Whether you are a confident cook or complete novice, In Touch provides tips on how to navigate the kitchen with a visual impairment. We have gathered a panel of blind and partially sighted people with an interest in cooking and who have a range of experience, levels of vision and kitchen set ups, to provide their tips, tricks and work-arounds.

Presenter: Peter White

In Touch explores the barriers faced by visually impaired students when sitting their GCSE and A-Level exams, when obtaining both exam papers and revision materials in braille and large print formats.

Presenter: Peter White

Shopping doesn't come without potential challenges if you're blind or partially sighted: locating the items you want and, depending on your level of sight, being able to get up close enough to understand if what you’ve found is really what you were after. Well, John Lewis is the latest brand trying to help, developping a pilot guided shopping scheme within their flagship store in London. In Touch sent along Emma and Dave Williams to try it out and John Lewis' Head of the Oxford Street branch tells us about any potential plans for a wider roll-out of the scheme.

The Commonwealth Games will be taking place in Glasgow in July. The Games run every four years and welcome athletes from across the Commonwealth of Nations. This year, visually impaired sisters Astrid and Ursula Carroll will be competing in swimming, but for different teams (Astrid for Team Scotland and Ursula for Team England). How did this happen? The pair explain more and discuss their training, and what they are looking forward to about the Commonwealth Games.

Presenter: Peter White

With ophthalmology being the busiest NHS outpatient specialty, with around 9.7 million appointments in England in 2024, the Royal College of Ophthalmology's new president, Mohamed Elalfy undoubtedly has a busy three years in the role ahead. Mohamed speaks with In Touch about his plans for the College and about issues of concern to eye health and care patients, including the issue of long waiting times for appointments and potential new treatments for eye diseases.

Caroline Mackenzie contacted In Touch with concerns over whether or not her young grandson should learn braille. She has been wondering whether or not it will be worth his time, given how quickly assistive technology is evolving. Does braille have a future in the face of evolving technologies? To share your thoughts on this, please email [email protected] or leave a voice message on 0161 836 1338.

Presenter: Peter White

The Department for Work and Pensions is in the process of hiring nearly 500 new members of staff to help clear the Access to Work backlog and tackle long delays. The Access to Work scheme can help disabled people gain and maintain employment by providing funding for things like support workers and assistive tech. A review of the scheme is currently underway which aims to reform the scheme as it is struggling to keep up with rising demand, these new recruits are a separate measure by the department which aims to quicken the processing of people's claims. In Touch speaks to Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms about these new roles.

For the first time, the UK communications regulator Ofcom is introducing access requirements for streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and Netflix. This is following the Media Act 2024, and Ofcom's proposals will not only apply for audio description, but also for subtitling and signing. Cathy Taylor is part of Ofcom's Broadcasting Team and describes to In Touch what these new requirements could look like, and about a consultation which is seeking the views of access service users.

Contact details for Ofcom's consultation are below:

Presenter: Peter White

Ofcom has recently published a draft code requiring major streaming platforms to provide audio description for at least 10% of their content. This follows provisions in the Media Act 2024.

In this episode - a first for In Touch - Peter White is joined by visually impaired guests, Nia Greer and Glen Turner to discuss the audio description of their chosen programmes.

Our trio follow a broad approach, discussing not only the audio description itself, but also issues such as how easily it could be accessed and whether the 10% minimum provision is reasonable.

The chosen programmes are the first episode of:

The Dinosaurs, available on Netflix;

Scarpetta, available on Amazon Prime Video, and;

The Night Manager (Series 2), available on BBC iPlayer.

Who chose what, did audio description improve their experience and were they inspired to watch the other episodes in the series?

Presenter: Peter White

The government has recently announced a reform of the provisions for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) pupils. It promises more resources for children in need of support. However, there are worries about how these reforms will work for blind and visually impaired children.

Joining us for this episode is Dr Rachel Hewett from the Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR). Dr Hewett is the author of a report that examines the benefits offered by specialist schools for blind and visually impaired children - and the fear these schools may be overlooked in the new reforms. We’re also joined by Victoria Ward, head of visual impairment education at New College Worcester, a specialist school for children with visual impairments.

The RNIB's "Newsagent" service provides newspapers and magazines in an accessible format. Although now resolved, the service has recently been affected by IT problems. Iain Lackie is a regular user of the service and he joins us to share his concerns about how the problems were handled.

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.’

The UK's leading sight loss charity, RNIB, has a new CEO. Simon Antrobus took over the role at the beginning of the year, having spent the majority of his career within the charity sector, including the past ten years leading BBC Children in Need. In Touch speaks with him about the position of the charity's finances, their current recruitment situation, the organisation's priorities of the future and more.

Presenter: Peter White

Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate 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 of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

In Touch hears about developments within the video games industry that pertain to accessibility. Including a white paper from the RNIB which is calling for regulation on standardizing accessibility within video games and a more collaborative approach to make more games accessible to visually impaired players. We also hear about a free platform called Able to Play, which allows visually impaired and other disabled gamers identify what games might be accessible to them, based on their specific needs.

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

Despite some encouraging developments, many blind and visually impaired people complain that they are still unable to secretly and independently cast their vote at elections. With UK elections fast approaching, this episode examines the current situation. Ian Hamilton reports on an initiative in Scotland, and also joining us are:-

Rachael Andrews, whose action to bring a case to Court resulted in the Judge finding that the existing arrangements were "a parody of the Electoral system".

Duncan Johnson from Pakflatt, a company that makes the McGonagle Reader, a device designed to enable secret and independent voting for blind people, and,

Jackie Killeen, Director of administration and regulation at The Electoral Commission.

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