Dean Thompson

How I got here, host of the Heard & Empowered podcast, is circuitous and somewhat interesting. I lost most of my vision at age 14, well before I or most Cincinnati doctors knew much at all about inherited retinal vision loss, let alone my own condition, Stargaard’s. In fact, I went 10 years or more before being “officially” diagnosed at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. As a result, I spent at least half my nearly 78 years ignoring or denying that I have between 5% and 10% usable vision, which I believe led to my career in film and television.

I went to college to be a disc jockey, having spent my last two years in high school figuring how to exist in society with reduced vision. I felt a career in radio would be wise for a glib, somewhat funny person who is blind. Then the University of Cincinnati built a TV studio in my senior year and I found “radio with pictures” was even more fun. In fact, learning the basics of my craft at the college level turned out to be terrific. No one sat me down and advised me that a career in the visual arts might not be the wisest marketing move for someone with my condition. To begin with, they would have been right.

Unable to get any employment in southwest Ohio, where public transit was and remains a theory, I took a job in New York City, where most locals consider a car to be an afterthought. Here I have thrived, mostly producing, directing, and interviewing in TV, which proves that television, like most industries, is a team sport. This is a point I continue to stress with anyone I meet who has a visual issue, regardless of what career path they take.