In Touch

It is claimed that social media is so popular these days, that there are now more people using it across the globe than are not. But how easy is it to navigate and participate in when you're blind or partially sighted?

We'll be speaking to two social media influencers, who are using different platforms to educate people about sight loss. We'll also be speaking to Facebook and Instagram's head of accessibility, Mike Shebanek, about what they are doing to ensure ease of use for visually impaired people. And, if you're new to social media or tend to avoid it because its too tricky for you to navigate, we offer some general tips and advice on where you can go for help.

Over the weekend, Team GB's visually impaired athletes won multiple medals: including gold across the cycling, swimming and judo. We check in with our reporter Mani Djazmi who brings us details of those medal wins and interviews with some of our gold medallists.

And there could be many reasons why you'd be put off visiting the gym. It could be perceived attitudes or thinking that gyms may not provide the necessary adaptations for you. Well, under the Equalities Act, it is a legal requirement for a gym or leisure centre to make reasonable requirements if you request them and tonight, we'll be hearing about a gym that have done just that for their visually impaired members. We promise we're not trying to push you into training like a Paralympic athlete, but instead would like to show you that getting active can be easier than you may think.

Recently, there has been some criticism about the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games going ahead, due to a rise in coronavirus cases in Tokyo. Despite this, the games have commenced and on the show, we hear about how they were justified from the President of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons. And our reporter Mani Djazmi is in Tokyo and will be telling us who to look out for and about the atmosphere within the Tokyo site, given the pandemic restrictions.

And it may seem unlikely that someone who is completely blind can enjoy photography. But we'll be speaking to professional photographers, Pete Eckert and Karren Visser. Karren Visser is progressively losing her sight and she tells us how photography is helping her adapt.

Pete Eckert joins us from Sacramento in California. He has had a plethora of opportunities throughout his career due to his unique style of light photography - including shoots for Volkswagen, Playboy and Swarovski. They'll both be telling us how they do it despite having limited or no sight at all and about what photography means to them.

Website photograph: 0845 3 by Pete Eckert

It may not come as a surprise to you that, for many years, unemployment rates amongst blind and visually impaired people have been consistently high. This is despite government efforts to combat this. Well, the recent release of two reports has put disability employment back on the agenda.

And the sight loss charity The Vision Foundation has recently published their See My Skills report. It gives a detailed but rather bleak insight into the employment landscape for blind and visually impaired people. We speak to two people with direct experience of seeking work, the charity's Chief Executive Olivia Curno and previous Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and now Vice Chair of The Vision Foundation, Lord David Blunkett about the report and what their charity is doing to help the situation.

During the lockdown period, we all added an extra 40 minutes a day, on average, onto our TV watching time; whether that was watching live TV or via streaming platforms. But are there sufficient levels of audio description available able to accompany this increase? We'll be asking this of some TV consumers and looking into the minimum legal requirements for audio description, set by the UK's regulator of communication services Ofcom.

Goalball is the sport designed to be played by blind and visually impaired athletes. And, like all parasports, it has a classification system that determines what athletes will compete together to make it an equal playing field. However, some athletes of goalball believe that their classification system has discriminated against them because they are deemed to have 'too much sight' to compete at an international level. We speak to one of the athletes on this and hear about a new PHD research study that could determine any future changes to the sport's classification system.

Presenter: Peter White

Home learning can be difficult for blind and visually impaired children. But the charity Guide Dogs is aiming to change that with their new Tech for All scheme. Within the pilot of the scheme, Guide Dogs are aiming to provide free iPads to around 3,500 children to help them with their school work and overall independence. We talk to the charity's Director of Operations, Peter Osborne about the background to the scheme and we hear from a family who have benefitted.

If you've not heard of him already, we're introducing you to stand-up comedian Jamie MacDonald. We talk to him about his career to date, including his Radio 4 comedy series Life on the Blink and his latest project, a BBC 2 documentary called Blind Ambition. The documentary examines blindness in relation to the way creative people, across different professions, continue to create fantastic work despite losing their sight.

Presenter: Peter White

There has been more than a year of uncertainty about whether the Olympic and Paralympic games will actually go ahead in Tokyo this year. The Olympics are already in full swing and the Paralympic games will start on the 24th of August. Ahead of the games, we hear from two visually impaired para athletes, Alison Peasgood of triathlon and Elliot Stewart of judo, about how the past year has been. We hear about their training and fitness levels and how they're feeling about heading to Tokyo to compete.

We'll also hear from Team GB's Paralympic Chef de Mission - the woman taking our athletes to the games, Penny Briscoe and BBC World Service's Mani Djazmi on the medal hopefuls for this year.

Presenter: Peter White

Plans to require voters to show photo ID at polling stations were recently introduced in Parliament under the Elections Bill. But The RNIB are concerned that this will make the electoral process even less accessible for blind and partially sighted voters, who are seemingly disproportionately less likely to hold a passport or driving licence. We talk to the RNIB's Director of Development Keith Valentine about the charity's concerns surrounding this.

And we get some answers from Network Rail's Head of Public and Passenger Safety, Allan Spence about their plans for tactile paving across their network. There have been some promising signs emerging from Network Rail over the last 12 months, as they have installed tactile on a significant number of platform edges. However, their current plans to equip all stations by 2029 has been dubbed by charities as not being quick enough. Tonight, we're asking whether this installation could be sped up, what funds are available for said installation and whether any temporary safety measures are being put in place whilst these plans are being carried out.

Presenter: Peter White

There have been some promising signs emerging from Network Rail over the last 12 months around the installation of tactile paving on the edge of their train station platforms.

We revisit the discussion about braille’s future within the technological age. Since braille’s invention by Louise Braille almost 300 years ago, it is undeniable that braille has radically enhanced the lives of some blind people and, of course, has continued to do so ever since. But it is also true that it can be a complicated system to learn, it can take great sensitivity of touch, and is only mastered comfortably by a very small percentage of the population.

Presenter: Peter White

Fern Lulham sits in for Peter White.

Wheelie bins pose yet another potential obstacle for blind and visually impaired people when navigating pavements. North West Leicester City Council will potentially be able to impose fines to people who leave their wheelie bin on the pavement after bin day. Residents could be liable if there is an accident due to the obstruction. They have recently launched a consultation exercise, that will ask local residents about their thoughts on how to pave their way to a solution.

Becoming a parent can be both a scary and incredibly exciting experience - especially if you are blind or have a visual impairment. We hear the experiences of some new parents, from when they were expecting to what it is like now they have their little bundles of joy.

Are you thinking of having children? We offer some advice from Kate Crofts from Blind Parents UK.

Producer: Beth Hemmings