In episode 343 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Niamh Hughes.
Niamh is a freelance journalist, producer, presenter and voiceover artist.
Niamh also happens to have a disability called Congenital Hemiplegia, which is a form of unilateral cerebral palsy. The disability only affects the right side of her body, so she can’t use her right hand and has to type with one hand.
Prior to going freelance, Niamh worked for many years at the BBC and worked as a reporter and producer on the BBC’s accessibility outlet and brand, Access All, then called BBC Ouch.
In Part 1 of this bumper episode, we chart Niamh’s journalism journey and how she was inspired to get involved in it by previous podcast guest Izzie Clarke!
We then discuss how she got her foot in the door at the Beeb, the various roles she’s done in her very impressive career so far, including BBC Ouch, Newsnight’s ‘The 100 Women’ programme, BBC News, her decision to leave the Beeb in March 2025 and the challenges of going freelance.
In Part 2, we discuss her diagnosis of Congenital Hemiplegia and how she managed it from being a young child, through to adolescence and adulthood.
We explore how her acceptance of it came alongside her acceptance of herself as a person, and so many other challenges.
We also talk about the normalisation of disabilities more widely and what still needs to change going forward to support disabled people, wherever they are on the spectrum and whatever disability they may have, physical or mental.
As always, #itsokaytovent
You can find out more about Niamh’s work here.
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