Being Able

Disability can strike at any time. It can be there from the beginning, middle or end of life. Much like photography. Having a physical or mental condition that limits movements, senses, or activities, doesn’t mean the end of photographic aspirations. In some cases it can trigger the beginning. Advances in camera technologies have largely been positive for those with a disability. A wider understanding of what is needed has developed in support groups and charities. At the forefront is the Disabled Photographers’ Society (DPS), a registered charity formed in 1968 to help make photography accessible to those with disabilities. Run by a team of dedicated volunteers, many of whom are disabled photographers themselves, the DPS offer individual members adaptations, equipment, support and advice. They loan equipment free at the point of need and enable opportunities to meet like minded (and bodied) people through exhibitions, competitions, social media and their quarterly magazine, In Focus. I spoke to three individuals with differing disabilities that have all been assisted by the DPS.

Rais Hasan

Without surgery to treat a brain tumour, Rais was given a worst case scenario of four months to live. He chose surgery which was complicated, long and left him house bound for well over a year. The former Senior Manager at a Youth Service could no longer read or write. Post surgery was the beginning of a new life of survival. Unable to walk outside unaided, his family bought him a small digital camera for his 50th birthday and Rais started taking photos around the house as a diversion to daily struggles. He’d ask his sons where the photos were taken? More often than not, they didn’t know. Short walks into the countryside followed to develop his interest. Galvanised, Rais went on to college to complete a two year photography course. Only after he qualified did he mention his trouble with memory, reading and writing. Rais has gone on to achieve more letters after his name that are in it: ADPS, CPAGB and LRPS among them. He has been President of the Bradford Camera Club, crowned monochrome photographer of the year and had several images in this magazine and the press including a recent front page of the Bradford Telegraph and Argus. A decade on from his surgery, Rais remains on large doses of medication and still makes regular visits to the hospital specialising in the surgery he had. Poignantly, he now photographs on behalf of the Yorkshire Brain Tumour Charity, creating a memory for families of what they’ve gone through or the moments before. Rais’s disability isn’t immediately apparent but can compromise his photography. Post production is not always easy, he learns it, keeps pushing but the retention is bad. The weight of his Nikon cameras, usually a D810 with lenses, means he has to sit down after a while. He’s undeterred and sees the brain tumour as releasing a talent for photography that otherwise may have stayed hidden.

Paul Hinchliffe

Photography for Paul started when he got married, started seeing more of the world and progressed it as a serious hobby in 2006. Seven years ago he started to drastically lose his eyesight. Paul has no central vision of any detail and uses peripheral vision to do everything. This usable vision helps him to take photographs, he can see shapes and colours primarily and shadow. While glasses improve but don’t correct his vision, he feels he can see best through a camera lens. The camera autofocuses and he can zoom in and out of the image with his preferred Sony A7III (which upon release had one of the best autofocus systems) allowing Paul to capture his fast moving, young sons. Familiarity with his camera and menu system is key to dealing with poor vision, relying a lot on muscle memory to change the aperture or white balance without having to look. Paul has many colourful conversations about why he bothers taking photographs? For him it’s therapeutic, taking the image and even seeing the final image. Using a lot of magnification software allows him to examine details of an image he didn’t notice before and relive the experience of that coastal sunset all over again. Paul produces a photo-book each year documenting his children’s adventures to give to his parents and in-laws, uploading the photos from his iPad to the affordable Snapfish platform before using a computer to edit, save and print. When Paul first started to lose his sight, his wife took him along to The Photography Show and the support of the DPS. He advises anyone going through what he has or any other form of disability, to reach out and find someone to talk to.

 Lorraine Spittle

An injury at work in Lorraine’s teens triggered Spondylosis, a degenerative condition of the spine. Her youthful optimism that everything would be ok took a beating when she found herself struggling to grip or feel hot and cold with her fingers. The Spondylosis was further exacerbated the following decade in a car crash in 1987 (in which she was blameless) causing a C7 spinal cord injury further affecting her ability to move wrists and straighten elbows. Limited hand functions didn’t limit Lorraine’s determination to fight the boredom and she found photography when her former Police Force husband bought her a camera to capture the grandkids. I feel lucky talking to Lorraine, not because of the medical conditions she’s survived but the scrapes in pursuit of her photography. She’s been wheeled out of shopping centres, punctured a wheelchair tyre when going off road and was so engrossed trying to capture a Filey winter sunrise, only when sparks started to fly from her electric wheelchair did she realise the tide had come around and about to cut her off. Being in a wheelchair doesn’t always bring the keen street-photographer the kindness of strangers. After a particularly threatening encounter when photographing children in the fountains at Bradford City Square, she didn’t pick up a camera for a while. When Lorraine does pick up her camera it has to be thought through. She can’t make a proper fist to hold smaller cameras, preferring a Canon 5D MK IV she describes as a brick. The first thing she does is put the camera on a table or over a soft surface then bends and slips the strap over her neck so it doesn’t drop straight through her fingers. She has to look at what she’s doing and prefers the audio clicks and bleeps of the camera to be on to confirm what she’s done. Lorraine doesn’t clamp the camera to her chair, preferring to react more fluidly. She has experimented unsuccessfully with tripods, monopods and gimbals and adapted her own methods. She has utilised the odd cricket bat to support her 100-400mm lens and if she doesn’t think she’s at the right viewing angle, will simply throw herself onto the floor. Using this strategy to shoot upwards as the Tour De France hurtled through her village had many of the cyclists quizzically rubbernecking!

Adaptations

If members of the DPS are having problems regarding the mechanics of pressing the shutter button, equipment coordinator Gillian Birbeck is the person to contact and always on the lookout for new devices to make their lives easier. “As a charity we give free advice to anybody who wants it and ask people to be members. If that’s the case they can have equipment on free loan. There’s a limit to what that equipment can be, in general we have a few things that can help a lot of people. Occasionally we get an odd or difficult request,” explains Gillian. She receives emails from all over the world from people needing help and first asks what the person cannot do with regards to taking a photograph, what they have difficulty with, she doesn’t necessarily need to know their disability or name of their disease to help.

“Some illnesses mean people shake a lot which obviously affects photography. Some people can’t lift their arms, some can lift a camera up but not for long enough, some people have difficulty seeing through the viewfinder. Whatever they say they can’t do, that’s what we try and sort out,” she adds. The most common request is for a support to fix a camera to a wheelchair. With many cameras now having a tilt screen, it doesn’t have to be put to the eye, it can be down by their right arm or wherever it’s comfortable to see the screen.

The DPS support of choice is the Manfrotto magic arm or variable friction arm which Gillian thinks better. “It’s beautifully manufactured, it’s solid, the variable friction one takes up its shape with a Knurled Knob which is easier for most people to use than the lever which the magic arm has which needs quite a bit of strength to put into place. We have to try to find somewhere on their wheelchair to use something like a super clamp to attach it. What happens is the camera is in a fixed solid position and they can move the camera position just by moving their wheelchair.”

Available from retailers are the Canon HG-100TBR Bluetooth, Sony GP-VP2BT Bluetooth and Panasonic DMW-SHGR1 Wired, shooting grips which are specifically designed for one-handed use, with shutter, video and zoom controls. They tend to be designed to work with small compact or mirrorless cameras. Not necessarily cheap given that you have to buy the right camera but potentially useful for people who can only use one hand.

Difficulty in pressing the shutter button is quite easy to deal with as most cameras have a remote control that comes with it or you can buy it as an optional extra. Small button size can be problematic. “Get a little plastic box, cut a U shape in the top, put the remote control in the middle and that U shape becomes a bigger button which goes on top of the button,” advises Gillian.

If somebody can’t press the shutter button, there are such things as bite controllers or tongue switches available from Hypoxic Electronics. If somebody can’t use their arms at all, a bite switch is ideal. Gillian recalls a quadriplegic who couldn’t move anything below the neck. The DPS supplied a Hague motorised panel and tilt head camera powerhead which fixed onto the wheelchair with the camera on top tethered to a computer with up, down left, right controls on the screen. This was controlled using a stick on a velcro strap around their head, all they had to do was lean forward to tap the screen. If your disability causes you to shake a lot a simple lesson in photography can be enough: increase the ISO or use of flash is suggested.

Gillian would like the return of left handed cameras. Many DPS members have had strokes and if they’re right handed, it's that one that tends to go. As it is, they have to make an adaptation so a camera can be held in the left hand. Post production is another area the DPS advises. “We try to have workshops where they can learn. For some people it would be impossible, they might have a personal assistant in their everyday life who can help. In the past these personal assistants had been told by disabled people to take a picture for them. We actually give them the independence to do it themselves. That is so important, they are in charge. Post production often doesn’t matter so much to them.”

With so many difficulties to deal with, why take photos at all? “Some people look at photography as something they have to have, others think of it as something they quite like to have. If somebody’s been a photographer all their life and has a stroke, they are desperate to get back into photography. They will email us to discover exactly what they want. Other people are bored and don’t know what to do in their life and find photography and inquire. The impetus comes from the individuality of the person. We don’t discriminate between those that just want to point and shoot and those that want more. A lot of people with disabilities have to compromise but we can make it possible or easier to do more than they were,” reveals Gillian. With the help of the DPS, members with disabilities develop outstanding photographic ability.

Donations of unwanted working photographic equipment help to fund the DPS - please contact chairman@the-dps.co.uk

A version of this article first appeared in Amateur Photographer magazine