In Touch

Virgin Trains offers customers a new way of booking assistance during travel on its routes. It has developed a skill for Amazon Alexa-enabled devices. Emma Tracey tries it out for us and Vic Whitehouse from Virgin Trains explains why they've developed it.

Hester, an eleven-year-old visually-impaired student from Bath, is going on a fund-raising journey to Ethiopia. She'll be visiting other visually-impaired schoolchildren and doing a 5km run to raise money for the school. Hester says she's nervous but looking forward to the experience.

Mike Lambert believes more resources and effort should be put in to inclusion for visually-impaired people, after Liz Smith, a Conservative in the Scottish Parliament, put forward a motion questioning the current "presumption of mainstreaming" for visually-impaired students. He explains his personal reasons for why he is sure inclusion should work.

Presenter: Peter White

Peter White talks to Cathy Yelf, the chief executive of the Macular Society, about the first treatment to target the underlying genetic cause of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

We feature feedback from last week’s programme in which we heard from Emily Brothers, whose guide dog was attacked by another dog. Guide dog owner Sandra Drewell, has had a similar experience.

And Peter talks to Charmian Cvek about her experience of caring for her mother who was losing her sight. Charmian tells us how her mother’s sight loss affected their relationship.

Presenter: Peter White

In November of last year, Emily Brothers’ guide dog, Truffle, was attacked by two dogs in Sutton, South London. As a result of her injuries, Truffle was out of action for six weeks. Emily was unhappy with the support she received from Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. Reporter Dave Williams spoke to Emily at her home. John Carlin from GDBA responds.

Also, we hear listeners’ feedback from the radio play, Blind School, which was broadcast on Radio 4 last Tuesday, and which we featured on In Touch on January 29. We also include your comments on the extended podcast from the same programme.

And finally, also following feedback from a listener, we hear from Hugh Brasher on the London Marathon’s U-turn to award official medals to guide runners.

Presenter: Peter White

Visually impaired tenants of a block of flats in west London, run by the Thomas Pocklington Trust, are concerned about the Trust's proposal to make changes to its housing scheme. They explain their worries and we hear from the Trust.

Is it right to presume that mainstream schools are the best places for blind and visually impaired children to learn? Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament Liz Smith has tabled a motion challenging that presumption. What does she want it to achieve?

Presenter: Peter White

Reporter Tom Walker finds out why the closure of the RNIB Centre in Bristol has locals up in arms. Colin Whitbourne, RNIB's Head of Network Operations in the South, tells us the thinking behind the decision.

And the writer Mandy Redvers-Rowe on the very personal story at the heart of her radio drama Blind School, which features a cameo performance by none other than Peter White. The play, co-written with Sarah McDonald-Hughes, will air on Radio 4 on February 5 and tells the story of Nina who struggles in her early days at Charlesworthy School.

Presenter: Peter White

Photo description: Colour photograph of the writers of Blind School – Mandy Redvers-Rowe (left) and Sarah McDonald Hughes (right) – stood closely together outside the College on the playing field, smiling at the camera.

Listeners tell us why they think their sighted running guides should receive a medal on completing the London Marathon. Organisers tell us these policies are under review.

The BBC's technology reporter Rory Cellan-Jones has been to Cambridge to see a new tactile innovation for helping teach visually impaired children how to write computer code.

Listener Annie Rimmer has got back to In Touch to share some good news she heard from the National Lottery about plans to make their app more accessible to visually impaired users.

And Listener Mike Kelly told the programme two years ago of his trepidation about his impending retirement. We caught up with Mike to find out how retired life suits him.

Presenter: Peter White

Dame Joan Plowright was discovered as a stage actor in the late 1950s before going on to have a stellar career – starring in The Country Wife, A Taste of Honey and as Saint Joan. She became Lady Olivier on marrying Sir Laurence Olivier in 1961. They were married until his death in 1989. Dame Joan took parts in film and television production up until 2014 when her worsening eyesight compelled her to retire.

She lives in her home in Sussex where she and Sir Laurence came to live once he had retired. She openly speaks of her career, her life with her husband and family and her attitude towards her failing sight.

Presenter: Peter White

Icons is an epic new history series for BBC Two profiling great people from seven different fields of human endeavour. It asks you to vote for your favourites, and ultimately decide who was the greatest person of the 20th century.

Icons: Activists is on BBC Two, Monday 21 June, @ 9pm. If you want to find out how to vote for Helen Keller or any of the other nominees featured in the series then go to www.bbc.co.uk/icons, where you can also find Terms and a Privacy Notice.

Extant theatre, a company of visually-impaired performers and directors, is about to start a new tour with ‘Flight Paths’ – the cast are Amelia Cavallo and Sarah Houbolt, actors and circus performers who perform part of the show on aerial silks. The show will be made accessible through creative audio description and new sound technology called spatialised tracking. The shows run from 5th Feb – 5th March.

Peter White talks to two of the performers.

Presenter: Peter White

Photo description: Promotional photo for FLIGHT PATHS 2019 tour by Chris Andreou.

In 2013, Norway's equivalent Equality and Human Rights Commission was given the authority to fine both public and private sector organisations if they didn't make their websites usable to a certain standard. There are suggestions from campaigners in the UK that the same approach should and could be adopted. Robin Christopherson from AbilityNet believes it is something that would work in the UK. Malin Rygg from Difi, the Norwegian organisation tasked with auditing websites, says they haven't fined any companies yet, but they have issued warnings. While Arnt Holte from the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted thinks while accessibility is slowly improving, he is concerned that new EU legislation only governing the accessibility of public sector websites, and soon to be law in Norway, will water down the powers of Difi and only see them being able to enforce accessibility on public sector websites.

The Netflix film, Bird Box, is its biggest hit to date, having been downloaded 45 million times since its release last December. It's a post-apocalyptic story where characters must wear blindfolds or they will contract a deadly disease. The film has spawned a social media craze called the Bird Box challenge where people are donning blindfolds and performing tasks and taking part in activities such as driving. Journalists Emma Tracey and Lucy Edwards discuss the film, and concerns raised by some blindness organisations, that the craze will have a negative impact on the public's perception of blindness.

Presenter: Peter White

Sally Clay’s recommended audiobook: Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson

Presenter: Lee Kumutat