Our expert panel looks ahead to what 2025 is likely to bring for disabled people and mental health service users.

They discuss ongoing issues which are likely to carry on making headlines in 2025 – such as the Assisted Dying Bill and changes to disability benefits.

Presenter: Emma Tracey

It’s been a busy year for disabled people. From the Paralympics in Paris to the first ever blind winner of Strictly Come Dancing to a new generation of disabled MPs getting elected to parliament, 2024 has seen its fair share of disabled high achievers.

But what’s been YOUR favourite? This special festive episode features a look back at the past year on Access All - as well as the big moments famous friends of the programme have chosen as their 2024 highlights. It also includes the responses our listeners have sent in.

Also on the show - BBC Senior North America correspondent Gary O’Donoghue drops by to talk about what it’s like working as a blind journalist covering the US - and the moment he found himself on the scene at a rally in Pennsylvania when a gunman tried to assassinate Donald Trump.

AND The Choir With No Name - a choir for homeless people - round off our Christmas edition.

Presenter: Emma Tracey

Days after clinching the Strictly Come Dancing trophy, Chris McCausland chats with Access All’s Emma Tracey, who is also blind.

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Paralympian James Brown, who is partially sighted, has given his first broadcast interview to Access All since he won compensation from the government over his treatment in prison.

Brown reached an out of court settlement with the Ministry of Justice after he launched legal proceedings for being denied his access needs in jail.

He’d been given a custodial sentence for glueing himself to a plane as part of an Extinction Rebellion protest.

We also hear from Recoop, a charity which supports older prisoners, about the situation facing other disabled inmates in the UK.

And we hear from the writer Melanie Reid, on why she’s put an end to Spinal Column — her regular updates for the Times newspaper, which documented her trials and tribulations since she became a tetraplegic and a wheelchair user following a riding accident in 2010.

Presenter: Emma Tracey

A miniature, toy version has been launched of a scheme to help people inform others they have a hidden disability.

Mental health campaigners have warned the government to avoid "unhealthy benefit war rhetoric" strategy when it finalises its plans to get more benefits claimants back to work.

Presenter: Emma Tracey

The latest part of the Covid inquiry, which looks at the impact of the pandemic on the NHS, has heard powerful evidence from disabled people and their relatives for the first time.

More than 350 disabled people’s organisations have formed a coalition to oppose the Assisted Dying Bill.

The bill proposes that anyone aged over 18 in England and Wales who has a terminal illness with six months or less to live should be allowed assistance to end their lives. Safeguards within the proposals include two doctors and a high court judge approving the request.

The new coalition is being led by Disability Rights UK, which despite having long held a neutral stance on the issue has now announced it opposes it.

Emma Tracey speaks to DRUK Policy and Campaigns Officer, Bethany Bale and Professor Tom Shakespeare, who was one of eight disabled academics and campaigners to sign an open letter to MPs calling on them to support the bill.

Also on the show – Strictly Come Dancing insider, Reece Finnegan-Knight, comes on to spill all about blind contestant Chris McCausland and THAT blackout performance.

Reece himself is blind and works as an assistant producer on the show. He also runs popular TikTok account, Blind and Blonde, with his wife, Sophie, and during the interview reveals the inspiration behind their viral videos like “My Blind Boyfriend - the Stereotype edition”.

Presenter: Emma Tracey

Comedy actor Paul Whitehouse and his wife, Dr Mine Conkbayir have turned their focus to ADHD.

The Budget is done and dusted and the US elections about to start. How do disabled people fit in to these big political events?