In Touch pays a visit to two East Midlands highstreets to visit shops that have a direct connection to visual impairment. The first one, Seeing Solutions in Nottingham, focuses on specialist technology, provides some training and other technology services. The second store, a pre-loved clothing boutique in Castle Donnington called Wanted Wardrobe, is run by 'The Blind Stylist' Tilly Dowler.

Presenter: Peter White

What is it like to bring up a child who is blind or visually impaired in 2025? As a parent, how easy is it to find the right support and information and indeed, the correct level of understanding about your child's needs. Fern Lulham meets parents who attended a recent Parents and Professionals Conference hosted by Blatchington Court Trust, a visually impaired children and young person's charity based in Sussex, to discuss those very questions.

Presenter: Peter White

When it comes to finding the right screen reader to suit your needs, how do you decide which one to go for? It will depend on your budget, your requirements and familiarity. Earlier in the year, the company behind the leading screen reader made some changes to their pricing structures and another company within the market decided to respond to that with a limited-time discount. In Touch hears about this and provides information on what other options are available for the various computer operating systems.

Presenter: Peter White

App-based taxi company Uber have launched a new accessibility tool for assistance dog owners. The optional feature allows people to self-identify within the Uber app, which will inform drivers that they are traveling with their dog. The aim is to offer riders better support and to try to combat trip refusals. General Manager of Uber UK Andrew Brem tells In Touch how people can use the feature and how it will contribute to their combatting of refusals based on assistance dogs.

Fancy yourself a keen baker? Love Productions, the company behind Channel 4's popular baking programme The Great British Bake Off, is calling for visually impaired amateur bakers to apply for the next series of the show. Molly Midlane, Casting Producer at Love Productions, describes how people can apply.

Presenter: Peter White

We at In Touch have increasingly been hearing from people who say that if you're totally or near totally blind, you are harder to pair with a suitable guide dog and are being given lesser priority over people with more vision. These impressions have been circulating for a while and so we address them with Guide Dogs' Deputy Chief Executive Officer Peter Osborne.

Presenter: Peter White

The RNIB's long term strategy involves making substantial financial savings. One of the services proposed for cuts was the transcription on request of braille books and other documents. Following a high level of complaints about this, a year's extension of the service has been agreed whilst a consultation exercise takes place.

However, concerns remain, including from visually impaired people who use the service to obtain braille music scores. We examine the issue in more detail with the help of Connor Scott-Gardner, James Risdon and Stefan Andrusyschyn.

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

Changes at the Macular Society continue to generate a significant proportion of the contact we get from In Touch listeners. With the consultation exercise now at an end, we're joined by the Society's CEO, Ed Holloway. We discuss a range of issues with Ed, including the rationale for making the changes, what the new organisational structures will look like and what it means for those who provide the charity's services and those who use them.

Another development regarding macular disease is the clinical trial of Prima implants. The trial involves inserting a microchip with the thickness of a human hair under the retina with the aim of restoring a degree of vision. The BBC's Medical Editor Fergus Walsh joins us to explain the technology in more detail and with news of encouraging results.

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.’

Minister for Social Security and Disability Sir Stephen Timms provides In Touch with updates on the Access to Work scheme. AtW is the government programme that provides disabled people with support in the workplace; be that funding for support workers or things like specialist equipment. Throughout the course of this year, In Touch has been hearing many rumours about potential cuts to the scheme, which caused fear and anxiety amongst the scheme's recipients. Sir Stephen Timms addresses these concerns and provides updates on his recent consultations which were based on what the future of the scheme may look like.

Presenter: Peter White

The rumours continue to circulate about cuts to the government's Access to Work scheme. The scheme provides additional support for disabled people to get into and maintain work - such as specialist equipment and support workers. Following a summer of consultations, Disability Minister Sir Stephen Timms is due to begin a review of the scheme but what do we know at this point? To help dig into this is Liberal Democrat spokesman on work and pensions Steve Darling, who has been trying to seek his own answers from government about what is happening to the scheme, the RNIB and Sassy Wyatt, who is a blind freelance travel journalist and accessibility consultant. Sassy describes the issues she's facing when attempting to renew her award.

Design engineering masters student and keen space enthusiast, Abi Way is in the process of setting up a new charity called Boomerang. It aims to assist and encourage more visually impaired youngsters to pursue STEM subjects. STEM being Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Abi describes how the charity will do this and about her own accessibility barriers throughout her education that led to her trying to help other students overcome them.

Presenter: Peter White

Sight Scotland are a charity that provide support for vision impaired and blind people in Scotland. They have recently launched a report about the state of arts access across Scotland and a subsequent campaign that is calling for all venues across the country to be made accessible to visually impaired people. Scotland's culture secretary Angus Robertson has thrown his support behind the campaign but how will this all be done? To help answer that, Peter White is joined by Sight Scotland's Head of External Affairs and Campaigns Mark Ballard and Alistair Mackie, Chief Executive of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, which has already been implementing some accessibility features to better cater to their visually impaired concert goers.

When 24 year-old Haseeb Jabbar wanted to study computer science at GCSE and A-Levels, he was told that the course would be too visual and too difficult to adapt for someone who was totally blind. Despite this, Haseeb already had the skills necessary from teaching himself computer coding using screen reading software when he was a youngster and he now works for a global IT consultancy firm. Haseeb tells In Touch about his journey from being told no to achieving the career he'd always wanted.

Presenter: Peter White