In Touch

Getting braille onto food labelling is the subject of an ongoing campaign by a number of disability groups in Scotland. Oban and District Access Panel, Disability Equality Scotland and Sight Scotland have taken their campaign to the Scottish Government and are currently seeking visually impaired people's experiences and preferences when it comes to accessible food packaging.

If you'd like to submit your experiences, visit: http://inclusivecommunication.scot/braille-campaign

Day Al-Mohamed may not be a household name here in the UK, but she is certainly making waves in the United States. As well as being an author, a broadcaster, a documentary film maker and co-founder of a company that helps disabled people get into film making, she also spent a year working at the White House. There, she was Director of Disability Policy and would review new legislation and current policies to ensure the rights and needs of disabled people were being met.

Presenter: Peter White

Dr Yusuf Osman was frequently getting information from the Department for Work and Pensions in a form that was inaccessible to him. This led to him to bringing a judicial review and he won it. Yusuf, along with the RNIB's Senior Legal Advisor Samantha Fothergill, describe what the ruling means for him and other visually impaired people.

Finding somewhere to rent at the moment really isn't easy, with low availability and soaring prices, but having a guide dog shouldn't be a factor that makes it more challenging. The right to have one in a rental property is enshrined in law, but Aleksandra Edwards has been looking for somewhere in the West Midlands for around two years and suspects that her guide dog could be a factor. She and Chris Theobald from Guide Dogs UK tell us more about this problem - that appears to be on the increase.

If you would like to submit your opinions to the consultations about the closure of the remaining ticketing offices at railway stations, you can call:

Presenter: Peter White

When being diagnosed with sight loss, it is often essential to be able to access your local sight loss support services quickly. This can be for things like long cane training, to guidance on Personal Independence Payments. We discuss the impacts of delays in accessing these services and the Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI). If eligible, this certificate can trigger support available from your local authority's sight support team - if it has one. We discuss these themes with a consultant ophthalmologist from Moorfields Eye Hospital, a patient, a rehab officer and an ex-eye clinic liaison officer (ECLO).

Further information: If you do not qualify for a CVI, you don’t need to go through the registration process to get help from your local social services. When you visit an optician, they can provide something called a Low Vision Leaflet (LVL). This contains contact details for sources of information and advice, along with a form that you can send to your local social services to ask for an assessment. Moreover, hospital eye clinic staff can fill in a form called a Referral of Vision Impairment (RVI), which does the same, but also staff are able state how urgently they think you require help, so you do not have to wait until the end of your treatment at the clinic to be referred.

Presenter: Peter White

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.

Selina Mills and Andrew Leland have both just published new books about blindness. Andrew's is called The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight and Selina's is Life Unseen: A Story of Blindness. Both books have similar themes, in that they assess where the societal attitudes towards blindness may have originated from and how they subsequently interweave into our modern society. Both authors are visually impaired and live on either side of the Atlantic, and so they join us in discussing the cultural and historical differences.

In Touch has widely covered the proposed closures of ticketing offices at train stations. Well now a public consultation has been launched by Transport Focus and London TravelWatch. It ends on Wednesday 26 July and to submit your responses, you can visit their websites or call 0300 123 2350.

Presenter: Peter White

Tennis has long been considered one of the hardest sports to adapt, especially if you have little or no vision. Well, it has been done and Amanda Green from Metro Blind Sport and VI tennis player herself, tells us about the history of where the adapted game came from. Amanda, along with totally blind player Monica Smith, also tell us about how it is played.

Presenter: Peter White

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.

Abdul Eneser is a blind student in Glasgow and he regularly uses the train to return home to Manchester. He could soon be taking legal action against three major train companies due to his falling onto the tracks at Manchester Piccadilly train station. His case will be brought on the grounds that there were a lack of tactile paving on the platform at that time and failures of the Passenger Assistance Service. Abdul, along with his solicitor Kate Egerton, provide the details.

Sir Robin Millar is a renowned music producer, who also happens to be blind. He is known variously as 'The Original Smooth Operator', due to his production of the iconic Diamond Life album by Sade. Since then, among other things, he has co-founded an artist management and publishing company, Blue Raincoat Music and is Chair of pan-disability charity Scope. Robin sits down with Peter and shares musings about his career and his recent knighthood.

Presenter: Peter White

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.

We often hear on In Touch about your frustrations with having to repeatedly provide your access requirements to many different organisations, for them often to not be listened to. Well Experian, the company perhaps best known for checking your credit score, have tried to come up with a solution. They have launched something called The Support Hub, where you can provide your preferred methods of communication and any other access needs in one place and they will distribute that information amongst your service providers for you. Experian's Product Director Paul Lamont explains more about how the service works and Pardy Gill tells us what he thought after trying it out.

The early stages of sight loss can be extremely challenging and so we thought we'd peek behind the curtain at the RNIB's Helpline, a service that aims to provide support through every moment of sight loss, but especially those more challenging moments.

Presenter & Producer: Beth Hemmings

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.

For some, getting out and about means a leisurely stroll in the sunshine. For others, it's taking on the challenge of hostile and dangerous environments. Our guests this week tell us about losing their sight and the part exploring the great outdoors has played in dealing with it.

You might associate entrepreneur and TV adventurer Amar Latif (who was awarded an OBE since we talked to him!) with challenges such as yomping in the Australian outback. However, his love of gentler pursuits is illustrated by his recent appointment as President of the Ramblers Association. Amar tells us about his plans for this role.

Wayne Pugh was left devastated when he suddenly lost his sight thirteen years ago. Now however he has re-discovered his zest for life and is literally reaching new heights. Not content with climbing Ben Nevis, he became the first blind person to complete the Elie chainwalk. Wayne tells us about his journey from heartbreak to happiness..

Presenter: Peter White

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 question of closing railway ticket offices has been in the headlines recently. Indeed, it remains one of the stumbling blocks to a settlement in the long running dispute between rail unions and train operators. One operator has already stopped selling tickets at discounted rates from their ticket offices for "same day" travel. This leaves travellers needing to use the internet or ticket vending machines to take advantage of reduced rates for same day journeys. We discuss what this means for visually impaired people with the help of Tony Miles from Modern Railways magazine.

Meanwhile, on the buses, we report on a trial aiming to make bus stations more accessible. Transport for West Midlands has unveiled new smart codes at Wolverhampton Bus Station, giving passengers immediate access to wayfinding details and travel information on their mobile phones. To get an update on the trial and what it might mean for accessible bus travel in the future, we hear from RNIB's Robin Spinks and Gary Leek from Transport for West Midlands .

Presenter: Peter White

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