Deafblind Conference 2024 - Meet the speakers
Our panel of world class speakers are ready to share their stories, experience, and insight into deafblindness.
Lord David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a UK politician, who moved from being the leader of England’s fourth largest city (Sheffield) to become the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside in 1997. Having served in the Shadow Cabinet under the Labour leadership of John Smith and Tony Blair, he joined the incoming government in 1997, and served for 8 years in Tony Blair’s Cabinet. He held the posts of Education and Employment Secretary, Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. After leaving government, David worked with a number of key charities, as well as advising on issues as diverse as cyber security, education and skills. As a former board member of the National Citizens Service Trust, he has had a long-standing interest in citizenship education and the wellbeing of young people. More recently, David led on the production of a major report on the future of education and skills for the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir Starmer. He has a number of advisory posts including being an adviser on public policy and internal understanding of government and policy development to DLA Piper LLP; and to Heathrow Ltd in respect of their Sustainable Economic Growth Taskforce.
Rebecca Atkinson | Executive Producer and Creator of Mixmups. Founder of Arts and Play organisation Toy Like Me
Rebecca Atkinson is a writer and Executive Producer for children’s television. She is the creator of the Milkshake! Channel 5 pre-school series, Mixmups and the founder and co-director of Toy Like Me, a non-profit arts and play organisation celebrating the representation of disability in children’s industries. In 2015 Rebecca founded the viral Toy Like Me campaign to call on the global toy industry to better include 150 million disabled children worldwide. The campaign led to a sea change in representation and the availability today of a range of disabled toys including Lego mini-figures with hearing aids and Mattel’s Barbie available with a white cane. Rebecca has Usher Syndrome and is joining the Deafblind UK Conference to share her story of combining the journey of sight and hearing loss with a successful career in children’s media.
Mirko Baur | President, Deafblind International
Mirko Baur is President of Deafblind International DbI. He studied special needs education, German and philosophy and has training as an NPO manager, coach and in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). He is co-founder of the Swiss project deafblindinclusion.ch and of a consultancy network for DEI in personal and organisational life: fullrainbow.ch. Mirko's talk presents the worldwide network of Deafblind International DbI, taking a stand for the need of collaboration across organisations, countries, cultures and continents, embracing diversity and promoting equity and inclusion. As an example, the talk introduces DbI's Global Education Campaign.
Asia Alexander-Smith | Deafblind UK member and Graphic Designer
Asia is one of an estimated 400,000 people in the world with Usher syndrome. Against all odds, she also happens to be a full-time graphic designer. Born in 1998, Asia was diagnosed with severe bilateral sensorineural deafness and was given bilateral hearing aids at 11 months old, before later receiving a diagnosis of Usher syndrome at the age of 19. As a self-confessed non-expert, she is keen to share her experiences – the positives and the negatives – of living life as a young adult with Usher syndrome, in the hopes that it will help even one person.
Kate Morgan-Clare | Creative Producer, Oriel Davies Gallery
Kate Morgan-Clare is an artist and creative producer and has worked in the arts since 2007. She has exhibited her work in Wales and the Midlands and is part of an artists collective called Fold - a peer support group. Kate's considers her work as an artist and Creative Producer at Oriel Davies Gallery as all part of her creative practice. She is passionate about engaging people with the arts and inclusivity and access are really important to Kate. Working amongst a great team of people, with fantastic partners and a lovely community makes this an amazing job to have.
Sian Elvin | Journalist and Deafblind UK Volunteer
Sian has been volunteering for Deafblind UK since the pandemic and has been speaking to her lovely befriendee on the phone every week for almost four years now. She lives in London and is a journalist for The Independent website, working as a news editor on current affairs and politics. She is also a mental health first aider and was named an 'LGBTQ+ trailblazer' by Attitude magazine in 2024. Sian will discuss the role of volunteering and how deafblindness is represented in the media.
Susan Davies | Senior Vision Rehabilitation Specialist, Powys County Council
Susan been a Vision Rehabilitation Specialist since 1999 and still loves the role that enables her to support people with sight loss to maintain independence. She works for a local Authority Social Services department in a rural area of Wales, within a small and very dedicated Sensory team.
Arthur Theil | Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction, Birmingham City University
Dr Arthur Theil is a Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction at Birmingham City University, where he joined the College of Computing and teaches topics around digital accessibility, assistive technologies and user experience design. His primary research interests include the design of accessible interactive systems and understanding how to support users with diverse and complex needs through inclusive technologies. Arthur’s recent research on accessible games for Deafblind gamers received the Best Academic Research Award during the IGDA Game Accessibility Conference (2022) and his research on co-designing wearable haptic technologies with Deafblind people received the People’s Choice Award during the ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020).
Natalie Bowers | Support Worker, Deafblind UK
Natalie has worked with people who are deafblind for nearly 15 years, with extensive experience in supporting people who have acquired deafblindness. Natalie will explore the role that support workers have in enabling people who are deafblind to be who they want to be, and express themselves freely in society. She will also talk about the importance of communication and access to information to achieve this.
Asif Hussain | Trustee, Deafblind UK
Asif has spent his career promoting dignity and independence for people with disabilities, having worked for various charities and co-founding the Asian Disability Network (now Bradnet). He has always tried to ensure that barriers are removed so that disabled people of all communities are empowered and enabled to achieve choice and control over their lives. More recently, Asif has was a member of the Board of Directors of Disability Rights UK (formerly RADAR), before becoming the Chair in 2015. In his free time, Asif enjoys walking, reading, socialising with friends and family and bonding with his first grandson!
Roger Wilson-Hinds | Trustee, Deafblind UK
Roger has severe sight and hearing challenges. He holds a first degree in Economics and Sociology and a Masters in Psychology and has spent a lifetime career in education, employment and technology. Most of Roger's working life has been spent with special needs children and adults. Until recently, he ran a disability computer training company and knows firsthand the value of appropriate technology and the role of volunteering as game-changers in the lives of deafblind people.
Dr. Chris Bailey | Senior Accessibility Manager, HSBC
Dr. Christopher Bailey is a Senior Accessibility Manager at HSBC where he has been in position since 2020. He has 20 years’ experience working on the development of accessible digital technology and investigating social aspects of digital inclusion, presenting his work at several international conferences.
Annette Bodsworth | Member, Deafblind UK
Annette has lived with Usher syndrome for more than seven decades. She has an infectous passion for life and never stops learning, she loves people and her guide dogs! Annette is passionate about raising awareness of deafblindness and often supports Deafblind UK's awareness talks.
Emma Boswell | National Usher Co-ordinator, Deafblind UK
Emma manages the Usher Service at Deafblind UK. She is also the chair of the Deafblind International Usher Network and the UK ambassador for the Usher Coalition in America. Emma holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Deafblind Studies. She is married with two teenagers, loves travel, good food and the odd gin and tonic! As a person with Usher, Emma has first-hand experience of the challenges faced and also what can be achieved. She is passionate about working with other deafblind people, to make sure they feel empowered and to ensure that deafblind people have as much access to information and support available as possible. Emma loves engaging with deafblind people, here in the UK and across the world.
Stella Kamangirira | Senior Practitioner Dual Sensory Loss, Enabled Living Healthcare
Stella is a Senior Practitioner for Dual Sensory loss at Enabled Living in Newham. She is currently the interim manager of the Sensory Team. Stella is a qualified Deafblind Specialist, Orientation and Mobility Specialist, a qualified teacher for the Visually Impaired, a Braille Teacher and Level 1 BSL signer. She has been working in the field of Sensory Impairment over 30 years.
Deborah Dalton | Visitor Experience Manager, Oriel Davies Gallery
Deborah began working at ODG in 2014 as a volunteer, then Gallery guide whilst studying Fine Art at Glyndwr University and continued studies at MA where research focused on sensory/visual impacts through Autism Spectrum Disorder. As a neurodiverse light sensitive artist my work explores the visual impacts of ASD. In 2019 Deborah became Visitor Experience Manager and accessibility is something she is passionate about and a core part of her work.