Claire Sisk becomes the first blind chef to cook live on This Morning

To mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, blind content creator and disability activist Claire Sisk joins This Morning hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard in the This Morning kitchen to cook a delicious chicken and tomato pasta as she reveals how new technology can help people with visual impairments whilst cooking.

Explaining her visual impairment and how it affects her, Claire said: “I’ve got no central vision and I’ve got a limited amount of peripheral vision. I can’t see any detail but I can see light and contrast and colours. I can see that you’re there but I can’t see what you look like.

“I had a stroke in 2009 and in 2013 I was registered as sight impaired and then on the 1st November 2017 I woke up with most of my vision gone and I was registered blind.” 

Showcasing some of the assisted technology that she uses in the kitchen, Claire introduced Cat and Ben to ‘Wayne the weighing scales’, ‘Jeffery the jug’ and ‘Thomas the talking thermometer’ which all help her by reading aloud the weight / amount or temperature.

Putting on her heat-protective “Michael Jackson” gloves, Claire explained how they work as a level of security for her and how cooking blind can be “quite scary”.

Claire Sisk becomes the first blind chef to cook live on This Morning

Speaking about her daughter’s favourite chicken and tomato pasta dish which she later cooked live on air, Claire said: “I would put a blindfold on and practice listening to the sounds. These gadgets weren’t around then like they are now and obviously the technology is amazing but I would cook by sounds and practice so I was prepared when this happened [lost her sight]… She [my daughter] has graduated University so she is actually in her law placement now. She gets her brains from me.”

Cat responded: “I was going to say is there nothing that you can’t do?” to which Claire jokingly replied “See”.

Trying the pasta, Ben and Cat approved, confirming it was better than pizza.

As part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), This Morning also hosted two creative ad breaks showcasing nine brands all with a mixture of subtitles, BSL signing and/or audio description to put a spotlight on making advertising accessible for all.

GAAD states its purpose as being to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion. 12 million adults in the UK are Deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus, and over 2 million people in the UK are living with sight loss.*

ITV is working alongside other TV partners, brands and service providers as part of the ISBA** UK Accessible Advertising Taskforce. The newly formed group works to make TV advertising accessible for all audiences, growing awareness and capabilities around subtitles, audio description and BSL.

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1, STV, STV Player and ITVX