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Hi everyone we’re live here with
Damon Rose from BBC Ouch!

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And we’re just gonna have a little
chat with him and share with you all

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-Hi Damon
Hello

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-Thanks for joining us today
-Thanks for coming to our country

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-Yes 
-It’s all brighter for it.

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[Laughter]
Thank you, it’s been quite lovely actually

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So, we can just get right into it. 
Maybe you could tell us

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how you started BBC Ouch!

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How did we start it? So, it all 
started with a meeting some years ago.

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I think it was back in about 2001, 
we had a TV show on national station BBC2

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Which was a disability magazine show
that was on every week

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and it was filmed at the time the internet
was beginning to grow.

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[inaudible]

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And it could be a two way conversation

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It was a bit like the website Ouch!
which was always a little bit different.

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[inaudible]

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Very keen not to be wordy


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[inaudible]

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We wanted to do disability at the time
in the way that disabled mates might talk

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about it down at the pub. 
You know, that sort of thing.

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So we set it up.

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[inaudible]

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And that went on 8 or 9 years
when we went on to BBC news,

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we took one leg of what we were doing,
which was the journalism side of things

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and we concentrated on that and kept 
the podcast as well, which we do

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[inaudible]

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So that's where we are these days.
-And you're happy with the way things are going?

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Yeah but I'm standing in the BBC foyer
so if I wasn't happy

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I wouldn't be telling you.
[Laughter}

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But I am.

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Good. 
Good, so how did the name come to you?

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The name literally, I know people say this
literally did come to me in the shower.

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One morning we had, oh goodness,
the idea of coming up with a name

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for a disability website,
is a bit of a nightmare

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for any kind of disability project.


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We desperately wanted, 
forgive me,

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but we didn't want anything with the word
"able" in it, for instance, because

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it was such a, people do it a lot.
Every single disability project

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is "able" this, "able" that, work "able",
media "able", radio "able".

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Whatever, you know.
So I was keen not to go through that

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and I wanted something that had a bit of
attitude as well.

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I'm trying to think of other things
we went through at the time.

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Some of the ideas are probably 
worth dwelling on a bit.

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Some of the names we came up with

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as we went along, I remember at one point,
when our working title was

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Disability Noodle, I don't know where that

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came from. 
[Laughter]

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Someone in the marketing
department once decided

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that a good name for it might be
"I Dance to my Own Song"

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and you sit there and you think,
that's a bit floaty

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It's a bit, I don't know, pretentious
or something

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[Laughter]
Don't know how that one came about

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but people come at disability from all 
sorts of different angles, don't they.

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Clearly. 
Someone even suggested that "Minefield"

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might be a really good name for Ouch!
because people think of it as, you know,

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you can't say this, you can't say that.
It's a bit of a minefield.

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But, then we of course, had to point out
that there's plenty of disabled people

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that were unfortunately disabled in
minefields.

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So, perhaps it wasn't the best title.
[Laughter}

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So, what would you call a new disability 
website, Leah, that's what I want to know.

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I would, just a period. 
I don't know. I think you guys did a

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great job with what you came up with.
I think it's perfect.

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Thank you very much.
-Yeah, absolutely.

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-Can you think of the most memorable
reaction you've gotten from an audience

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or listener?
Most memorable?

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-Yeah, anything that really
stands out to you?

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-Funny, negative, positive, something that
just pops in your head.

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Oh, yeah, things aren't popping into my
head right now.

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I mean, it's always nice when we hear, 
we get people now, course,

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podcast's been running 10 years,

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but we get people who say,
"you changed our life with your podcast.

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We've never heard disabled voiced in that
way before."

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We had created a kind of radio show, that
had never been done before, in that way

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and it was really out there and really
said, horrible things some times but

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you know, quirky things and amusing things
and it had a but of an attitude so a lot

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of people have written to us over the
years and said if it wasn't for the

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podcast we wouldn't have the same kind of
self-esteem we have now and we wouldn't

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really have gone down certain roads to
becoming happy, really.

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Which is, you know, very exciting.
I don't know if everybody thinks like that

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I'm sure they don't, but some are 
particularly gratifying.

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They've happened. I guess that's why we do
this disability media stuff, isn't it?

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-Sure. Change attitudes, bring awareness. 
Yeah.

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-So, anything else you want to add because
I am pleased with our chat.

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[Laughter]
What else can I add?

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Well, if anybody wants to come see
our stuff, it's bbc.co.uk/ouch

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We do podcast, video, articles, you know.
-Wonderful. Thanks for joining us.

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Thank you.
-Yeah.