing that is the minute they become scared, and [people with disabilities] are othered.”
From finding love in Bega, to raising their son, Nas Campanella and Thomas Oriti reflect on their journey together so far on The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast.
Watch the episode here:
