Access All: Disability News and Mental Health

Katie Cooke is a distance runner who has epilepsy. She runs, she blacks out, then she gets up and continues. Find out why she puts herself through this strain on Ouch's hour-long talk show where she is joined by Lee Ridley, also known as Lost Voice Guy, a comedian who performs using a speech synthesizer on his iPad (pictured here). Presented by Simon Minty and Kate Monaghan, produced by Emma Trace...

Punk band, Electric Umbrella, join us in the studio to talk about their new single Christmas As A Punk. The musicians, from the organisation of the same name, have learning disabilities and collaborate with professional musicians to combat social isolation. Lead singer Lawrence, percussionist Robbie and Tom Billington, who co-founded Electric Umbrella, came in to chat and we played their new singl...

On this hour-long show, we meet disabled people living in the Canadian Arctic and the Australian outback. Does cold, ice, snow, heat and remote living mean that these places are too inaccessible for them to function independently? Or do the communities rally-round in different ways to those connected towns and cities where access and independence might seem better? We hook up with a visually impai...

Five-time Paralympic medallist Hannah Cockroft confesses her winter training is "so boring!" following the vibrant Paralympic Games in Rio earlier this year. The 24-year-old wheelchair racer also reveals the struggles of securing sponsorship deals compared to some Olympic athletes and her plans and fears of working with the UK's up and coming talent. Presented by Beth Rose. To contact us, email ou...

Silent Witness actor Liz Carr has crowd-funded what she calls a "ramshackle cabaret" to celebrate this year's UN International Day of People With Disabilities (IDPWD). She did it because, along with her social media pals, she was upset when she had no focus for fun on the day last year. She explains it all in this week's podcast from Ouch and the fact it's happening in a venue which is significant...

Hypnosis has helped Stuart Thompson manage the chronic pain he experiences due to osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bones). A professional hypnotist, Stuart now treats people with similar conditions. With Emma Tracey and Beth Rose

What's it like bringing a new child into the world when you can't see? Ouch's Emma Tracey had a baby last year and has been learning how to do it ... and how things are a bit different for blind mums. In this podcast from August 2015, we caught up with her when her son was just 16 weeks old. The conversation then turns to keeping fit and trying to keep the weight off which is that bit more difficu...

It's a disabled hip-hop fight. Listen to what happened when we got a young disabled rapper into our London studio and linked him up with another disabled rapper in New York and let them freestyle. That was six years ago so we decided it was about time we caught up with that young fella - Harpreet Gill - as we liked his music so much. Listen in and find out whether he took the rapping any further a...

We're talking about siblings, "crip hacks" and trigger warnings on this month's hour-long talk show. (to find a transcript of this podcast, scroll down to the Related Links section on this page) Meet Laura Smith. She's 33 and has a slightly younger sister who has autism, is non-verbal, and also has epilepsy. We take a look at the expectations, the extra worries and mental health difficulties that...

Journalist Helen Purves reveals how she always finds herself mid-shopping spree when she comes around from a non-convulsive epileptic fit. The neurological disorder means she is able to continue her everyday life while having a fit, although may appear slightly confused or disengaged to those who know her. The BBC journalist says before she was diagnosed she thought instances of deja vu may have b...

This week, it's a quiz. Beth gets the rest of the team to guess the missing words from recent disability headlines. (scroll down to find a transcript of this programme in the Related Links section on this page) A bit like the game they do on Have I Got News for You but full of fascinating facts from the brain of Mr Cassidy. Also, in a bit of a departure for Ouch, we end with a short poem from Kirs...

Why are celebrities now choosing to talk openly about their mental health? Is it because social media gives us more access to all aspects of their day-to-day lives? Or is stigma decreasing? (a transcript of this programme can be found in the Related Links on this page. Scroll down to find it) To mull it over, we are joined by blogger Seaneen Molloy-Vaughan and social enterprise director Mark Brown...

On this month's talk show from Ouch: Tilley Milburn had a late diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome which meant she received assistance later than was helpful, and found herself living in a care home. She talks about the comic she has created for disability art group Heart and Soul, her performances and how she sometimes speaks to the world via her toy pig Del. James Leadbitter, also known as artist T...

Meet Matt King. He’s an engineer who works at Facebook HQ in California. He’s one of the people on a team who works towards making the big social network accessible. King explains the recent AI innovation on Facebook which describes photos to blind people. He talks about future aspirations and tells us what you can get to eat on Facebook campus, for free, at lunchtime. His favourite is a huge big...

The internet is becoming increasingly visual. How do blind people experience emoji's and is digital communication becoming more inaccessible? This episode was originally podcast in October 2015.

New research by charity Scope says 38 percent of us do it, but why? Emily Shanahan hid her Asperger’s and dyspraxia because she was being bullied at school. The London 2012 Paralympics helped her feel more positive about her impairments, and support dog Magic has given her confidence. Emily spoke to Emma Tracey.

Transport for London are trialing a badge which asks travellers to give their seats to passengers with invisible mobility impairments. Alan Benson from campaign organisation Transport For All gives us the background, and we find out what happened when presenter Kate Monaghan wore it on the tube. In Bite Me, a one-woman show about having therapy for bulimia, Joanne McNally ‘s eating disorder physic...

The 17-year-old comedian with cerebral palsy talks to Emma about politics, osteopathy and his time on Britain's Got Talent.

Nils Bergstrand lost his leg when he was shot in a pub in Thailand ten years ago. From his experiences he says he has "made the show he would have wanted to see" when he first became an amputee. It's presently on at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (scroll down for a transcript of this programme in the Related Links section) Presented by Emma Tracey. Find BBC Ouch on Facebook, tweet @bbcouch or emai...

Two comedians at this years Edinburgh Fringe have shows about being blind. Jamie MacDonald is gradually going blind whereas Georgie Morrell lost her sight for a year before regaining it. (scroll down for a transcript in the Related Links section of this page) From people's low expectations through to spiders, taxi drivers and the beautiful Spanish phrase for "disabled toilet". In-depth humorous di...

What do puppets and disabled people have in common? Quite a lot as it happens. In a play about a two-foot-tall cloth puppet Fred, threatened cuts to his Puppetry Living Allowance mean he loses one of his three puppeteers and can no-longer live independently. (for a transcript, scroll down to the Related Links section) Emma caught up with Fred at the Edinburgh Fringe and heard about his troubles at...

Mat Fraser and Kiruna Stamell cheekily read through a benefits application form. And Kiruna talks about a tandem skydive she recently did. Funny and fast-paced archive from 2008. (scroll down to find a transcript in the Related Links section of this page) Email ouch@bbc.co.uk , tweet @bbcouch or find us on Facebook. You can also take part in our new live video interviews on Facebook Live so go ahe...

What might help disabled people’s hospital stays go more smoothly? You'll find a transcript in the related links section. Stacy is blind and in kidney failure but has been handed leaflets detailing her dialysis and transplant options in print, which she can’t read. Will the new NHS England Accessible Information Standard, which comes into full effect on 31 July, help her? Steph’s disabled daughter...

Prime minister May has had type one diabetes since 2013 and, as such, a more complicated lifestyle in order to maintain her good health. A full transcript is available in the related links section. This week we meet Leonie Watson, an accessibility engineer who has had the same type of diabetes since she was a small child. She discusses how she can eat the occasional pudding by adjusting her insuli...

Some of the creatures in the new mobile online gaming phenomenon Pokemon Go are not accessible if you're mobility impaired. But on the flip side of accessibility, some say the game is great for your mental health because it gets you outdoors while you attempt to capture the Pokemon in your local area. (go to the Related Links section of this page to find a transcript) Visually impaired gamer Jemma...