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	TX: 22.05.08 - Murray Walker - What disability means to him PRESENTER: LIZ BARCLAY

	Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 91훑괵 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. BARCLAY Now he was the voice of Formula 1 racing, standing next to the roaring engines and shouting into the microphone. In his 50 year career Murray Walker covered 100 - covered hundreds of grand prix races and was exposed to noise levels in the pits which reached 120 decibels, just 85 decibels can damage hearing. Now in his 80s he recently began to sport two digital hearing aids. In the fourth of a series of interview in which we ask people to ponder on what having a disability means to them he talked to Carolyn Atkinson. WALKER I am literally an old man and I have been exposed to very, very noisy racing engines - motorcycles and cars - literally all my life. Everybody's hearing deteriorates as they get older but mine deteriorated more than most. ATKINSON Just explain how, if you can, being heavily exposed to very loud noises actually damaged your ears. WALKER Well I don't know the actual physical characteristics of the damage it does but I can tell you the result of it. You get your wife moaning at you about the fact that the television is too loud and this creates an in-house social problem. If you are in an environment where there's a lot of background noise you cannot hear clearly enough what the person you're talking to is saying. This creates a psychological problem because you don't want to admit that you can't hear them all the time by saying pardon, can you speak a bit louder I can't hear you very well. So you find yourself saying yes or no and hoping that it's the right answer or grinning inanely at them. ATKINSON Do you think deafness or loss of hearing is still a stigma because they still make jokes about it don't they, they don't make jokes about wheelchair users anymore? WALKER Yeah, which is worse - the "embarrassment" of wearing a hearing aid or the embarrassment of not being able to hear? I don't feel embarrassed about the fact that I wear a hearing aid which can be seen anymore than I believe someone should feel embarrassed about the fact that they wear glasses. ATKINSON I'm interested in your idea about the acceptability that it's still not quite okay to wear a hearing aid. WALKER Regrettably it is seen by some people as an indication of the fact that you're not quite up to pace. But there's no reason why it should be seen that way and I think it will be seen less and less that way - more and more people are wearing hearing aids these days and when you think of the number of people who are walking round with a blue tooth thing, seemingly screwed into the side of their head, it's not stigmatic anymore I don't think. ATKINSON Talk me through, if you would, the sensation of hearing in the context of when you're commentating - the thrill of the whole race isn't just seeing what the cars are doing, it's hearing them as well. WALKER Well the first thing to appreciate is that when I am commentating I am standing up, not sitting down, I'm in a state of extreme agitation and excitement because I'm watching something which to me is tremendously exciting and I am wanting to communicate to the people who are watching what it is that's exciting about it all. I am listening to what is going on, in terms of the cars going round the circuit through a pair of headphones, through which a producer also speaks to me and through which I also hear my fellow commentator. And hearing is not a problem at all because you've got a volume control and you can turn it up ad infinitum. ATKINSON I wasn't getting necessarily that it wasn't a problem, it's just how crucial is the sensation of hearing? WALKER It's absolutely essential. Motor sport, like it or not, I do, a lot of people don't, is a tremendously noisy sport. Noise is part of the excitement and the satisfaction that you get from watching racing motorcycles and racing motorcars and I would hate ever for them to have to be silenced. It adds dramatically to the excitement and invigoration of the whole thing. ATKINSON As you lost things that must have been extremely worrying? WALKER Had I lost my hearing altogether my enjoyment, my passion in life, which is motor sport would have been dramatically reduced and it would have been 50% of the enjoyment that I get out of it gone. ATKINSON Do you consider deafness to be a disability? WALKER Of course I do, it is a very definite disability. It prevents you from communicating as well as you can do if you've got normal hearing. Life is about communication, we communicate through seeing people, we communicate through the power of speech, we communicate through being able to hear. The human animal is, if not unique, more advanced than any other species, as far as I know and if you can't communicate properly you can't live life to the full. If you can't hear music, if you can't hear voices, if you can't talk to people an awful lot of the quality of life has been taken away from you. ATKINSON To go one stage further - would you consider yourself disabled? WALKER Yes I would. Not being able to hear is literally a state of being disabled - you are not able to hear as well as you could do and should do. So yes I would regard myself as being disabled. ATKINSON Just talking about the hearing aids themselves. If you take both hearing aids out what can you hear? WALKER I can hear provided the volume is up enough but I do not hear with the sharpness and the clarity that you do with hearing aids. And let me give you an example. I listen to the Today programme in the morning when I am getting up. I go into the bathroom and I'm shaving without the hearing aids because I don't want to get water in them. So I then go to my bedroom and I put the hearing aids in and switch them on and immediately and dramatically get a gigantic improvement in clarity and balance, it's literally like throwing a switch. I think it would unreasonable to say that any hearing aid can return your hearing to absolutely 100% because you've lost something which you can never get back but it can replace an awful lot of what you've lost. ROBINSON Murray Walker was talking to Carolyn Atkinson. What I miss most since he retired is some of those famous Murrayisms like ... and I interrupt myself to bring you this. BARCLAY My favourite is: And here comes Damon Hill in the Williams, this car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it which is exactly the same. ROBINSON You can't even know what he meant by that. BARCLAY And you can hear Murray Walker again and listen to previous contributors to our what disability means to me series, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, through our website. Back to the Transcripts homepage Back to the You and Yours homepage The 91훑괵 is not responsible for external websites

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