Narelle Gatti (R)
A computer programmer who lost her sight at 42 rebuilt her life by treating obstacles as problems to solve, not identities to accept.
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At 42, Narelle Gatti lost her eyesight in 15 minutes. She was a computer programmer working with mapping tools, a mum of three sons in Brisbane's outer suburbs, and the person who drove her family across Queensland to visit relatives on properties where there was no public transport. The eye test that diagnosed her as legally blind also ended her driving. Overnight, everything shifted: school runs, sports practice, grocery shopping, uniform fittings, medical appointments. All of it had to be solved again from scratch.
Narelle grew up on a cattle property without electricity until she was 12. Her childhood taught her to make do, to problem-solve when there was no shop, no power, no easy answer. That same skill saved her family. She taught her sons there was more than one way to skin a cat, and when she lost her sight, she lived that lesson. She relearned cooking, relearned cleaning, bought food in bulk so her husband could manage the shopping, and took the school bus to parent-teacher meetings. When panic attacks came, she cried in the shower, then rang her sister or her closest friend Jude to talk her through it. Her husband held her steady. Her sons stepped up and learned to cook and clean without complaint.
Today Narelle creates The Digital Access Show, a podcast that features people living with disabilities who work full-time and thrive. She teaches digital accessibility standards and tells people how to treat someone with a disability: say hello, use their name, don't stare, don't assume, don't ask intrusive questions. Treat them like everyone else. She also tells older Australians they have the right to ask for paper, to refuse email and smartphones, and to demand their preferred way of communicating if a business wants their money. Never be ashamed of who you are, she says. Frame it as a challenge, not a barrier. Asking for help is nothing to hide.
“There's two things you can do in life when you face something, an obstacle. You can turn it into a barrier, sit in the corner and cry. Or you can turn it into a challenge. Stand up and say, okay, how am I going to fix this? I choose to make it a challenge. I choose to laugh. And it is a choice.”
“I had no field. I could see directly ahead, which is why I was having car accidents and falling over chairs and everything else. I was actually legally blind to all intents and purposes.”
“Everything that I was doing as a mum, as a wife, had to change because I couldn't do it.”
The hero, today
Narelle lost her eyesight at 42 and went from driving her three sons across Queensland for school and sports to catching buses and relying on friends for basic tasks like school uniforms, and she had to problem-solve every single day just to keep her family fed and on track. She taught her sons that there is more than one way to do everything, from sweeping a floor to cooking dinner, and that lesson became the core of how she survived losing her sight: if you cannot do it one way, find another way. Narelle's hardest moments came in the shower where she could cry privately, and she leaned on her sister, her friend Jude, and her husband to talk her through panic attacks and remind her she could get on with it. People with disabilities do not want to be stared at or asked intrusive questions; they want to be treated like everyone else, spoken to like a normal person, and have the courtesy of being told someone's name so they know who is talking to them. Narelle created The Digital Access Show to feature people living with disabilities who work full-time and thrive, so that others struggling with shame or isolation know they are not alone and that other people in the world do want them in the community. Older Australians have the right to ask for information on paper, to refuse email or smartphones, and to insist that businesses meet them in their preferred way of communicating if they want their money.
Yes. Narelle Gatti (R) is a real person who shared their own story in their own words. Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit that shares first-person stories of overcoming adversity, told with the person's consent.
Kintsugi Heroes, a registered Australian not-for-profit. Every story is shared with the hero's own consent and reviewed under Kintsugi Heroes' trauma-informed content standard before it goes public.
Narelle lost her eyesight at 42 and went from driving her three sons across Queensland for school and sports to catching buses and relying on friends for basic tasks like school uniforms, and she had to problem-solve every single day just to keep her family fed and on track.
She taught her sons that there is more than one way to do everything, from sweeping a floor to cooking dinner, and that lesson became the core of how she survived losing her sight: if you cannot do it one way, find another way.
Narelle's hardest moments came in the shower where she could cry privately, and she leaned on her sister, her friend Jude, and her husband to talk her through panic attacks and remind her she could get on with it.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 00:00
This limited Kintsugi Heroes podcast series was made possible through grant funding provided by the New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice Connecting Seniors Grant Program. If you'd like to find out more about Kintsugi Heroes, head to kintsugiheroes.com.au. Welcome to our Kintsugi Heroes special series, Connecting Seniors, where we share the experiences of aging Australians to create connections across our communities. In this episode of Connecting Seniors, we're revisiting a conversation from Kintsugi Heroes with a senior who is making an impact on the world or connecting with their community. This week, we hear Kerry Atherton's chat with Narelle Gatti.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 00:50
In 15 minutes, when Narelle was 42, her life changed forever when she lost her eyesight. Narelle Welcome to Kintsugi Heroes.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 01:01
Thank you, Kerry. Thank you so much for having me. 15 minutes? Yeah, probably was. Yeah. I don't remember the time. I just remember it happened so quickly.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 01:11
I know when you told me about that, I was just astonished at how quickly everything just changed for you. But before we talk about that day, could you take us back and share what life was like before that? Cause I know that you were working in a role that where your, your eyesight was imperative for that role. And so, so much would've changed. But if you can take us back and just give us a snapshot of what life was like before that, and then lead into what happened that day, then we'll hear the amazing things that you've been doing since to help raise awareness of the great need for communication and making things accessible for people that are struggling with disabilities.
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People with disabilities do not want to be stared at or asked intrusive questions; they want to be treated like everyone else, spoken to like a normal person, and have the courtesy of being told someone's name so they know who is talking to them.
This conversation includes welcome to connecting seniors, life before the eye test, the work that needed her sight, the optometrist's diagnosis, everything shifts overnight and what growing up on the property taught her.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 01:56
Oh, thanks, Gary. Yeah, look, I'm a typical mum. When all this went down, my dad had died about 18 months prior. Um, I had my oldest son was in grade 8 or 9, I can't remember. My middle son would have been grade 7 or 8, and my youngest son would have been grade 4, grade 5. Obviously they're at school and I was working, my husband was working. We lived at, uh, a suburb of Brisbane where there wasn't much public transport, and that's important for what happened. And there was a train and there was buses about every half hour or so. Uh, we end— we lived at the end of a cul-de-sac. Um, we had quite a fair-sized block and yeah, we were just enjoying life. So to go and see my mum, I would hop in the car about 4 o'clock in the morning with the boys, my lad. And we would drive about 8 hours to Central Queensland. It's where Mum lived at the time. There was no public transport at all. Mum was still driving at that stage. And to go and see my sister, it was, um, 11 hours. And there is no public transport where my sister is either. My older brother, he lives at Rockhampton, so he wasn't as hard, but he was traveling out to where our cattle property is. I grew up on a cattle property and my younger brother, he was at Rockhampton, outside Rockhampton as well. And of course most of my family are all out bush where there is no public transport. Right.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 03:36
Wow.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 03:37
Yeah. Yeah. So we'd actually, yeah, we were living in a suburb north of, uh, Brisbane and having a lovely time. And I was working in Brisbane itself. I was working, uh, in the public service. I'm a computer programmer by trade, so I was writing code, cutting code, whatever you want to call it. And part of my work involved validation that required looking at maps, the tool called ESRI, um, and that is a mapping tool that you won't realize you're looking at, but you do see it all over the place. And it was validating And that's the way I had to validate and test my code, that the results we got were correct, because I could look at the maps and say, in essence, Road A connects to Road B. In essence, that's the very basic of what we were doing at the time. So yeah, thought was really important. And I started that job only about 3 months before, and I started having car accidents, which really threw me. And I thought, oh, something, you know, that car suddenly popped up. God, they were speeding. You know, it's what you assume. And then I started falling over chairs and I'm thinking, oh, for God's sake, what's going on? And I just got a new set of glasses and I went to my optometrist who also happened to be one of my good friends, basically said, Lisa, yeah, I think the glasses have got a problem. And she said, what do you mean? And I told her what happened. So she started doing, getting me to do a test. Called field, and it basically tests what you can see in the fact of, you know, where something is in space. It could be a tree over in the left corner or whatever it is. That's just an analogy. Basically, I had no field. I could see directly ahead, which is why I was having car accidents and falling over chairs and everything else. I was actually legally blind to all intents and purposes. So I'd driven there. My Lisa's husband went to get my husband, and from that moment on, I was never allowed to drive again legally, which means, you know, kids' sports, groceries, you name it, doctors, everything had to change. Even, you know, dropping the kids off and getting kids to and from school, everything, everything that I was doing as a mum, as a wife, had to change because I couldn't do it. Still worked. Yeah. I still did the cooking because I still had direct sight, but it explained a lot of things and it also changed my husband's life full on. It changed my kids' life full on because suddenly they had to step up and be more My kids had to be more responsible. My husband had to take over jobs that I did.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 06:34
Yeah.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 06:34
Because I couldn't drive the kids to footy practice or cricket practice or, you know, all of those things. I couldn't do any of it.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 06:43
Wow.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 06:43
There was no public transport. There was no, you know, it was impossible.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 06:48
You must have gone through so many emotions at that time when you had that realization that life was changing.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 06:56
Dramatically in a way, but because don't forget I have two autistic kids as well. They were all at school. Going home, it was, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what I'm gonna do? Get home with, okay, get dinner, get the homework done, make sure the clothes are ready. Yeah. All the normal mum stuff. Yeah. And then afterwards I had to say to my husband, oh, I can't remember which sport it was. The practice is on tomorrow. How are we gonna get them there?
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 07:24
Wow.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 07:26
And then it was, oops. Uh, so if it was football, well, hang on. We only had one car. Thank gosh we only had one car. And what we used to do was one of us to drive to the one game with the one kid, and we had two in one team and one in another. And that parent would stay with that child and the other would drive to wherever the other had to go. And now we couldn't even do that, and we had to do a lot of problem solving to try and fix the immediate problems very quickly, you know, just to get through the next day. After that, it was, what do we got to do the next day? Let's solve that one. And we just had to break it down. Being analysts probably helped. Yeah, but We didn't have— I, I didn't have the opportunity to grieve or anything because we had 3 kids and we— I was still mum, he was still dad, and we had to get them to what they needed to do. And I remember I rang a friend of mine that I was very close to and told her, and she went, oh, okay, what do you say? And she, she was brilliant, and, you know, she was actually At that time, we didn't realise that she was ill as well, and we just, we just had to problem solve very quickly to get things through. It was hard. It was— looking back, I just don't know how we did it. We just did it because we had no option.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 09:02
Narelle, do you think growing up on a property, because you said you grew up, um, on a cattle farm, Yeah, there's a lot of resilience in the background, isn't there, with farmers and their families? Do you think that that made an impact on how you were able to get through this hard time?
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 09:19
Yeah, I, I like what a friend once said: you're tough because your father was tough on you. But we didn't have electricity when I was growing up. We— I was 12, I think, when we got electricity. So I was used to a wood stove, kerosene kerosene lamps, generators. If we didn't have the generator on, we used the kerosene lamp. Um, we had kerosene fridges, kerosene heaters. We didn't have a shop, you know, the nearest shop was only covering the basics. So if you needed food, it was an hour away. So we made do, you know, we— Mum grew the veggies. We had to ration water in the dry time. You know, we had cattle, but you learnt to make do because that's what we had. And, and making do was probably our saving grace because, you know, even with the groceries, we just suddenly made sure we always had milk powder in the cupboard. So if I didn't have milk, well, we had milk powder. Yeah. If they didn't eat it, they'd get over it. Yeah. We, we just had to do things like that and we would shop. We always had like the spare packet of Weet-Bix, the spare whatever it was. Like, we would— we started buying meat. Well, I always bought meat in a bit of bulk, but we actually bought meat in bulk. We went and got a freezer because then we didn't have to worry about that so much. It was just easier. We bought bread in bulk, we bought milk in bulk, everything we just did in bulk. And then we— because then The food was there. If Mark couldn't go shopping, it didn't matter. The food was there. We just had to change. And really it was going back to what I grew up with in doing that. But clothes were an issue because, you know, kids growing outta their clothes really quickly. Uniform shop at school, I couldn't get to the uniform shop.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 11:13
I know. No, everything.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 11:14
I was really, yeah, I was reliant on friends. I would ring up this friend and she was actually running the uniform shop and I'd say, yeah, Pete's ran out of whatever, and she'd say, right, and she'd grab him and say, get in here, Peter. And he'd go, yes, Auntie Pauline. He used to call her his Auntie Pauline, and she'd sort it. And then she'd ring me and say, I've paid it, you owe me whatever. And that's how we had to do uniforms or, you know, it was everything. It wasn't just one thing because, you know, we had developmental pediatricians with our Asperger's boy. We had, you know, all the medical stuff that you have with kids. We had kids in braces. So the things we did to get around things, and back then there was no NDIS, there was no support for what I was going through. There wasn't any. Yeah. So you just made do and worked it out cuz you had no option.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 12:10
How did your kids cope with the changes, Narelle? Did it really impact them? I mean, I know it would've definitely impacted them, but How did they cope with that?
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 12:22
We brought them up to be independent anyway. We were really set that they would know how to clean and cook and everything else. So by that stage they knew how to cook and clean. And by that stage we'd already said, you're old enough to make a sandwich on a weekend, you're old enough to make your own lunch. So they were making their own lunches anyway. It came down to the, the homework became an issue. Yeah, because Mark got home a lot later than me, so I would catch the bus home, you know, catch a train, catch a bus, get home that way. And then I'd have to say to the boys, okay, I could still see in front of me, but they had to take on just a lot more responsibility. I was still doing the mowing. I still did most things. However, the more sight I lost, the more they had to pick things up and just run with it. So it became, I, it's sort of like a night blindness. I really struggled at night. So the boys had to, I would have the dinners cooked for the week. They would then have to cook veggies or cook some rice or cook some pasta, heat the meals up and set the table and those things. And they just had to do it. They wanted to eat, they had to do it. And they stepped in and I'm so lucky. And my husband just, just, he stepped in with the shopping and the footy training and the cricket and all of those things. He just had to do it, but it became too much. So the kids didn't get to do that in the end. They didn't ever work outside the home because with only one person with a license having to go and do the grocery shopping and do everything else, he couldn't then drive them to a job, pick them up, and all of those things. That had to stop. That— they never had those opportunities. It's impacted them that way. In saying that, they learned a lot of other skills. They never thought anything of Mum just can't see properly. Like, even to go for the parent-teacher meetings, I used to have to take the day off from work, and I used to catch the school bus with the kids. And that's how I got parent-teacher meetings. And the kids used to hate it, and so did the other kids, because I knew a fair few of the parents. So I'd be hopping on the school bus with all these kids that I knew the parents. It is Mrs. Daddy's on the bus. And, and I, 'cause I knew the bus driver, you know, it wasn't the biggest suburb, so I knew the people. And the teacher would meet me at the school and off we'd go. But the kids just, they're resilient. The kids are, we'd already taught them how to think outside the square, how to make do, how to be resilient. Mind you that they worked out how to talk their way out of things at school at times, but That was their choice and their consequence, and they had to live with that. They knew what they had to do.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 15:03
Yeah.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 15:03
You know, sometimes it's just what it was.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 15:06
Narelle, despite the fact that you had to just get on and be resilient and keep keeping on and keep the wheels rolling.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 15:15
Yeah.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 15:15
Did you ever have really hard days? And if so, what did you used to tell yourself to help you get through? Because there's a lot of people that'll be watching this that won't have lost their eyesight, but they'll be faced with something else that's really life-changing. And hearing from someone resilient like yourself will be really helpful for, for the person that's going through that.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 15:39
It was really hard. It, it, it was really hard. It was— I had to keep telling myself that I taught my especially my Asperger's son, we'd always taught them there's more than one way to skin a cat. There's more than one way to do something. Just because I can't do it one way doesn't mean there's not another way to do it. So like sweeping a floor, I would start missing because I didn't realize that I was missing. So I'd have to think, okay, so we got a better vacuum cleaner, and then I would take a step. Vacuum around that area, take a step. I had to relearn. And that's not just with that, it was with the cooking. I don't know how many times I've relearned how to do everything, but in the end I had a saying that was, if I don't mind, it don't matter. And then I had to convince myself that I don't mind. Oh, I love that. It came down to me having to say, well, I've got to do it. Yeah, I am still a mum. I am very much a wife, and those two roles are very, very important to me. I am a daughter, and that role is very important to me. I'm a sister. Yeah. And I am a friend, and they are an important role. So if I wanted to be there and have those people in my life— and don't get me wrong, I did cry. I did a lot of crying in the shower.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 17:11
I can imagine you would have.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 17:12
In the shower, not in front of the boys because I used to say to the boys, get over it, get on with it. You've gotta live.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 17:20
Is for the private time.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 17:23
Yeah, it was the private time. You know, or when they'd be at school, I'd ring my mum and say, oh my gosh. And my sister and my closest friend Jude, I've got a sister Jude and my closest friend Jude, and they became my saviors. I would start to have panic attacks and I'd ring my sister. And my sister would say, right, let's start breathing. And we breathe through it and say, right, I can do it now. Or if I couldn't get my sister, I'd ring my friend Jude and she'd be, it's okay, come on, stop it. Don't be stupid. Get on with it. And then came the day when Jude rocked up, my friend Jude rocked up to my place and said, sit down. And I said, yep. Had our cuppa and she said, I'm dying. I'm not gonna be here in 6 months. I said, what? And she told me, and she was dying. Oh. And she said, so losing your sight's nothing. You are taking on my girls as well now. And I said, yeah, they're my girls and they are still my girls. And so all the 6 kids, they just accept disability. I've got one of the girls has a lot of disability. Okay. And she's been taught to get on with it as well. Yeah. Um, but Jude, the two Judds got me through, my mum and my husband, cuz my husband would give me a hug and he'd say, it'll be right. Oh, get over it, it'll be right. But it's better to say get over it because there's two things you can do in life when you face something, an obstacle. You can turn it into a barrier, sit in the corner and cry. Yeah. Or you can turn it into a challenge. Stand up and say, okay, how am I going to fix this? How am I going to do it? I choose—
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 19:03
and laugh.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 19:04
You've got to laugh. Find the funny side in whatever it is. And I choose to make it a challenge. I choose to laugh. And it is a choice. I choose to get on with it.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 19:19
I, I just love your attitude so much and your resolve And what you're doing today, really, to pave the way and, and make a difference and stand up and be a voice for all those people that are struggling with disabilities. But not only that, to raise awareness and educate people in the community about how they should treat people who have a disability and how they shouldn't treat people who have a disability. Talk to us a bit about that and also tell us about your podcast, The Digital Access Show?
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 19:56
How to treat people with disability? Treat them like everyone else. To be honest, their disability is no one else's business. Don't ask them. I'm often asked, oh, like, I have a guide dog, and they'll say, are you training the dog? And I'll say, no, he is my guide dog. Oh, are you blind? Well, yes. There are degrees of blindness, but I just say yes. It's simpler. Ask, you know, go up and say g'day. Don't stare.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 20:26
Yeah, that's it.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 20:28
Say hi, Narelle. In my case, hi Narelle, it's Kerry. Or so I know who I'm speaking to, because if you just go hi Narelle, I've got no idea who I'm speaking to. And I talk to so many people each week, um, with the person that's down, just say G'day, how you going?
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 20:48
Yeah, to say hi.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 20:51
Yeah.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 20:51
And Kerry, because people who aren't vision impaired just take that for granted that, oh yeah, person knows who I am and who they're talking to. But yeah, always the case.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 21:02
And my biggest thing is don't assume anything.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 21:06
Yeah.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 21:06
Never assume. A person could be just having a really bad day and they may need time out, so they might just nod and keep walking. It's not rudeness. You don't know what's going on in their life. It might be they're deaf and can't hear you anyway. Yeah. It could be that they have their mind on something else completely and didn't notice you. It could be that they are incredibly shy. Yeah. Or they have anxiety. It could be so many reasons. But just say, you know, if, if they come up to you or You say, don't stare, just keep walking, because we are all normal. Everyone is normal. The person that has no hair is normal. The person that has a big nose is normal, or a person that has incredible height is still a normal person with feelings. So, you know, if you're in a room with them, just say, hi, I'm so-and-so, how you going today? How's your week been? Normal conversation. If they choose to tell you, they'll tell you. If they don't choose to tell you, that's fine because yeah, everyone's a person. And what I am doing, I've started a podcast called The Digital Access Show and it's related to everything I do now, which is telling people about the Digital Accessibility Standards, which are a set of standards maintained by Standards Australia, and it tells us how to set up all the digital content so that everyone, regardless of ability— actually, most people, regardless of ability— can access the information and understand it and read it. And it helps so many ways with just that mental lift that you are able to be yourself and be independent and not have to ask someone to read it or someone to ask you, what are they saying? Because I didn't hear that. These rules, these guidelines are there, and they're backed by the Human Rights Commission, they're backed by the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. So we decided to set up a podcast around all of that, and the theme is communication, usability, and accessibility in the digital world. Now we talk to people about the way they, they do things. A couple of weeks ago, it was this fantastic bloke called Patrick Dillon, and Patrick is the disability employment specialist who also happens to be a quadriplegic, works full-time. Yeah. And it's how he— the tools he uses Um, it's— we talked to a guy called Mark Muscat, and he's never had sight. He is a digital accessibility trainer and travels Australia doing it. Alan Parker, who's dyslexic, and he's a microbehavioral neuroscientist and forensic linguist.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 24:11
Wow.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 24:11
And he travels the world teaching mediation, negotiation, and working as a negotiation specialist and teaching communication. He loves neurolinguistics. Plasticity, big word. So how the brain works, it's just awesome stuff. And like Paula Burgess, who runs a business, and she's also got an ASD son, and the way that they work with him. And, um, Grace Cameron, who has a disability called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, POTS. So she runs a business lying on a bed 23 hours a day, but she can't stand for too long. Or Adam Morris, no sight, and he works full-time, and the tools that he uses and the challenges he has. Yeah, they're everywhere. Meryl Evans, who is a— she's deaf, she's hearing impaired, lives over in the US and does what I'm doing but over in the US.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 25:09
Wow.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 25:10
We looked at differences between the US and Australia. So it's all about communication and how people communicate and the digital tools that are out there that assist everyone really lets people know who are struggling with whatever it might be that they're not alone.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 25:28
Yeah, I think that's so important, isn't it, when people are struggling to know that they're not alone.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 25:35
They're not alone, Kerry. It— there are so many people out there that are really either embarrassed, and that's sad because they've got no need to be embarrassed. They are who they are, and it comes down to accepting yourself. That's the hardest issue. Or they feel that other people just don't get it, but again, it's learning. That's the other person's issue, that's not theirs. They go out, they be part of our society, be part of our community, because there are so many people people in the world that do want them.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 26:12
I love that, Narelle. And look, just something that I was thinking when you were sharing about the different guests that you have, but also what's happening for our older generation in this digital world. I know that so many of them are feeling absolutely hopeless because they can't understand the new ways that are of, of the way things are operating and So is your podcast something that could really benefit the older generation who have to kind of learn all over again, who probably are struggling with, you know, minor hearing loss and different things like that?
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 26:50
Yeah, it could. I would say to those people though, you know what, you've got the right to ask for the information in the way that you want it. It is your right. If they say email address, you say 'You don't have it. You need to send it to me on paper.' Right. They have that right, and they should exert that right. There is no law that says you have to have an email address if you don't want an email address. If you don't want a smartphone or feel that you can't use it, don't have it. Yeah, but, you know, things can still be done on paper. Because it is your preferred communication style. If the business wants your money, then that is your preference.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 27:40
Yeah, that's great.
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 27:42
That's great.
Narelle Gatti (R) (Guest) · 27:44
Well, as we come to a close, it's been such a delight to interview you today, and there's so much more we could talk about. Maybe we'll have to do a, a take two another time. Uh, what, what message would you like to leave with all of our viewers today?
Kerrie Atherton (Host) · 28:02
Never be ashamed of yourself. Never be ashamed of who you are because you know what? You can do what you need to do. Treat it as a challenge. It's never a barrier. Sometimes you may have to ask for help, and I've asked for help tons of times, and I will do it again. Because asking for help's nothing to be ashamed of. It's saying you need to learn something different. And for everyone that doesn't have a disability, we're all normal people. That's the bottom line. Thank you for listening to this episode of Connecting Seniors, a Conceivie Heroes special series. Thank you to Colin Lilly, for permission to use Broken as our theme music for this series. If you enjoyed this conversation, share the podcast with a friend and let us know by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd like to support Kintsugi Heroes and the stories we share, head to kintsugiheroes.com.au and follow the instructions to make a tax-deductible donation. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time.
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