Strictly Come Dancing’s first blind contestant has been crowned this year’s winner of the competition.
Comedian Chris McCausland said afterwards that his win was for his dance partner Dianne Buswell “and for everyone out there who’s got told they couldn’t do something or thought they couldn’t do it”.
He added: “It just shows with opportunity and support and determination, anything can happen.”
A highlight of the routine was a “blackout moment” designed to imitate Chris’s experience with blindness.
Earlier in the series Chris had told the BBC that people’s views of disabilities are “antiquated”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said his participation on the show was “extreme” but he hoped it would “go some way in stretching people’s ideas of what is possible for a person with disabilities”.
He added: “I think there are low expectations of people with disabilities – sometimes you’ll come down a set of steps into a taxi and people say ‘wow, how did you do that?'”
Steven Morris, who is the campaigns officer for the disability charity Sense, said Chris’s win will “lead to many more disabled people being included in the biggest TV shows”.
He added: “Chris’s historic Strictly Come Dancing win goes to show that given opportunities and support, disabled people can break down barriers many wrongly don’t think are possible. This is an important moment for representation.”
