In Touch

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 offi...

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...

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...

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 submi...

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, wi...

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 yo...

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 a...

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...

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 Assista...

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 co...

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 cha...

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 vendin...

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...

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 peopl...

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...

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...

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 child...

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 attitud...

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...

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 fo...

Where do you go if you are seeking training on how to use the various technology? We look at whether the training provided by rehabilitation services goes deep enough and what alternatives are available to you. We speak to Simon Labbett, who is a rehab officer and Chair of the Rehabilitation Workers Professional Network, to Scott Wood who is a team leader at the RNIB's Technology for Life service...

We are debating a rather ambiguous question on this episode of In Touch: is the modern world more or less difficult for people who are blind and partially sighted? It is a difficult question because there are many variables to consider: your age, whether you have a job, how comfortable you are with the evolution of technology and, of course, your level of sight. To help us tackle it, we have invit...

New data suggests that hundreds of ophthalmology patients are experiencing avoidable and irreversible harm to their vison by not being able to access NHS appointments. Over 70% of optometrists in the UK have also said they have seen a patient in the last six months who had experienced a delay to treatment of 12 months or more. Ophthalmology within the NHS is one of the biggest outpatient specialty...

Network Rail's Rupert Lown gives clarification as to when all tactile paving installation works will be completed across the entire UK train network. Extant Theatre are a performing arts company that put visual impairment at the heart of all they do. One of their most recent renditions is a pantomime that is touring throughout March: the Super Power Panto. We sent along opera singer Bethan Langfor...

The Islamic Republic of Iran has seen widespread protests in recent months following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody. The news of the brutality of the regime against its protesting citizens has been widespread; we discuss how some protesters are being purposefully shot in their eyes and blinded. Khosro Isfahani is from the BBC's Monitoring Service and has been following the developments in Ira...