When Nastasia Campanella joined the ABC in 2011, she was the organisation's first cadet journalist who is blind. Since then, she's continued to break new ground, first by reading radio news bulletins using a speech program and now by producing her first television news story while on assignment in Fiji.

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I'd been searching for a volunteer assignment for a while and when, in 2016, I read about the first ever Disability Empowerment Skills Exchange [DESE], I knew I'd struck gold. The aim of the project was to transfer skills and experience to people with disabilities living in Fiji. I was after a project where I could make a difference and learn along the way.

Arriving in Fiji on assignment as an Australian volunteer for an international development program was strange. Everything about it was unfamiliar. I was part of a team but I barely knew my teammates. Four of us had vision impairments and our team leader was deaf. Our communication was facilitated through various Auslan interpreters flying in and out and we were all given basic signing lessons. Individually, we were strong and confident women with very different life experiences, but we bonded instantly over a shared goal to create change for others with disabilities.

Nastasia Campanella meeting staff from the Pacific Disability Forum in Fiji while taking part in a volunteer program in 2016. ( Steve Turner )

We were each assigned a different disability organisation. I was put with the Spinal Injury Association [SIA]. Initially, I found the project a struggle. I thought I'd meet the team at SIA and they'd already have a list of jobs for me. However, the first week was a scoping-out mission, where I assessed their business and the programs they had in place. It was frustrating. I knew the time I had with them was so short and I wanted every minute to count. I began to stress. No one could ever commit to meeting times. When they did, they were often late and usually I'd turn up to the room I'd booked only to find someone else was using it.

I look back now and realise how important that first week was for planning, getting to know the employees and for them to become familiar with me. I quickly realised that no one wanted the Aussie girl to swing in and tell them what to do. In the same way I wanted to help shift the mindset of people in Fiji towards those with disabilities, the SIA team helped me change my own perspective. I realised I needed to calm down, take advantage of being able to have spontaneous meetings under a coconut tree and accept that the important thing wasn't necessarily to fix everything, but to provide the team with the skills so they could fix issues themselves.

And that's precisely what happened. Together, we devised a social media framework for how to use platforms like Facebook and Twitter. We held impromptu workshops on topics like press release writing, conducting interviews, effective communication and public speaking. I represented the team on school and village visits teaching blind students to use adaptive technology, spoke to parents about employment pathways for their children and delivered care packs to cyclone victims. I was also involved with the development of a workplace disability awareness training program for the United Nations Development Program [UNDP]. This training was rolled out in Fiji just before I left and then expanded across the UN organisations in the Pacific. Professionally, I was able to expand on my field reporting experience by joining a team from the International Red Cross on a trip to the province of Rakiraki, where I filed my first international radio current affairs story about accessible cyclone-proof housing.

The experience of producing that report sparked my interest in long form storytelling, so when I heard two new DESE teams were being deployed to Laos and Fiji this year I couldn't resist the opportunity to return to the Pacific.

When I was involved in DESE the first year, I was so torn between reporting on the change and being a part of it. The place was teeming with stories that needed to be told. So much work was being done to advance the rights of people with disabilities and I wanted the world to know about it.

Connie Miari, who volunteers for Disability Empowerment Skills Exchange, and ABC journalist Nastasia Campanella in Fiji. ( ABC News: Aaron Kearney )

This year, I went over on assignment with ABC International Development and my task was purely journalism. I needed to find stories that captured the impact of the DESE project. I travelled to the Pacific with fellow ABC journalist Aaron Kearney. After learning he was going to bring a video camera along, I decided I wanted to take on the challenge of trying my hand at TV reporting.

I'd not heard of a totally blind journalist producing a TV news story before and there seemed like no better time for us to give it a go.

Aaron and I had never met or worked together before. We clicked straight away and I can't stress how important that was for the story gathering process. After some really honest discussions about how I wanted my piece to unfold I knew I could trust him to shoot the right vision.

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I learnt so much from Aaron about lighting, camera angles, how to pick the right spot to film and how to map out a story. I then wrote a script to which Aaron then matched the pictures. I really couldn't have picked a better person to work with; he was patient, calm and provided invaluable advice without ever being overpowering.

The most challenging part of the process for me, was not being in control during the editing of the story. I had complete confidence in the skills of the editors in the Sydney news room, but I felt somewhat removed from the process and that was hard to comprehend. That TV piece, exploring the changing perceptions of disability in Fiji, went to air on the ABC's 7pm news on August 13.

I couldn't have been more proud. Of course, I felt an incredible sense of personal and professional achievement, but it was also proof that people really can do anything when given the right support and resources. Best of all, it was a story about people with disabilities, told by someone with a disability.

Nastasia Campanella was the first news cadet who is blind to be employed by the ABC. ( Steve Turner )

We chose to caption the TV story and I wrote an online feature to accompany it which included transcription of the grabs to ensure the piece was available to people with various disabilities. I wanted it to be an example of accessible content which demonstrated the way we should be portraying people with special needs. Along with the TV piece, I produced various other radio current affairs stories on several employment and education programs the DESE team was helping to shape.

The one month assignment was far too short, but the experiences have been long-lasting. Both trips to Fiji were full of very different challenges and plenty of opportunities for self discovery and reflection.

The experience has reminded me of how important the role of journalists is in breaking down barriers and challenging audiences to experience how various communities live.

I'm also really grateful for the passionate people working in the development space who I came into contact with and our shared energy and enthusiasm to make a difference.

Nastasia Campanella travelled with ABC International Development as part of the Disability Empowerment Skills Exchange, funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.