In Touch

We visited St Vincent’s School in Liverpool where the children have been dubbed Climate Heroes for their work toward climate action. The visually impaired pupils have been doing their bit to ease the environmental crisis, by planting and growing their own produce and handing it out to their local community, by writing stories to encourage and influence discussions about climate change and they've...

The Life in the UK test allows people to apply for British citizenship and its a test that requires substantial revision and preparation. Brian Alyward is originally from the Republic of Ireland, and he explains what happened when he initially found that the revision and preparation materials were not provided in his preferred format; braille. When it comes to enjoying art work, it can be dependen...

All further education colleges are legally obliged to develop accessible websites, learning, teaching and assessment materials to students who need them. But new research suggests that eight out of ten colleges in the UK are not doing this. The research was conducted by disability consultancy company, All Able on behalf of Thomas Pocklington Trust. It tested the pathways blind and partially sighte...

Parliament has revealed their plans to recruit a National Clinical Director for Eye Care, which could help transform services for patients. Until now, there's been no national clinical representation for eye care within NHS England and NHS Improvement, despite ophthalmology being the biggest out-patient department in the NHS. Last week, Minister Maria Caulfield announced that recruitment is now un...

We had an inbox brimming with your questions and investigation requests, and so this program is dedicated to getting you some answers. On the program, we speak to the BBC News at 10's Executive News Editor, Paul Royall about the lack of English audio translations on their reports from Afghanistan. We speak to Virgin Media O2's Chief TV and Entertainment Officer, David Bouchier about their lack of...

Gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there's a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. It's sometimes known as gender identity disorder, gender incongruence or transgenderism. On this episode of In Touch, three visually impaired people tell us about their experiences with their gender transitions. We discuss why they've chosen...

Recently, a number of In Touch listeners have told us they're finding more touch screen card machines in their daily lives. These are the machines that do not have any raised buttons or tactile feedback. Supposedly, this type of machine is the future because most are operated by a similar technology as what is inside a smart phone. This gives a business a wider variety of payment options, and they...

In this music special, we'll be speaking to three visually impaired musicians about how they navigate their careers, what part their visual impairments play in that, and to what extent they buy the common misconception that blindness and good musicianship are linked. You'll be hearing from: Chris Campion, a heavy metal session guitarist from London. We talk about his career, spanning across many d...

In the first interview since the problem occurred, Channel 4's chief marketing officer and executive lead for inclusion and diversity, Zaid Al-Qassab explains what has happened to their audio description and signing services. Neither has been working since the end of September. We ask why there were no back up services, what measures will be put in place to avoid it happening again, and most impor...

When you first register for a certificate of visual impairment and you have informed your local authority that you may need care and support, they have a legal duty, under The Social Care Act, to carry out an assessment. This assessment is designed to evaluate what kind of extra support you need, perhaps it is help around the home or navigating the outside world. But problems seem to occur when a...

We are 60 years old! Peter White shares his fondest memories and experiences of presenting In Touch and we hear something of the programme's history from one of the original producers. Also, cornea and retina specialists have begun to notice eye-related complications in people who have recovered from COVID 19. Some people have experienced blurred vision while ill with the disease, but it appears t...

Figures by the consumer group Which? show that, over a six year period, the number of bank branches across the UK have decreased by around 44%. The number of cash machines have also decreased; in just two years, we've lost nearly 11 thousand of them nationwide. But what does this mean for people who may prefer to use cash or visit their local branch? We speak with the Head of Money at Which?, Gare...

It can be a common occurrence to hear your doctor say 'if only we'd caught this sooner'. Well, the reading department at Moorfields Eye Hospital have created a way to detect signs of one of the most common causes of blindness, all in under 30 seconds. They've done this using artificial intelligence technology and it can detect Dry Age Related Macular Degeneration, or AMD. There is currently no tre...

September marks the start of the new university term. We hear from some visually impaired students who are returning to their studies. They tell us about their experiences with university life so far, and what they're expecting from this new academic year. We also hear from a former disability student advisor about what support is available for visually impaired students and from Rachel Hewett fro...

Audio Description has been around for over 30 years: it is filling in the silences on TV, films and the theatre so that blind and partially sighted people can follow the action easier. The current legal requirements for audio description, for all of the major broadcasters, is set at 10% but there are currently no legal requirements for on-demand streaming, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime etc. We...

It is claimed that social media is so popular these days, that there are now more people using it across the globe than are not. But how easy is it to navigate and participate in when you're blind or partially sighted? We'll be speaking to two social media influencers, who are using different platforms to educate people about sight loss. We'll also be speaking to Facebook and Instagram's head of a...

Over the weekend, Team GB's visually impaired athletes won multiple medals: including gold across the cycling, swimming and judo. We check in with our reporter Mani Djazmi who brings us details of those medal wins and interviews with some of our gold medallists. And there could be many reasons why you'd be put off visiting the gym. It could be perceived attitudes or thinking that gyms may not prov...

Recently, there has been some criticism about the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games going ahead, due to a rise in coronavirus cases in Tokyo. Despite this, the games have commenced and on the show, we hear about how they were justified from the President of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons. And our reporter Mani Djazmi is in Tokyo and will be telling us who to look out for and abou...

It may not come as a surprise to you that, for many years, unemployment rates amongst blind and visually impaired people have been consistently high. This is despite government efforts to combat this. Well, the recent release of two reports has put disability employment back on the agenda. We ask the Minister for Disabled People Justin Tomlinson about this government's plans, outlined within their...

During the lockdown period, we all added an extra 40 minutes a day, on average, onto our TV watching time; whether that was watching live TV or via streaming platforms. But are there sufficient levels of audio description available able to accompany this increase? We'll be asking this of some TV consumers and looking into the minimum legal requirements for audio description, set by the UK's regula...

Home learning can be difficult for blind and visually impaired children. But the charity Guide Dogs is aiming to change that with their new Tech for All scheme. Within the pilot of the scheme, Guide Dogs are aiming to provide free iPads to around 3,500 children to help them with their school work and overall independence. We talk to the charity's Director of Operations, Peter Osborne about the bac...

There has been more than a year of uncertainty about whether the Olympic and Paralympic games will actually go ahead in Tokyo this year. The Olympics are already in full swing and the Paralympic games will start on the 24th of August. Ahead of the games, we hear from two visually impaired para athletes, Alison Peasgood of triathlon and Elliot Stewart of judo, about how the past year has been. We h...

Plans to require voters to show photo ID at polling stations were recently introduced in Parliament under the Elections Bill. But The RNIB are concerned that this will make the electoral process even less accessible for blind and partially sighted voters, who are seemingly disproportionately less likely to hold a passport or driving licence. We talk to the RNIB's Director of Development Keith Vale...

There have been some promising signs emerging from Network Rail over the last 12 months around the installation of tactile paving on the edge of their train station platforms. But tonight, we're questioning whether action is being taken quickly enough to make train stations a safer place for blind and visually impaired rail users. Last year, a Freedom of Information report showed that 35% of the U...

Fern Lulham sits in for Peter White. Wheelie bins pose yet another potential obstacle for blind and visually impaired people when navigating pavements. North West Leicester City Council will potentially be able to impose fines to people who leave their wheelie bin on the pavement after bin day. Residents could be liable if there is an accident due to the obstruction. They have recently launched a...