Access All: Disability News and Mental Health

Returning to work after maternity leave can be a daunting experience - especially if you have a disability. So, with Emma Tracey back at Ouch HQ, what better time to discuss how she is getting on? Emma is joined by disability activist Kaliya Franklin. Kaliya has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and has a two-and-a-half year old son. From pregnancy to the first days or motherhood and the dreaded popper...

It's been a week of triumph and celebration at the Invictus Games in Australia as 500 servicemen and women competed on the sports field. But for one competitor the memories of the battlefield returned as an overhead helicopter triggered his PTSD. Find out which song, from a popular animated film, helped get him through it. And BBC presenter, Alex Jones, learned a "mortifying" lesson at the event,...

Bethany Hickton was about to reveal her new boyfriend to a friend, when she slipped down a marble staircase and fractured her spine. She had just started her PhD in Bristol and had a busy social life, but all of that had to stop. As she slowly recovered from the physical injury, she found she had other battles to face - depression and symptoms similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Presented b...

The comedian Tanyalee Davis, who recently gained attention on social media after an incident involving her mobility scooter and an unhappy train guard, believes that the rules and attitudes in the UK are way behind those in North America - and they stop disabled people from getting around. She says: "Where's your carer" and "That's against health and safety" are the kind of typical remarks she hea...

Just like the spoken word, you can make sign language more meaningful by altering your moves to create something more touching or, the opposite, distressing. On this podcast we speak to Paula Garfield from Deafinitely Theatre which has recently adapted a hard-hitting play about mental health to include a strong emotionally coded visual language that all audiences can understand. 4.48 Psychosis, by...

Lee Kumutat is blind and moving home. So, if she can't choose what decor she likes, or the look of the building, what choices does she make and why? From colour to audio ambience, and where friends can help, she takes us through how she's been tracking down the perfect home in Manchester, where she'll be moving next month. With Damon Rose and Beth Rose (not related!). A transcript will appear on t...

Going out is meant to be fun, but add in an unpredictable disability or mental health problem and you could have an unwanted challenge or serious embarrassment on your hands - especially if these real-life tales are anything to go by. From the agoraphobic woman who took an extreme 15-hour bus journey so she didn't have to remain overnight after her best friend's wedding, to a man with Crohn's dise...

Going out is meant to be fun, but add in an unpredictable disability or mental health problem and you could have an unwanted challenge or serious embarrassment on your hands - especially if these real-life tales are anything to go by. From the agoraphobic woman who took an extreme 15-hour bus journey so she didn't have to remain overnight after her best friend's wedding, to a man with Crohn's dise...

Going out can be fun, but add in a disability or mental health problem and it can become fraught with challenges - and embarrassment - if these real-life tales are anything to go by. From passionately kissing your "mum" to prove a point, to suffering a wardrobe malfunction in the middle of Manchester and receiving a diagnosis of ADHD after risking everything and taking a pill in a nightclub - you'...

Being a parent is hard, but when you're disabled it can come with its own unique set of challenges and advantages. From the mum who insisted on building an accessible house extension so her husband had to do night-duties, to the visit to A&E with a child who had jammed his leg a wheelchair spoke after using it as a climbing frame. Three disabled dads on the comedy circuit - Chris McCausland, S...

When we got three women with obsessive-compulsive disorder round a table, the conversation ranged from the need to tic or twitch, and what that feels like, through to getting naked at the front door to minimise the spread of germs after a hospital visit. This "takeover" podcast was recorded in Edinburgh, the contributors - two writers and one actor - all feature in the 2018 festival Fringe: Lucy D...

Gianluca Trombetta, who is deaf, confesses he hated it when his girlfriend talked before he was ready to listen, so he decided to teach her a lesson. This story was recorded in March 2017 at an event held by BBC Ouch at the Backyard Comedy Club in London. Share this page on social media and pop over to iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts from, and be sure to rate and review the Ouch podcast....

Hannah Jenkins was cycling in her local park when she collided with another cyclist and fell-off her bike. She sustained a serious head injury and was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. But when she woke up, she was confused to discover no-one spoke the same language as her - and later discovered the crash had caused her brain to erase English. Presented by Beth Rose. A full transcript is...

Shoes - it’s a hot topic amongst disabled people. Buying them and wearing them can be a nightmare, especially if it means regularly wearing them out. Throughout the ages, shoes have been either practical or decorative but rarely both and we in the disabled community often have to adapt what’s on offer to suit our needs. So, why do so many of us have to pick function over fashion – and does having...

The Archbishop of Canterbury and two of his daughters talk frankly about their experiences of disability and mental health and how the church can be more inclusive. In her first interview, Ellie Welby chats about her learning disability and how she can feel she's on the edge of church-life and Katherine warns that offering to pray for someone could be side-stepping a more important opportunity to...

Rich Osborn had the perfect summer job as a scuba diving instructor in Cyprus - but it would become a job which led to him becoming paraplegic. On a day off, the then 21-year-old and three instructor friends decided to go for a carefully planned deep-dive. At 40m under the ocean's surface the group ran out of air. With nothing left in the tanks they had a decision to make - drown there and then, o...

Ali Jawad was told the night before an operation that he should prepare his friends and family for the worst - he might not wake up again. The powerlifter, a double above-knee amputee, had fallen ill a few years before at his first Paralympic Games and was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, an illness he'd never heard of, a few weeks later. He had to get his head around the disease quickly and it cam...

After Lost Voice Guy won Britain’s Got Talent, Rosie Jones, another comedian with cerebral palsy, tells this week’s Ouch podcast how she was approached to take part in the show – and said ‘no’. Also taking part in the programme is American performer Nina G, who talks about her career as a stuttering comedian. And we meet Vanessa Boachie, Founder and Creative Director of mental health charity, Insi...

Everyone has a story to tell and this could be your chance to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on the BBC’s main stage. BBC Ouch is presenting Storytelling Live on 9 August and wants you to be part of the show. All you've got to do is tell a true story on the theme of Going Out (whatever that means to you) which relates to your disability or mental health challenge. It’s as simple as that,...

Everyone has a story to tell and this could be your chance to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on the BBC’s main stage. BBC Ouch is presenting Storytelling Live on 9 August and wants you to be part of the show. All you've got to do is tell a true story on the theme of Going Out (whatever that means to you) which relates to your disability or mental health challenge. It’s as simple as that,...

Amelia Cavallo has mastered the art of aerial performance on silks and the trapeze at great heights above the floor. As someone who is registered blind, how does she know how high up she is and where the silk or trapeze will be when she lets go as part of a trick? And how often does she end up on the crash mat? Cavallo is performing as part of new circus show, What Am I Worth? It’s a collaboration...

Reading is often one of the first things to go when you're busy - your bag's already full and you've got your phone to play with - but could picking up a book be one simple way to help boost or maintain your mental health? It's Mental Health Awareness Week and here at BBC Ouch we're not missing out so this podcast is all about how a good book could be a good thing - and we're not talking self-help...

Tatyana McFadden was born in Russia with spina bifida - a deformity of the spine - and placed in a Russian orphanage. Aged six she was adopted by an American and became one of Team USA's most successful athletes. In the second part of the interview with the McFadden's, Tatyana's adopted mother, Deborah, talks about the rare illness which temporarily paralysed her from the neck down and Tatyana exp...

Verne Troyer played Mini-Me in the Austin Powers films. Following his recent death, fellow short person Eugene Grant says the character normalised violent attacks against others with dwarfism. Plus, as exam season gets underway, what’s it doing to your mental health? We talk to campaigner Jonny Benjamin, who runs mental health workshops in schools, and we hear how your teacher could have given you...

Tatyana McFadden was born in Russia with spina bifida - a deformity of the spine - and placed in Orphanage Three, Saint Petersburg. But at the age of six, a chance meeting with an American dignitary would change her life. She would discover wheelchair racing and go on to win 17 Paralympic medals and multiple marathon titles for Team USA, but there would also be a high profile legal battle against...