In Touch

BBC Radio 4

4.3 (37)
SOCIETY & CULTURE
UPDATED FORTNIGHTLY

News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted

9 HR AGO

Pocklington Lodge

Pocklington Lodge is the last of the Thomas Pocklington Trust's housing complexes. The charity plans to sell the property, as a result of changes in their strategy and expertise over the years. In Touch visits Pocklington Lodge to hear from some of the residents, who fear what the sale of their complex could mean for the future of their homes. In Touch also visits Pocklington's headquarters to chat through reasons behind the decision with CEO, Charles Colquhoun. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Jack Thomason Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

19 min
10 JUN

Funding for Specialist Education

New College Worcester, who are a residential school and provider of specialist education for visually impaired children, has launched a campaign seeking wider government support for the provision of specialist education. The campaign takes a broad approach, asking government for greater support across both mainstream and specialist education settings. The College Principal, Rachel Perks, provides details of their campaign, along with some other signatories and parents. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Jack Thomason Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

19 min
3 JUN

Visually Impaired People in Space; NASA on SANS

NASA tells In Touch about a condition that affects the vision of around 70% of their astronauts. It is called SANS and although the space agency aren't currently seeing hugely negative affects to their astronaut's vision upon returning to Earth, they are concerned about what could happen once we begin longer-term space exploration, with this being considered a 'red risk' of reaching Mars. Dr Sheri Wells-Jensen is a huge space enthusiast and within her role as a Linguistics professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, her focus is on welcoming disability as necessary part of future space exploration and potential occupation. Sheri describes the concept of her work and also shares her experience of flying in micro-gravity. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Jack Thomason Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

14 min
27 MAY

Joking about Blindness

In Touch invites three stand-up comedians - Jake Donaldson, Sydney May and Lizzy Lenco - to discuss how they use their blindness as a source of material in their comedy routines. For more information on our three comedians and where to see them live: Jake Donaldson: linktr.ee/jakedonaldson Sydney May: sydneymay.co.uk and Sydney May on social media. Lizzy Lenco on social media. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Jack Thomason Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

19 min
20 MAY

The European Accessibility Act; The Audio Description Association

The European Accessibility Act is a new piece of legislation that will apply to EU member countries from the end of June, but what effects might it have on the UK given that it is no longer an EU member state. The Act covers a wide range of products and services that blind and partially sighted people use daily. To help analyse this are Antoine Fobe, head of advocacy and campaigns with the European Blind Union and Léonie Watson, Director of accessibility consultancy and auditing company TetraLogical. The Audio Description Association is looking for more visually impaired people to join their organisation as members, with the aim of shaping the future of audio description provision for consumers. They are currently offering some free memberships and to find out more, email: membership@audiodescription.co.uk Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Liz Poole Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

19 min
13 MAY

Visual Impairment Registration; An Interview with Meta

The Association of Optometrists will be asking MPs to amend what they regard as an outdated administrative task that is delaying thousands of patients getting their certificates of visual impairment. These certificates allow people to get access to essential care services after a diagnosis, but at the moment only ophthalmologists can sign them off. Adam Sampson is the Association's Chief Executive and he tells In Touch about the situation and about how thousands of optometrists across the country could help with this problem. The Rayban Meta Smart Glasses have been on the market in the UK for a little while now, but for some months, many visually impaired users have been waiting for a particularly helpful AI feature to land in the UK. The roll out of the Look and Tell feature has been happening over the past few weeks, but some visually impaired users had questions about the seemingly random way in which is was rolled out. We ask this, and other listener's questions to Chris Yiu who is Director of Public Policy at Meta. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Liz Poole Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

19 min
6 MAY

Guide Dogs - The Future

Times are hard for many charities, and those in the sight loss sector are no exception. In a previous episode of In Touch, we heard how Guide Dogs needed to take action to avoid a deficit of some twenty million pounds. So what form will that action take and what does it mean for jobs, services and waiting lists? We're joined by Guide Dogs CEO, Andrew Lennox who tells us about the charity's plans to deal with the challenges it faces and he responds to concerns being raised. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Fern Lulham Production Coordinator: Liz Poole Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three individual white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch"; and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

19 min
29 APR

Accessible Menus in Restaurants, Children's Author Jixie Dye

Matt Wadsworth has, for the last decade or so, been working to make fellow visually impaired people's access to the food industry much easier. He developed the concept of Good Food Talks, which is now available as a free app, and it can provide a raft of restaurant menus in an accessible format and on the go. Matt has been working with food data management company Nutritics, to reach more providers in the industry. Nutritics are currently conducting research, that aims to better understand visually impaired people's access to the food industry. If you would like to contribute to their research by providing your experiences, you can do so via the link below: https://app.glowfeed.com/survey/727a96ce-a100-4560-b6e0-e4e02527dda7?linkId=c807f9ee-c876-4e70-9ede-bc033b3e1f3a&channelId=b212f786-3cc7-4dc2-b762-bd2762389ab7 Also on the programme: Jixie Dye has been visually impaired all her life, and she has recently fulfilled a long-standing ambition of becoming a published author. She joins Peter White in the In Touch studio to discuss her new children's book, The Welsh Witch and her subsequent series. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Liz Poole Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

19 min

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4.3

out of 5

37 Ratings

Books of blindness im birth blind

19/07/2023

rat tap

In touch, I am born blind, but I get accused all the time. I’ve actually got no vision never had any but I still get accused because my eyes look normal and I will look at the sound and if I hear something turning such as a page I still look at it yet I still get accused it does not matter how much is eight you’ve got used to live a blind enough to society know Visually Impaired person I find more offensive because I have no vision to be Impaired I actually have 1eye no site and a prosthetic have been accused of fraud before it’s quite common in sighted society no matter what you are doing I’ve even had my eys closed I look too confident with my cane & dog aggressor of people has got higher very good episode would recommend it. The book sounds good. Both of them well said what is blindness is the question
First Class information!

04/08/2024

DoilyWoman

All round informational programme for blind, partially sighted people and the general public. The best source of information and news for those can’t do technology. Wee still need the wireless! :-)
In touch

26/01/2011

Efjgrsjtsh

Great I love it
A brilliant, insightful show

30/07/2022

Slateford1997

I am not visually impaired, but I have a family friend who is and so I wanted to better understand the issues that people like him experience. I am so glad that I found this podcast as it is very well presented and is very good at highlighting the key issues affecting visually impaired people in the UK today.