In Touch

On the 10th of October, the Scottish parliament passed a bill which, in part, bans parking on pavements. It is the first nationwide ban in the UK. Joe Irvin, chief executive officer of the campaign group Living Streets, says it is a win for pedestrians and blind and partially sighted people. But how will it be enforced, and does it go far enough? What is it like listening to the streets at night i...

Burger King had to apologise after a staff member refused to read a brownie’s ingredients list to a blind woman with a nut allergy. So how should visually impaired people go about finding safe meals when eating certain foods has serious consequences? UK Hospitality safety advisor Dr Lisa Ackerley, and Philippa Lomas, a blind mum of two children with severe food allergies, share their thoughts. Des...

Lucy Edwards spent six years perfecting her beauty routine after she lost her sight, and has passed on all she learnt in a book called The Blind Beauty Guide. She gives fellow blind journalist Emma Tracey her best makeup tips. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Lee Kumutat Pictured, from left to right: Emma Tracey and Lucy Edwards standing in the In Touch studio.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal has found Bobby Qureshi put his own financial interests above the interests of his visually impaired patients. Qureshi was medical director at the London Eye Hospital, now under different management, implanting a new type of lens to patients who have macular degeneration. The tribunal found patients did not receive enough information on the risks prior to having...

Two visually-impaired opera singers tell us their stories. New Zealander Joanne Roughton Arnold chose singing opera over playing the violin. Alan Pingarrón from Mexico is taking part in a Royal Opera House training programme. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Lee Kumutat Reporter: Toby Davey

22-year-old Matthew Shiffrin contacted Lego to ask them to make instructions for their construction sets accessible to visually-impaired people. The blind Lego enthusiast had been devising his own, with the help of a friend, for ten years and making them available on his own website. The toy company has met the challenge and released instructions in a downloadable format for screenreaders, for bra...

This is the second episode of our series examining the times in our lives as blind people when we are faced with a loss of control and power entirely caused by our visual impairment. Both programmes look at ways of gathering yourself, restoring your dignity, suppressing that sense of powerlessness, and giving you back the control everyone needs to be functioning adults. Situations like feeling los...

This is the first episode of a two-part series examining the times in our lives as blind people when we are faced with a loss of control and power entirely caused by our visual impairment. Both programmes look at ways of gathering yourself, restoring your dignity, suppressing that sense of powerlessness, and giving you back the control everyone needs to be functioning adults. Situations like feeli...

Guillermo Robles took the pizza company Domino's to court because he claimed he was unable to access their website and app to order his meal of choice using the software that reads the screen aloud to him. He also claimed he was unable to take advantage of their discounts, and build his own pizza. But Domino's argues that the Americans with Disabilities act, the Ada, pre-dates the introduction of...

Michael Tupper from Clitheroe in Lancashire tells Peter White about legal action he is taking against East Lancashire Hospitals Trust because they aren’t giving him details on appointments and other information in his preferred format, large print. Michael is being supported by RNIB, whose legal adviser, Sam Fothergill, provides us with the legal background of the case. We also hear from LookFest,...

RNIB and manufacturer GEO are developing a smart meter that will be accessible for blind and partially sighted people. Audrey Gallagher from Energy UK tells Peter White about the meter and its accessibility features. We also hear from John Worsfold from RNIB who tells us about how the meter has been tested. The Department for Transport is conducting surveys on textured paving. Ann Frye, formerly h...

Caroline Casey has been campaigning for more disability inclusion for the past decade. Earlier this year she took her cause to Davos – the summit for big corporations. She wants 500 CEO’s to sign up to making and acting on one commitment around disability for their company. James McCarthy from Blind in Business, a charity working to boost the employment rates of visually impaired people at entry l...

For World Emoji Day the social media company We Are Social and the RNIB are collaborating to find ways to make emojis more accessible to visually impaired people. Sarah Bailey of the RNIB tells us what they've come up with so far, and we test social media expert Fern Lulham, on their uses and their meanings. The Tree of Dreams is a story about expectations, reality, fantasy and family, devised by...

William Phillips is a visually impaired cognitive behavioural therapy specialist who works to make CBT accessible to others with sight loss. He lays out how blind people can go about getting mental health support that suits them. There was a huge response to last week’s programme with Ashley Cox’s story about struggling to find a counsellor. We read a selection of your emails. Visually impaired ac...

From July 2019, all new electric vehicles will have sounds added to keep pedestrians safe. Transport minister Michael Ellis, gives us the government’s take. We also hear the thoughts of Jessica Schröder from the German national organisation for the blind, a member of the European Blind Union which led the campaign to add a sound to electric and hybrid vehicles. She tells us why she doesn’t think t...

Braille readers have enjoyed magazines from Scottish Braille Press for the best part of forty years. Now the charity says it is discontinuing all of its five publications. Scottish Braille Press CEO Mark O’Donnell explains the decision. Aletea Sellers moved from one side of Birmingham to the other about four months ago. She is still waiting for help from the Guide Dogs Association to learn her way...

Should blind people bother with the ironing? Blind mum Emma Williams and blind dad Allan Tweddle explain why and when you should bother and give our presenter Lee Kumatat a lesson and tips for getting it right. While some visually impaired people need a first aid certificate to move forward with education or work, some have found it hard to gain the necessary accreditation. Johny Cassidy meets Ala...

Blind and visually impaired prisoners in the US state of Maryland have been awarded $1.4 million by the correctional service for discrimination. They successfully claimed they were not given access to information, jobs and courses to give them equality within the prison or during rehabilitation. Eve Hill, representing the group, says some have had to pay for sighted guide assistance, and others to...

Joy Addo, sole parent to a three-year-old, shares tips on keeping her home tidy. Dave Williams of the RNIB says they have plans to increase the number of games available in its catalogue. And VocalEyes trustee Joanna Wood, tells the story of how going to a described theatre performance, revealed more to her than what was happening on-stage. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Lee Kumutat

There’s evidence that board games can sharpen cognitive skills and help us to connect socially. So why are the numbers available to visually impaired people dropping? There have always been fewer games available and most of us will have had to adapt a game or do something to make it work for us. Brailling your own cards, sticking bump-ons on boards and game tokens and having clues and questions re...

In Touch listeners share their voting experiences, and one Australian citizen tells how she was able to vote independently in the recent federal election. The European Blind Union has researched the main accessible forms of voting throughout Europe, and the results are surprising. A gym in Uckfield, Sussex has listened to the needs of one visually impaired woman, made some small changes, and enabl...

A sighted author on writing a book about a woman regaining sight. A project to tell the stories of blind women around the world. And one listener’s view on accepting her blindness. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Lee Kumutat Pictured: A blind girl learning braille in a school in India. Courtesy of the 'A Light in Darkness' project.

A landmark High Court judgment says tactile voting devices are 'unlawful'. And a new way of getting around Gatwick Airport. Presenter: Lee Kumutat Producer: Tom Walker

Two guide dog trainers from the Liverpool Guide Dogs Centre, Nina Swindells and Jan Johnston, tell presenter Lee Kumutat about Positive Reinforcement Training, which the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association is in the process of introducing across its twenty training schools. Lee also speaks to David Grice, GDBA’s Head of Canine Behaviour and Training, about the rationale for the new methodology. F...

Dave Steele was diagnosed with the hereditary condition retinitis pigmentosa five years ago. He found translating his grief and loss into poetry was cathartic for him, and quickly discovered that it helped others who were also coming to terms with visual impairment. The Colorado Center for the Blind in the United States, run by the National Federation for the Blind, offers a nine month course to p...