In Touch

The Marrakesh Treaty, or more informally referred to as Book Share, is an international agreement that gives visually impaired people access to a world of accessible books - quite literally! Countries that have signed up to the Marrakesh Treaty are able to share their online libraries with other countries involved. But listener Jackie Brown raised the point that the UK's system sometimes doesn't w...

According to the United Nations, more than 2.8 million people have so far fled Ukraine because of the Russian invasion and amongst them are visually impaired people. Many have fled to Poland, where some could be offered the help they need by Olga Mahler and Andriy Butenko. Olga travelled nearly 10,000 miles across the world from Australia to help visually impaired people with food and accommodatio...

Last weekend marked two years since the tragic death of blind rail user Cleveland Gervais, due to him falling off a train platform's edge in South East London. Since then, the UK's train network operators have been coming up with ways to make train stations a safer place for visually impaired travellers; including the pledge to install tactile paving to all train station platforms by 2029. Now, th...

Technological change within the workplace is often rapid with frequent system updates. More companies are adopting software that operates via a web page browser - or what is known as the cloud. Listener Matt Johnson, a data protection and privacy lawyer, contacted In Touch to say he feels the move to cloud-based software in the workplace is causing serious access problems for people who are blind...

Georgie Morrell is a visually impaired actress and stand-up comedian. She recently appeared in an episode of BBC One's hit hospital drama, Casualty; where she was cast to play a visually impaired woman and guide dog owner. Georgie wrote an article about her experience in the Metro, where she spoke about how refreshing it was to have a visually impaired person play a visually impaired character on...

Amendments to the Elections Bill are making their way through Parliament at the moment. They are not yet set in stone, but they include some significant changes to our rights to a fully independent and secret vote at polling stations. The RNIB have raised their concerns surrounding the wording of these proposed amendments; they think it will water down our protections and assurances to a secret vo...

The recent amendments to the Highway Code give, among other things, priority to pedestrians. This sounds like seemingly good news if you're blind or partially sighted; but charity Guide Dogs have raised concerns that, especially in the early stages, these changes could be dangerous as road users take time to get used to the new rules. We ask Guide Dogs' head of canine affairs, John Welsman to outl...

There are many types of eye conditions that can cause blindness or low vision and we often get requests to cover some of them in more detail. Tonight we're discussing Retinal Vein Occlusion with medical retina consultant Luke Nicholson from Moorfield's Eye Hospital. We discuss how the condition affects the eyes, the causes and the treatments. What techniques do you have for reading the room in soc...

Like many things in the art and performance sector, there isn't much that blind and visually impaired people haven't been involved in. And drag is no exception. It is thought to have been around in the UK since Shakespearean times and the first recorded drag queen is thought to have been in 1732. It has a long and rich history here in the UK. Today, drag reaches far beyond just drag queens. There...

We're discussing three audiobooks: Cold In Hand by John Harvey and narrated by Nick Boulton, Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland and narrated by Imogen Church and The Pigeon Tunnel by John le Carré and narrated by... John le Carré. Peter reviews the stories and themes and, most importantly, the narration with guests Richard Land and Fiona Dunn. Presenter: Peter White Producer Beth Hemmings Website...

Kerry Burke, Eilidh Morrison and Reece Watt are all from Scotland and are members of the youth forum Haggeye. Haggeye first began in 2007 as part of RNIB Scotland. Its a place where young people from all over Scotland can meet to socialise and campaign on issues such as accessible transport, the need for more educational material in formats such as braille and audio and more. We speak to the three...

Back in 2007, Craig Lundberg was a decorated British Army soldier. He was one of the army's youngest junior leaders and was frequently being used by special forces. However during a roof top fire fight, Craig was hit with an RPG and was blinded instantly. Shortly after this happened, Peter visited him in Liverpool to hear about how he'd coped with his sudden sight loss. Back then, Craig's determin...

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...