Before taking up her post in Slovenia in August, Britain's first fully blind top diplomat and a lady, told the BBC that her disability could help her build relationships with influential people around the world.
Viktorija Harrison has until the summer to learn to speak the Slovenian language fluently before she takes up her duties as ambassador in the capital, Ljubljana.
Learning languages is a task for any foreign diplomat, but "disability preparation," as she calls it, is unique to her situation.
Getting used to a new home and remembering new routes to work and local cafes with her guide dog Otto are just some of the tasks on Victoria's list, of course, in addition to daily business duties.
"During my first job [abroad], I didn't know there was an amazing cafe very close to where I lived - I'd walk past it and not know it existed," she says.
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When she was born, her vision was normal, but vision problems developed and the condition gradually worsened during her teenage years.
She lost her sight completely after college.
"Growing up with eyesight that wasn't as good as other people's wasn't always easy," she says, but she never thought that her condition would prevent her from pursuing her dream job - diplomacy.
She was a teenager when she watched reports on the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 on television, and that's when her interest in diplomacy was born.
She asked her father what a diplomat's job was and learned that they "are paid to travel the world, learn foreign languages and represent their countries".
"That sounded great to me," says Victoria.
"Strong Competition"
The Law on Prevention of Discrimination of Persons with Disabilities, which was adopted in 1995 and was later replaced by an even more comprehensive legal act, removed obstacles to the employment of persons with disabilities.
A year later, Victoria got her first opportunity to work in the Foreign Office (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) through the student internship program.
Her main concern about doing the job was not her disability, but her various insecurities.
“I thought maybe I wasn't smart enough.
"I didn't attend Oxford or Cambridge. The competition is really big," she says.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office offered Victoria a professional internship in Moscow, but when she said she was blind, "there was silence... on the other end of the phone".
"Then I was told, 'we don't have blind people in our organization,'" she says.
Victoria remembers that the phone conversation "surprised" her, not "discouraged".
She thought that some other things, like being female, would be a bigger obstacle in her career than the fact that she was blind.
A few days later, she was informed that her internship was approved.
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"Novelty"
In 1997, Victoria got a permanent job at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and became the first disabled person to be employed.
"I was a novelty," says Victoria.
"No one else had a significant disability."
As the Office of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs was still adapting to the changes introduced by the Law on Prevention of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, Victoria received the computer only after six months.
"It's not that people didn't want to support me," she says.
"Actually, it was an organization in which we... adapted to a great extent and things were done on the fly".
When she noticed that her colleagues were making progress, she began to doubt herself.
"I felt kind of frustrated because I thought I couldn't show people that I was actually as good as others," she says.
"And I haven't really had a chance to prove the skeptics wrong."
Some even pointed out to Victoria that she got the job only as an example of inclusiveness or better statistics of the equal opportunities policy.
Attitudes in Great Britain slowly began to change, but two years later, when Victoria was due to take up her first post abroad, some embassy staff reacted unexpectedly to her disability.
He remembers one statement: "That person needs to speak the language of the host country, and it's obvious that since he's blind, he won't be able to learn it."
Since then, Victoria has held posts in Helsinki and Sarajevo, and says that each new country is a unique challenge.
But she thinks people are often naturally curious about her condition, and that being blind can help her make personal connections during delicate negotiations.
"Maybe sometimes I have to take someone by the hand to lead me to the exit of the meeting room," says Victoria.
"Such moves create connections between people that can actually be very helpful in building relationships."
Such connections can also help Victoria in her work in other ways.
She is often tense at work events that involve dinner, and sometimes worries too much about certain things, such as not knocking over a wine glass.
At one such dinner, someone on the British Foreign Secretary's team noticed that when the appetizer was served, Victoria picked up a knife and fork.
And they whispered to her that there was soup on the table so she would take a spoon.
"I just thought, 'Thank God for that,'" says Victoria.
"But it allowed me to focus on the fact that I actually had to follow the conversation in order to write the report."
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"I just get chills"
Victoria was the first blind person to be employed in the Foreign Office, the first blind diplomat to be sent abroad and, after being appointed head of the diplomatic mission in Slovenia, the first blind British ambassador.
But when asked how it feels to be a pioneer and pave the way for others, she laughed.
"When I think about it, I just get goosebumps," says Victoria.
"Technically, yes, I was the first in many things."
But, he adds: "I don't like the word pioneer, because it sounds like I actually set out to be all that - and it kind of just happened."
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