Social media can be a good way for visually impaired people to connect with their community, but some recent changes to X (previously named Twitter), may have made that difficult for some visually impaired people. With the helping hand of two Matts - Matt Johnson, who is a blind data protection and privacy lawyer, and Matt Eason, who is a digital accessibility specialist and software developer - we look into these changes and what impacts it could have on your use of X. Presenter: Peter White Pr...
Nov 07, 2023•19 min
The government's plans to close hundreds of train ticket offices in England have been cancelled. Since the plans were announced, we here at In Touch have been discussing the implications of the proposed closures for blind and partially sighted people. Now, we have invited a number of visually impaired people, campaign groups and Transport Focus, who are the transport watchdog and one of the operators of the public consultation on the closures of ticket offices, to discuss what this all means for...
Oct 31, 2023•19 min
We hear from two blind women about their experiences of living through the current conflict in Palestine and Israel. Dalal Al-Taji lives in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip and Heather Stone lives in the northern area of Tel Aviv in Israel. They speak frankly about how their lives have been affected and dealing with the uncertainty of being blind during a war. During the 2014 conflict, Peter spoke to two blind women on either side; one of them was Dalal Al-Taji. To listen to that progra...
Oct 25, 2023•19 min
Vlad and Valeria Yeschenko are a young newly-wed Ukrainian couple. Vlad was clearing out and dismantling mines when one exploded, resulting in severe injuries, including the loss of his eyesight. The couple got married soon after Vlad's recovery. The BBC's senior international reporter, Orla Guerin visited the couple in their home at the edge of Kyiv to find out more about what happened and the impact that day has had on their lives. It is a story of war, loss, love, and a determination to help ...
Oct 17, 2023•19 min
Izabela Dłużyk is a blind female sound recordist from Poland. She tells Peter about her passion for sound recording, bird song and one of the last primeval forests in Europe, the Białowieża. She was recently the subject of a documentary with BBC World Service called Izabela in the Forest, where producer Monica Whitlock follows her around during one of her recording sessions and to immerse herself in the rich plethora of sounds there. Can blind people do that?! We'd like to hear your experiences ...
Oct 10, 2023•19 min
We discuss techniques for learning languages when you are visually impaired. Nowadays there are many methods that can be used; be it braille, smart phone apps, listening via synthetic speech etc and so we invited four visually impaired language enthusiasts to share their tips and experiences. Each of them use languages in different ways such as teaching, social meet ups, family relations and even providing interpretation within European politics. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Pr...
Oct 03, 2023•19 min
Inclusive Farm in Bedfordshire is more than just a livestock farm. It is run by totally blind Mike Duxbury and his sighted partner and they open the farm up to those with disabilities to explore agriculture. In Touch pays a visit to hear about how Mike performs various farming tasks without any sight and, perhaps most importantly, to meet some of the animals. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Liz Poole Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in th...
Sep 26, 2023•19 min
Be My AI is an artificial intelligence engine that is being tested by Be My Eyes - an app that connects visually impaired smartphone users to sighted assistance. There are thousands of people currently testing the AI offering and it allows them to take pictures of their surroundings and the AI will describe, with great detail, what is in that image. For example, it can be helpful for things like navigation, describing clothing items or reading menus. However, a lot of its testers are greatly con...
Sep 19, 2023•19 min
We are hosting a question and answer session with the charity Guide Dogs. Many of you have been sending us your very considered questions and concerns about various aspects of how the organisation operates; including waiting lists, training methods, eligibility for new and replacement guide dogs and more. Answering these questions is Pete Osborne, who is is Guide Dogs' Chief Operations Officer. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Liz Poole Website image descrip...
Sep 12, 2023•19 min
Since 2017, the charity Guide Dogs have adopted a new way of training their dogs. It's called the STEP method, standing for Standardised Training for Excellent Partnerships. The method has received a lot of criticism, with people believing it is the cause of long waiting lists for new and replacement dogs, and so we paid a visit to a training centre in Atherton, Greater Manchester, to find out more about how it works and ask why their previous method of training was scrapped. Presenter: Peter Wh...
Sep 05, 2023•19 min
The International Blind Sports Federation has just concluded its first World Games in the UK, with most sports taking place across the University of Birmingham campus. Over a thousand athletes from 70 countries competed in various sports and for some, it was not just a medal on the cards, but also qualification points for the 2024 Paralympics. We attended the games and spoke to athletes, team officials and members of the public trying out visually impaired sports for the first time. Presenter: P...
Aug 29, 2023•19 min
Faricimab, or as it is commercially known Vabysmo, is a drug that has recently been approved for use by the NHS to treat two eye diseases: diabetic macular oedema (DMO) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), with fewer injections. Both conditions result in vision loss caused by swelling behind the eye, which can now be slowed or halted by injections. Robin Hamilton is an Ophthalmic Surgeon at Moorfield’s Eye Hospital and he provides details of how this drug works and Bernie Warren tells us ...
Aug 22, 2023•19 min
The RNIB recently advertised the role of Customer Support Officer, but there was a particular bit of wording that drew an instant and indignant reaction from a number of blind and partially sighted people who read it. The initial advert stated that the systems used within the role were not compatible with JAWS screen reader. The advert has since been amended to dispute this, stipulating that JAWS could be used with some work arounds, such as scripting. The RNIB's Director of Services, David Newb...
Aug 15, 2023•19 min
Getting braille onto food labelling is the subject of an ongoing campaign by a number of disability groups in Scotland. Oban and District Access Panel, Disability Equality Scotland and Sight Scotland have taken their campaign to the Scottish Government and are currently seeking visually impaired people's experiences and preferences when it comes to accessible food packaging. If you'd like to submit your experiences, visit: http://inclusivecommunication.scot/braille-campaign Or call Disability Eq...
Aug 08, 2023•19 min
Dr Yusuf Osman was frequently getting information from the Department for Work and Pensions in a form that was inaccessible to him. This led to him to bringing a judicial review and he won it. Yusuf, along with the RNIB's Senior Legal Advisor Samantha Fothergill, describe what the ruling means for him and other visually impaired people. Finding somewhere to rent at the moment really isn't easy, with low availability and soaring prices, but having a guide dog shouldn't be a factor that makes it m...
Aug 01, 2023•19 min
When being diagnosed with sight loss, it is often essential to be able to access your local sight loss support services quickly. This can be for things like long cane training, to guidance on Personal Independence Payments. We discuss the impacts of delays in accessing these services and the Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI). If eligible, this certificate can trigger support available from your local authority's sight support team - if it has one. We discuss these themes with a consultant o...
Jul 25, 2023•19 min
Selina Mills and Andrew Leland have both just published new books about blindness. Andrew's is called The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight and Selina's is Life Unseen: A Story of Blindness. Both books have similar themes, in that they assess where the societal attitudes towards blindness may have originated from and how they subsequently interweave into our modern society. Both authors are visually impaired and live on either side of the Atlantic, and so they join us in discuss...
Jul 18, 2023•19 min
Tennis has long been considered one of the hardest sports to adapt, especially if you have little or no vision. Well, it has been done and Amanda Green from Metro Blind Sport and VI tennis player herself, tells us about the history of where the adapted game came from. Amanda, along with totally blind player Monica Smith, also tell us about how it is played. Wimbledon is in full swing and there are a couple of firsts at this year's championships. In conjunction with Vodafone and assistive technol...
Jul 11, 2023•19 min
Abdul Eneser is a blind student in Glasgow and he regularly uses the train to return home to Manchester. He could soon be taking legal action against three major train companies due to his falling onto the tracks at Manchester Piccadilly train station. His case will be brought on the grounds that there were a lack of tactile paving on the platform at that time and failures of the Passenger Assistance Service. Abdul, along with his solicitor Kate Egerton, provide the details. Sir Robin Millar is ...
Jul 04, 2023•19 min
We often hear on In Touch about your frustrations with having to repeatedly provide your access requirements to many different organisations, for them often to not be listened to. Well Experian, the company perhaps best known for checking your credit score, have tried to come up with a solution. They have launched something called The Support Hub, where you can provide your preferred methods of communication and any other access needs in one place and they will distribute that information amongs...
Jun 27, 2023•19 min
For some, getting out and about means a leisurely stroll in the sunshine. For others, it's taking on the challenge of hostile and dangerous environments. Our guests this week tell us about losing their sight and the part exploring the great outdoors has played in dealing with it. You might associate entrepreneur and TV adventurer Amar Latif (who was awarded an OBE since we talked to him!) with challenges such as yomping in the Australian outback. However, his love of gentler pursuits is illustra...
Jun 20, 2023•19 min
The question of closing railway ticket offices has been in the headlines recently. Indeed, it remains one of the stumbling blocks to a settlement in the long running dispute between rail unions and train operators. One operator has already stopped selling tickets at discounted rates from their ticket offices for "same day" travel. This leaves travellers needing to use the internet or ticket vending machines to take advantage of reduced rates for same day journeys. We discuss what this means for ...
Jun 13, 2023•19 min
It's the time of year to perhaps start thinking about a holiday, and when you have a visual impairment there are often lots of things to consider. How you'll get there, whether the accommodation will be accessible and the kinds of activities that you'll do. So, we thought we'd look at some trips that could be suitable; including Sense Adventures, who offer walking holidays in the Malvern Hills and elsewhere, The Visually Impaired Sailing Association, who teach you how to sail a yacht and Christi...
May 30, 2023•19 min
A few months ago, we discussed whether the modern world has become easier or more difficult for people with visual impairments. It is a very nuanced and subjective question, that has been and will continue to be fed into, but we thought we'd pick it up again and look at people's attitudes. This can be when receiving a formal service, such as from your healthcare provider or bank or just from people in the street. We've brought together three people with differing attitudes: Roshni Hafeez, Richar...
May 23, 2023•19 min
Reframing Fashion is the name of British Vogue's May edition. It features people with a wide range of disabilities. It was the brain child of their Editor and Chief Edward Enninful. Since taking on the role in 2017, he's changed the trajectory of the magazine to become more inclusive and representative. He worked on the issue with Sinéad Burke who runs disability consultancy firm, Tilting the Lens. One of the featured stars is the UK's first blind and black female barrister, Jessikah Inaba, who ...
May 16, 2023•18 min
Helen Pownall contacted In Touch with the aim of warning other visually impaired people to keep an eye on their energy accounts. This was prompted when her visually impaired mother in law accumulated a credit of nearly five thousand pounds and she was no longer was receiving her bills in large print. Helen Pownall provides more information and we get advice from energy price comparison experts The Energy Shop. The Civil Aviation Authority is reviewing their policies on accessible air travel; thi...
May 09, 2023•19 min
King Charles's Coronation will likely be a highly visual affair and so charity Living Paintings wanted to ensure that visually impaired children and young people get access to the event. They have gifted tactile images and audio guides to schools, homes and people caring for young visually impaired people. Our reporter Fern Lulham attended a school in Kent, to hear what the visually impaired children there thought of these accessible gifts. Clay modelling is one of the best art forms for blind a...
May 02, 2023•19 min
We take a look at how an increasingly prevalent part of the entertainment industry is becoming more accessible to people with visual impairments. For a long time, video game developers have struggled to understand the needs of people with sight loss and therefore, modern games were largely unplayable. We take a look at The European Gaming Accessibility conference, that aims to combat these attitudes. It brings together people from the gaming industry to share best practice and knowledge on how t...
Apr 25, 2023•19 min
We investigate why there are so many TV advertisements not verbally announcing who the brand or product is anywhere in the advert. This was pointed out by Nathan Tree, who has grown frustrated by the lack of inclusion and consumer choice. We put the question to Zoë Waller, who is an Executive Producer for the video production company, Studio Yes and to Malcom Phillips from the body that regulates advertising; the Advertising Standards Authority; Malcolm is their regulatory policy manager. Beauty...
Apr 18, 2023•19 min
Be My Eyes is a service that enables visually impaired people to connect with sighted assistance, via a smartphone app. You can get help with things like finding a lost item or identifying something you've just pulled from your fridge. But Be My Eyes are soon to release an additional feature called Virtual Assistant that uses artificial intelligence. It's thought that it will eliminate the need for sighted assistance and can suggest a recipe based on that something you've just pulled from your f...
Apr 11, 2023•19 min
