Season 3 Ep 3: Tossing it with Minnie Baragwanath

Minnie is keen to see how many more versions her book ‘Blindingly Obvious’ can be turned into; she foresees an avatar signing, a pictorial version, even live performance. All notions that have accessibility, inclusivity and collaboration prioritised front and centre.

A sudden health crisis propelled her to begin writing the book, a process that is quite different for someone who is unable to see a page or computer screen properly. She luckily learnt to touch type from a young age as soon as her vision diagnosis was made, and was assisted by an adaptive software called Jaws that enables you to hear your text back, as well as Zoom Text which magnifies what's written. 

Minnie is not unaccustomed to figuring out her own way to succeed. She started a food truck, worked in broadcasting, and is now a CEO of a social enterprise. When asked where her tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit comes from, she replies “there was always a sense of trying to make my own fortune. When something shuts off to me, I've gotten good at scanning the horizon line to find some other way to achieve whatever the goal has been in my mind. Not being confined to seeing one way of doing things. How much is conditioning or in my DNA, I'm not sure.”

There's some frustration in the book at how limited advancement has been in the area of access, and justifiably so. “The disability sector is the most innovative in the world, and yet we're undervalued in employment and opportunities.” Disability employment rates have hardly changed since Minnie was 20, and this promotes anxiety about what roles one can fill. 25% of the population lives with a disability.

Minnie developed the WITH concept as a means of connecting others who were consistently pushing at the edges like she was. She liked the idea of designing something with a community rather than to, or for a community. The word stems from midwifery and childbirth; the action of supporting safe birth and passage from one place to another. Minnie advocates being conscious, conscientious and intentional about wanting change to happen, and through her work as an access warrior in NZ and internationally, “I'm trying to only work with others who are with me.”

We're certainly with you Minnie, congratulations on your book launch and we look forward to keeping up with your endeavours in the future.

---

Buy Blindingly Obvious

New Podcast