In April 2021, The Royal National Institute of Blind People, the RNIB, announced changes to their braille library service. Their new system offers access to more digital copies and home delivery of books on request. However, In Touch listeners have expressed their concerns about long wait times and no longer being able to return books, leading to high levels of wastage. We invited Ailsa Fairley and Tim Pennick to share their concerns with Dave Williams, The RNIB's Customer Experience Manager. Pr...
Sep 06, 2022•19 min
The success of England's footballing Lionesses at the recent UEFA women's championship has massively increased the popularity of the women's game. Now, the Football Association has included blind women in their disability talent strategy. The 2023 IBSA world games provide an early opportunity for a team of blind women players to follow in the footsteps of their sighted counterparts by lifting a major trophy. We speak to three England hopefuls about their journey in the blind beautiful game. Ther...
Aug 30, 2022•19 min
TikTok is a social media platform that has been around in the UK since 2017. It deals in short-form videos and people can make them about pretty much anything: tips on keeping your home organised, how to cook X Y or Z, spirituality, pottery making, the teaching of languages, fashion tips, comedy sketches, music, woodwork, places to visit and… spreading awareness and knowledge about blindness. We speak to four people who are educating their thousands of followers on what it is like to be blind. T...
Aug 23, 2022•19 min
Who doesn't love a good glass of wine? Well, when we found out that the Wine & Spirit Education Trust in London have their first blind teacher Richard Lane, we thought we ought to go sit in on a class and get educated about the world of wine. We hear from Richard about his journey from being a student at WSET to becoming a wine educator there and we caught up with Harry Meade, who is himself blind, and one of Richard's pupils. We asked Harry how it fared having a visually impaired teacher. W...
Aug 16, 2022•19 min
We often report on how well sight loss services are operating, but its not often we talk about services that just do not exist - but should. Listener Alex Scott contacted us after he attended London's Pride Festival a few weeks ago, expressing his dismay at the lack of LGBTQ+ community groups for people who are also blind or partially sighted. Indeed, very few do exist. We found one UK-wide group run by The RNIB in Northern Ireland. We invited Alex to tell us about this missing link and what he'...
Aug 09, 2022•19 min
Diabetic macular oedema is a condition that can develop when having type one or type two diabetes. It can impact sight progressively in the form of retinopathy or maculopathy. We hear about a new treatment for the condition, which The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has estimated to benefit around 22,000 people. Bernie Warren has the condition and she tells us about the benefits this drug could have to her life. We also get more information about the condition and the ne...
Aug 02, 2022•18 min
Previously on In Touch, Dr Peter Hampson, clinical Director of the Association of Optometrists warned of a possible link between Covid-19 and sight loss. We talk to Criminal Lawyer Paul Bacon and former children's Laureate Michael Rosen about their personal experience of this. We also get an update from Dr Hampson on what the latest data tells us. Retinitis Pigmentosa is the most common inherited eye condition, affecting around one in four thousand people in the UK. Currently, there is no known ...
Jul 26, 2022•19 min
Prior to the current cost of living crisis, the Royal National Institute of Blind People found that one in five blind and partially sighted people had difficulty in making ends meet. People with sight loss already have extra living costs and are more reliant on benefits than others as a result of low employment rates. Recently, the government have introduced financial aid and have increased benefits, but the RNIB say that these measures don't go far enough. We hear the story of Alex Ramzan, who ...
Jul 19, 2022•19 min
The Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Disabled Persons) Act 2022, is a new piece of legislation that has amended the Equality Act 2010. It will place duties on taxi drivers and PHV drivers and operators, so that any disabled person has specific rights and protections to be transported and receive assistance without being charged extra. This will also ensure that visually impaired passengers will be assisted by drivers to help them identify or find the vehicle. The act was introduced by Jeremy Wri...
Jul 12, 2022•19 min
Two UK-based charities, Blind Veterans UK and Bravo Victor, were invited to Ukraine and met with the government there to see how they can help rebuild the country's visual impairment rehabilitation services and assist with research facilities to help deal with the ongoing emergency. Nick Caplin is the chief executive of Blind Veterans UK and he tells us about the outcome of the visit and their collective plans moving forward. Rally, serve, love. That's right, its tennis season! We hear about an ...
Jul 05, 2022•19 min
We hear about Glastonbury Festival from Nina Chesworth's perspective. Nina had attended previous years with some sight but this year was her first time as a completely blind attendee. We also take a look at access provisions at some of the UK's other festivals and how these have evolved over the years, with Gideon Feldman, who is the Head of Programs at Attitude is Everything. Attitude is Everything have been campaigning for over twenty years to improve the disability access at live events. And ...
Jun 28, 2022•19 min
For some visually impaired people, the element of touch is very important when trying to establish what a piece of art work looks like. This prompted listener Mike Lambert to contact the program following a visit to The World of Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum. Mike was unhappy that he wasn't able to handle some of the stone items displayed at the exhibition and he explains to Peter a series of other access concerns that he has. We put these concerns to the Museum's Equality and Dive...
Jun 21, 2022•19 min
London’s new £18.9bn Elizabeth line has recently opened, with travellers now able to go from Abbey Wood to Heathrow and Reading, and from Shenfield to Heathrow. We went to find out about the line's access features, with Clive Wood of the charity Guide Dogs. Clive was offering advice and guidance on the accessible design of the new line and he believes there is more that can be done to ensure full accessibility. We put his concerns to TfL's chief customer officer, Mark Evers. We also travelled do...
Jun 14, 2022•19 min
Unlike most of the natural world, birds are quite easy to enjoy with a visual impairment because, well, they can be rather noisy. Martin and Jackie Brown invited us into their garden and share some of their enthusiasms for gardening and, you guessed it, birds. Natalie Doig also joins us. Natalie is partially sighted and enjoys taking photographs of birds and other wildlife, because it allows her to zoom in and discover details she wasn't aware of before. She tells us about her techniques and sha...
Jun 07, 2022•19 min
Visually impaired Liverpool FC fans Dave Williams and Aj Ahmed were at the Stade de France last weekend, as Liverpool prepared to meet Real Madrid in the Champions League final. News headlines have been dominated by the mayhem that unfolded there, including the use of tear gas and dangerous overcrowding. The two tell us what happened to them, whilst caught up in it. A lot of the great outdoors can be quite inaccessible, especially if you are completely blind. Nature is often synonymous with visu...
May 31, 2022•19 min
For some people with visual impairments, when wanting to travel abroad there are many considerations to take into account. Namely, booking assistance at airports and travel requirements for your guide dog, if you have one. Since Brexit, there have been changes to regulations of taking Guide Dogs abroad. Before, owners had to acquire a pet passport but now, a Animal Health Certificate is required. We heard from In Touch listeners that the cost of said certificates can be quite steep and can vary,...
May 24, 2022•19 min
It could be about time to start planning that long overdue holiday and whether you prefer to stay in the UK or go abroad, we have three experienced visually impaired travellers on hand to share their advice of making the most of a holiday. The North Wales Accessible Holidays for Blind and Visually Impaired is a charity run by Nigel Garry and his wife, Karen. They can offer free fully adapted accessible caravan holidays. Nigel tells us about his charity and his own preferences to holiday within t...
May 17, 2022•19 min
Self-confidence can be impacted by many factors when you have a visual impairment or when gradually losing your sight. We look into confidence through the lens of beauty and self-care products and psychology. Procter & Gamble own many household name brands, within beauty, haircare and personal grooming. Their Accessibility Leader, Sam Latif is blind and she has introduced features to some of their big-name products to make them more accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. We t...
May 10, 2022•19 min
In recent years, charity Guide Dogs have published research that found 75% of guide dog owners had experienced some form of refusal of entry. Unfortunately, guide dog refusals are still very common and so we look into what steps you can take if it happens at an indoor establishment, for example: restaurants, shops, garden centres etc. We speak to a guide dog owner about his recent experience when being refused entry into a restaurant and to Clive Wood, the Lead Regional Policy and Campaigns Mana...
May 03, 2022•19 min
The Elections Bill passed the final reading stages in the House of Lords and will soon receive Royal Assent to be passed into law. We discuss the amendments which were approved in the House of Lords and were proposed by visually impaired Life Peer, Lord Holmes of Richmond. The amendments aim to provide blind and partially sighted people the right to vote at polling stations independently and in secret. We speak to Lord Holmes about what these amendments mean for you in future elections. The Grae...
Apr 26, 2022•19 min
We revisit the topic of how the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine is impacting its visually impaired citizens. We speak to married couple Denys and Olga Petrov who evacuated to Poland soon after the war began. They tell us about how they got across the border with a small child, a pregnancy and... seven animals. A few weeks ago, we spoke to Olga Mahler about how she travelled nearly 10,000 miles across the world from Australia to help visually impaired refugees with food and accommodation once...
Apr 19, 2022•19 min
Breathe in...and out. Namaste. With the global mental wellness market reaching around $120 billion in recent years, here lies the truth that in the West, many are finding the daily incorporation of mindfulness techniques highly beneficial to reduce stress and to become more present in daily life. With its ever growing popularity, we wanted to hear from visually impaired people who are making a living within this industry. We speak to yoga instructor, Claire Miller, we put Peter into the healing ...
Apr 12, 2022•19 min
Vision impairment organisations have launched a new education framework called The Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (CFVI). Its main aim is to define and clarify how those between the ages of 0-25 are to receive specialist skill development, by whom and to recommend best practices across the board so that all visually impaired children have equal access to education. We speak to the RNIB's Head of Education, Caireen Sutherland about what this all really m...
Apr 05, 2022•19 min
Audio description is a form of narration that fills in the blanks in film, TV and theatre shows. It tells blind and partially sighted people what visual elements they could be missing on screen or the stage. Many believe that the current provision of audio description is too low, as some of the leading broadcasters and streaming platforms are only just going above the legally recommended requirement of 10%. Despite this, a project from The University of York is looking to improve the overall qua...
Mar 30, 2022•19 min
The European Blind Union represent the interests of 30 million blind and partially sighted people across Europe and with the war in Ukraine still ongoing, we wanted to know how the EBU are helping visually impaired people in Ukraine and those who have evacuated to neighbouring countries. We put this question to the EBU's director, Lars Bossleman. For some, no matter how skilfully you use a cane, guide dog or technology to navigate to a certain place, often locating the front door of your final d...
Mar 22, 2022•19 min
The Marrakesh Treaty, or more informally referred to as Book Share, is an international agreement that gives visually impaired people access to a world of accessible books - quite literally! Countries that have signed up to the Marrakesh Treaty are able to share their online libraries with other countries involved. But listener Jackie Brown raised the point that the UK's system sometimes doesn't work as efficiently as other countries' services do and that the RNIB's Book Share service should str...
Mar 16, 2022•19 min
According to the United Nations, more than 2.8 million people have so far fled Ukraine because of the Russian invasion and amongst them are visually impaired people. Many have fled to Poland, where some could be offered the help they need by Olga Mahler and Andriy Butenko. Olga travelled nearly 10,000 miles across the world from Australia to help visually impaired people with food and accommodation once they have crossed the border into Poland. Olga attended a boarding school for the blind in th...
Mar 16, 2022•19 min
Last weekend marked two years since the tragic death of blind rail user Cleveland Gervais, due to him falling off a train platform's edge in South East London. Since then, the UK's train network operators have been coming up with ways to make train stations a safer place for visually impaired travellers; including the pledge to install tactile paving to all train station platforms by 2029. Now, the Office of Rail and Road, who are the railways regulator, has submitted its responses to the Govern...
Mar 01, 2022•19 min
Technological change within the workplace is often rapid with frequent system updates. More companies are adopting software that operates via a web page browser - or what is known as the cloud. Listener Matt Johnson, a data protection and privacy lawyer, contacted In Touch to say he feels the move to cloud-based software in the workplace is causing serious access problems for people who are blind or partially sighted. He puts his concerns to Microsoft's director of Accessibility Evangelism Hecto...
Feb 22, 2022•19 min
Georgie Morrell is a visually impaired actress and stand-up comedian. She recently appeared in an episode of BBC One's hit hospital drama, Casualty; where she was cast to play a visually impaired woman and guide dog owner. Georgie wrote an article about her experience in the Metro, where she spoke about how refreshing it was to have a visually impaired person play a visually impaired character on television. We speak to her about this and hear her thoughts on our other items... Love! With the wo...
Feb 15, 2022•19 min
