Access All: Disability News and Mental Health

The game Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice has won many awards and fans for its story and the way it depicts psychosis. It follows Nordic warrior, Senua, on a quest to rescue the soul of her dead lover. She hears voices, and experiences hallucinations throughout, disorientating the player. Gamers and experts rate its portrayal of the mental illness - but does it go down well with people who have psycho...

Comedian Lost Voice Guy tells Ouch that the late Stephen Hawking made it more acceptable for people like him, who speak using a voice synth. Also, should the professor's voice be used again by someone else? And the heat is getting turned up as we hear more stories from wheelchair-users like the BBC's Frank Gardner who have had their wheelchairs damaged when travelling by plane. And, as we continue...

Inspirational speaking and work has long been a part of the disability landscape. But how do you inspire without sounding like a cliché? It’s a confidence boosting takeover on this week’s BBC Ouch podcast. Martyn Sibley and Amar Latif, both of whom are disabled, talk about how they try to instill positive thoughts in others, often using their own achievements to get people into a go-ahead mode. Bu...

Two 19 year old women brought home all seven medals for Great Britain from the Winter Paralympics. On the last day, Menna Fitzpatrick and her guide Jennifer Kehoe won a gold medal in the visual impairment slalom. And it was bronze for Millie Knight and guide Brett Wild as the team hit their medal target. Moments after the British flag was raised and the national anthem sung the venue was being dis...

Could you cover 60km on difficult terrain using just your arms? British Nordic Sit-Skier Scott Meenagh has attempted that this week in the Biathlon and Cross-Country events. He’s the first competitor Paralympics GB has had in Nordic Skiing for 20 years. Meenagh lost both legs after an explosion in Afghanistan. Beth Rose talks to her fellow presenter, JJ Chalmers, about their time in rehab together...

It’s the biggest crowd draw – the ice-hockey – and the locals came out in force to watch South Korea take on Canada. It was a match full of Mexican waves, K-pop and attempts to break the venue’s decibel record for the most amount of noise a crowd could make. With the home team playing, the stadium was packed and the players put on a show when it came to speed, crashes and smashes. Presented by Bet...

We’re going for a younger sound in this week’s podcast. As part of BBC School Report day 2018, three disabled schoolchildren give us their take on life in the classroom and playground, and much more. Carys, Ashleigh and Kelsey take it in turns to answer questions pulled out of the Ouch tea caddy. Listen to find out what they think about mainstream v special school, uniforms and how the word “blind...

More limbs are broken at the Paralympics than any other sporting event - prosthetic limbs to be precise. But the athletes need not fear, Ottobock provides a 24-hour emergency pit stop for repairs. They’ve already helped over 200 athletes since the winter Games began on 9 March, this includes a few rather unusual requests. Beth Rose spoke to Peter Franzel from the company.

From DJs to cheerleaders and a Gangnam Style dance off, the Paralympic snowboard cross competition was the place to be in PyeongChang. Three members of ParalympicsGB were competing - Ben Moore, James Barnes-Miller and Owen Pick - but missed out on the medals. Afterwards they had to head to the anti-doping tent to make sure they were free of banned substances, but why was being hydrated so bad for...

Not often, I imagine. But for Plymouth snowboarder Ben Moore that’s exactly how he made it on to the first ever ParalympicsGB snowboarding team, after he missed the bus to work when he was living in Canada. At the time Ben was coming to terms with a life-changing injury caused by a motorbike crash. Presented by Beth Rose.

From the stunning scenery to the unusual way the blind athletes measure their downhill performance, Beth Rose and Chris Osborne present this podcast - while attempting to use the ski lift. The GB team achieved its first medal on Saturday, day one. Millie Knight and her guide Brett Wild gained silver. It's been a tough 12 months for the pair who had two massive crashes which made Millie fearful of...

It was a freezing night in the Olympic Stadium for the opening ceremony of the Winter Paralympics - but we’re here to warm you up with the latest from the Games. We chat K-pop, skateboarding bears, North Korean athletes and toe-chilling weather after a night at the opening ceremony. On top of that, we meet the fans and supporters who beat the chill to watch the celebration. Presented by Beth Rose...

GB snowboarder Owen Pick talks to Beth Rose on the first edition of our podcast from the Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang. Back indoors, Beth and the BBC team chat about being in South Korea, robots, the upcoming opening ceremony... and the state of the snow. Subscribe to the feed and you'll receive our semi-sporty podcast almost every day from the big shivering disability event. Email the team i...

Many women of childbearing age suffer from Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS). Cramps, mood swings and anxiety are among the many symptoms that come around every month. They tend to start a few days before your period begins then disappear a few days later. But some women have symptoms so severe it stops them living a normal life and can cause mental ill health. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) aff...

How do you deal with chronic pain? Do you search for an answer or try to manage it long term? Former star of Grange Hill and lead singer of the 1980's band Monsoon, Sheila Chandra, lives with burning mouth syndrome. She describes it as "when you grab a hot cup of tea and take a huge mouthful of scolding tea....". Julia Buckley travelled the world searching for a cure for her Ehlers-Danlos syndrome...

With just days to go before the Winter Paralympics get under way in South Korea there’s plenty to say about the Great Britain team. From medal hopes to new sports, the Russian doping scandal and a touch of…canoeing… GB’s Chef de Mission, Penny Briscoe gives us the lowdown on all things Paralympic – and explains what her job title actually means (hint: It’s nothing to do with cooking). Presented by...

It's a source of anxiety for many disabled people that they will be forever overlooked in the love stakes, or that it might be too hard for some people to keep a relationship going with them. On this week's takeover show from Ouch, three non-disabled women, Mel, Jo and Candy discuss the life they have with their disabled partners. Find out how Candy reacted when someone assumed she was either a ca...

This week Amit Patel, owner of Kika the guide dog, has been in the news again. Last year BBC Ouch made a video about how he straps a video camera to her harness in order to record the looks, stares and reactions from people around him on the street. When he comes home, he shows it to his wife who gives him a commentary on what happened that Amit wasn't aware of ... or was suspicious of. Now that c...

St Valentine's Day is almost here. It's a time for chocolates, champagne and swiping right. But disabled people often have some extra uncertainties to factor in. When is the right time to tell your internet date that you are disabled - before you meet, or when you meet? And is it much harder to snag a date if you're disabled and also transgender, for instance? Presenters Kate Monaghan and Simon Mi...

Youtuber Stef Sanjati talks about her Waardenburg syndrome and being transgender.

Do you procrastinate to the point that you get very little done? And how do you break free? Presenters Mark Brown and Seaneen Molloy-Vaughan call it the Faff Zone and say it hijacks your mind. It's a mental health takeover on this week's BBC Ouch podcast. Drop in on the two as their lively and reassuring discussions give a bit of necessary focus and humour to living with mental health difficulties...

Ever been told “you can’t do that” in the gym because you’re disabled? Wheelchair-using gym instructor Kris Saunders-Stowe gives us the lowdown on everything you can do, including "wheelchair spinning" classes, and Bad Education star Jack Binstead talks about his love of the gym. We also talk to Becky who’s seeking a hot date on the latest series of The Undatables and do the public, whoever they a...

In a festive first we pit BBC Washington Correspondent Gary O’Donoghue against Watchdog’s Nikki Fox and BBC Ouch’s Simon Minty in a ferocious battle over disability dilemmas. Would they disturb a couple getting close in an accessible loo if they were desperate? Would they swipe left or right on a dating app if the person in question was also disabled and we get the lowdown on the horror stories of...

Chris McCausland is a stand-up comedian from Liverpool and about to take on Live at the Apollo. Some of you might know him from his acting stint on the BBC1 drama series “Moving On” or from the CBeebies show “Me Too” where he plays Rudy, the market trader. Chris is also blind and he joined Ouch’s Lucy Edwards to have a chat and a laugh about comedy, his sight loss and about his upcoming TV appeara...

Fanny Fust was a young learning disabled woman who was kidnapped and forced to marry a man who was after her fortune in 18th Century Bristol. Her tale has been rewritten by an organisation called Openstorytellers who support people with learning disabilities. They use true stories about disabled people not only from history but from their own lives as well. As part of Disability History Month, Ope...