Vision impairment organisations have launched a new education framework called The Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (CFVI). Its main aim is to define and clarify how those between the ages of 0-25 are to receive specialist skill development, by whom and to recommend best practices across the board so that all visually impaired children have equal access to education. We speak to the RNIB's Head of Education, Caireen Sutherland about what this all really means.

The Disabled Student Allowance (or DSA), is a scheme that visually impaired students at university can apply for to help fund specialist equipment, apply for mobility support around campus and get help with services like note takers. But, in a report assembled by Life Peer Lord Chris Holmes, it was found that just 29% of the number of students with a known disability were actually receiving DSA support. Moreover, those students who have accessed it have reported that the process is extremely slow and convoluted. We speak two of those students, Ramneek Ahluwalia and Paul Goddard and to Lord Holmes about the recommendations he has put to Government to improve the scheme.

The DSA is administered by The Student Loans company who are soon to be releasing the final details of a procurement plan, set to also improve the overall service of the DSA. We ask David Wallace, the SLC's deputy CEO, about what this will entail.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: pictured is a young girl with pigtails and pink glasses. She is playing with some colourful braille blocks. The helping hand of an adult is directing her fingers along the braille markings.

Audio description is a form of narration that fills in the blanks in film, TV and theatre shows. It tells blind and partially sighted people what visual elements they could be missing on screen or the stage. Many believe that the current provision of audio description is too low, as some of the leading broadcasters and streaming platforms are only just going above the legally recommended requirement of 10%. Despite this, a project from The University of York is looking to improve the overall quality of audio description and they are calling it 'Enhanced Audio Description'. Its aim is to provide a more immersive experience for both visually impaired and sighted people.

We paid a visit to an exhibition that is aiming to be the most accessible in the UK for blind and partially sighted people. It is based in Liverpool and is called Strawberry Field. You've probably guessed by now that it is an exhibition about the legacy of The Beatles. It was once a Salvation Army children’s home where John went to play and escape, now it is now home to an interactive visitor exhibition, café, shop and gardens.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: pictured is the steinway piano that John Lennon composed his iconic song 'Imagine' on. It is stood in the middle of the Strawberry Field exhibition. On the wall behind the piano is a large image of John Lennon's face, his eyes just peeping over the top of the piano. His face is made up of hundreds of individual black and white photographs of people who have donated to the exhibition. Above the piano hangs a TV screen with words that read 'Strawberry Field, The Imagine Piano'.

The European Blind Union represent the interests of 30 million blind and partially sighted people across Europe and with the war in Ukraine still ongoing, we wanted to know how the EBU are helping visually impaired people in Ukraine and those who have evacuated to neighbouring countries. We put this question to the EBU's director, Lars Bossleman.

For some, no matter how skilfully you use a cane, guide dog or technology to navigate to a certain place, often locating the front door of your final destination can be the tricky bit - especially when there are many different entrances. what3words is a navigation system that has split the entire world (even the ocean!) into three by three metre squares and it can help blind or partially sighted people pin point that illusive door or share their exact location with others. It is by no means a new technology or even the perfect solution but The RNIB have recently praised what3words as being a helpful tool for independence for blind and partially sighted people - when it is used alongside other navigation systems, such as Google Maps. We speak to the co-founder and CEO of what3words, Chis Sheldrick about how it all works and the RNIB’s Senior Manager of Inclusive Design and Innovation, Robin Spinks about how this service can really benefit visually impaired people.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: a gentleman is sat on a bench in a built up area with his smart phone held up to his ear. He has his red and white cane folded up in his hand and resting on his lap. He is wearing a navy flat cap, sunglasses and a blue shirt. The image represents the use of technology in providing some independence for visually impaired people when travelling alone.

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 work as efficiently as other countries' services do and that the RNIB's Book Share service should stretch further. We invited Jackie Brown onto the program to put this point to the RNIB's head of consumer and business services, Alison Long. We also invited Kevin Mulhern and Lina Kouzie to give us a wider, more international perspective.

The 2022 Winter Paralympic Games are underway in Beijing and Team GB's visually impaired athletes have already secured some fantastic wins, including gold, silver and bronze medals. Alpine skier Menna Fitzpatrick will bring home some of these medals. We spoke to Menna and her guide Gary Smith about her wins so far, how the business of guiding actually works and her upcoming races.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: pictured is Peter White inside one of the BBC's recording studios, interviewing Menna Fitzpatrick and Gary Smith. The two are on a computer monitor in front of Peter. They are wearing their blue Paralympic uniforms and white medical masks. Behind them is a white wall that is decorated with the British Paralympic Association's logo (a red lion).

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 accommodation once they have crossed the border into Poland. Olga attended a boarding school for the blind in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Andriy Butenko is also from Kharkiv and is in Poland helping refugees cross the border into safety. We ask them about the work they are doing and how the visually impaired people they are meeting are coping with the ongoing war.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: A group of three people are helping a visually impaired man to cross train tracks in Lviv, Ukraine. The visually impaired man has a cane in his left hand and is being helped up onto the train platform from the tracks. Another man wearing a blue outfit is helping him with his large duffle bag. The picture was taken in Lviv on March 5th.

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, the Office of Rail and Road, who are the railways regulator, has submitted its responses to the Government's Rail Accident and Investigation Branch’s report about Cleveland Gervais’ death. Within the report, it mentions that train operators have an ambition to get a lot of their tactile paving installation work done by 2024 to 2025 - but with no guarantee. We speak to the regulator about their recommendations and also to Network Rail about their ambitions to speed up their installation work and we ask for any further updates on their progress.

And last year, the Be My Eyes app made taking Covid-19 PCR tests more accessible to those with some remaining vision. Now, they have teamed up with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS Test and Trace to make Lateral Flow Tests more accessible too. We speak to someone who has tried out the service and who was involved in the pilot and to Will Butler, who is the chief experience officer at Be My Eyes.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: the picture shows a pair of hands, with a Covid-19 Lateral Flow Test swab in the right hand. The swab is being put into the Extraction tube. In the background to the left, is a blue medical mask and the Lateral Flow Test itself is resting on the table below.

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 or partially sighted. He puts his concerns to Microsoft's director of Accessibility Evangelism Hector Minto, asking what the company is doing to help. Peter also talks to Kelvin Duncan, Technical Consultant at accessibility consultancy firm Blazie, and to The RNIB's Robin Spinks about whether the UK's leading visual impairment charity should be lobbying harder for law changes to improve access to technology.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: pictured is a man in a grey shirt and glasses working at his computer desk. His back is toward the camera. Surrounding him are three computer screens, keyboards and office desk items (pens, bits of paper etc). In the background are a series of large windows that reach from floor to ceiling. In one of them, there is a reflection of another man working in another part of the office.

Below are some helpful accessibility resources from Microsoft:

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 television. We speak to her about this and hear her thoughts on our other items...

Love! With the world becoming increasingly more digital, we discuss access to online dating platforms when you are blind or partially sighted.

And American deaf-blind writer Cristina Hartman sparked a lively debate on Twitter recently, about whether or not it is helpful for people to describe what they look like. Do you think it is helpful? Does it allow you to visualize the person speaking to you, or is it just a load of unhelpful information? We delve into this.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: in the spirit of Valentine's Day, the image is of two people holding hands. The person on the left has a blue and white polka dot shirt on, with the sleeves rolled up. The person on the right has a large embellished silver bracelet and is wearing a matching blue and white polka dot shirt. In the background is a large pool of water, seemingly a river or a lake, with the sunset reflecting off of the water.

Casualty clips and theme tune used by permission of the BBC One Casualty Production team.

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 vote and they have issued an online petition. We speak to the Chair of the RNIB, Anna Tylor and also to Rachael Andrews, who initiated (and won) a high court ruling that the current accessibility provisions for blind and partially sighted people at polling stations is unlawful.

A new educational astronomy project, called Audio Universe, has been launched by the universities of Newcastle and Portsmouth. It's a guided tour of our galaxy, and its aim is to allow people full access to the wonders of the universe, and to encourage visually impaired people to become keen amateur astronomers, or even contemplate a career in astronomy. They've done this by turning the light from objects in space into sounds so that blind and partially sighted people can hear, spatially, where different planets and stars are located within our galaxy. We hear some of the project, we speak to two youngsters who have experienced the Audio Universe and also to blind astronomer Dr Nic Bonne, who is also the expert tour guide in the project. We also speak to Rachel Lambert, a teacher for visually impaired children and the space ship's captain.

The music in the project is by Dr Leigh Harrison, the sound design is by Dr Chris Harrison of Newcastle University and Dr James Trayford of the University of Portsmouth.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: pictured is planet Earth and other distant stars in our galaxy. The image shows these from outer space. In the top left is a series of bright blue stars, surrounded by smaller stars that are less bright and more distant. In the foreground is Earth, with half of it in darkness. In the top right is a series of bright red stars, which perhaps represent other planets or large stars.

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 outline their concerns and what this all means for blind or partially sighted pedestrians.

You may be a fan of cartoons or animated films, but have you ever had a go at making one? 11-year-old Elodie Bateson has been blind since birth, but she does not let this stop her creating short films on her iPad. Our reporter, Fern Lulham found out how she does it.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: pictured is a woman, dressed in dark clothing and a hat, crossing a road with a black guide dog and a white cane. At the top left of the image is a series of parked cars, with a large white van at the forefront of them. The sun is shining down on the road and is reflecting off of the pavement.