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13 Questions: Ben Fletcher
16th October 2008
Ben Fletcher is a 27 year old Master Inventor living in Winchester. While studying Engineering in Computer Science at the University of York he was selected to join 'Extreme Blue', an IBM student-internship programme. He graduated with a first class honours, was offered a software developer job and just 3 ½ years after joining the company, works at IBM Hursley in his current role, inventing and developing technology. Ben has Ushers Syndrome and earlier this year See Hear touted him a “deaf talent to watch in 2008”. Find out what makes a hearing and visually impaired inventor tick with Ouch's gently probing questions.
Uppermost in my mind today is ...
A concurrency programming defect in Lotus Expeditor, one of our messaging and collaborative products, that I've been debugging all day. Being deaf and partially sighted means I'm not easily distracted and can be utterly focussed. Which is just as well with the work I do.
People think I'm ...
Someone who sees the world from a different box. I think in pictures, diagrams, schematics. Using an architectural slant I visualise the connectedness of things and complex relationships. Also, being deaf, I don't get influenced or polluted by my ears.
I want to ban ...
Anything that prevents people from exploring new things. For example, simple things like travelling by train. Finding out train times, getting the ticket, knowing when the train is about to arrive at my destination can be a challenge for me.
Not a lot of people know that I ...
Can type at 100 words a minute. This is a talent honed by using a “minicom”, the device most deaf people used to communicate before instant messaging arrived. As it was over the phone and we were being charged by the minute, we all learnt to type fast!
I struggle with ...
Getting the world to understand my ways. My sense of humour is often misinterpreted and people close to me often suggest I should be more subtle. But the deaf way is to be very direct, and this comes through in my humour.
My ideal dinner guest is ...
Film producer Bob Duncan. He made a documentary about how my family, and local community, were taught to communicate with me (A Language For Ben, 1986). I'd like to understand what brought him to me, what he found inspirational and what made him decide to produce this award winning film.
If I didn't live in the UK, I'd live in ...
The US of A. To experience for myself signing an order for a takeaway pizza at home, using my video phone, via a qualified and certified video interpreter funded by the telecommunications companies. A service I have yet to see in the UK.
My first job was ...
As a gardener's assistant when I was a teenager. The gardener was my white water canoeing coach. I did it for the thrill of doing some real work rather than for the money. I also enjoyed working with all the power tools!
When I come home in the evenings I ...
Normally take some time to quieten my mind by doing Astanga yoga or a sitting meditation. This is especially useful at this time of year, when my work is high pressure with imminent deadlines. Not being distracted by sound is a distinct benefit to doing yoga.
My favourite food is ...
Vegetarian Indian. I love potato and spinach with lentils curry.
My favourite drink is ...
Refreshing tap water that is soft not hard, which I know I can find at my parents' house up North.
At work I ...
Develop technology that integrates different business processes into a single view, such as the ability for a traveller to book an on-line airline ticket, select a window seat next to a colleague, choose from the onboard lunch menu and confirm that they have access to a power socket to work on their laptop on the plane. It is the same technology that allows deaf people to be alerted to various audio cues, such as a fire alarm, by sending alerts to their smart phone.
The future of technology means ...
We will be able to digitise more and more of the physical world. In the future you will be able to wear a personal computer that will turn the physical world around you into a digital one and enhance the information you need in a form that is accessible to you. We will be able to bridge gaps in ability and have greater control over our environments. For disabled people this has the potential to have a huge impact on our lives.
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