NASA tells In Touch about a condition that affects the vision of around 70% of their astronauts. It is called SANS and although the space agency aren't currently seeing hugely negative affects to their astronaut's vision upon returning to Earth, they are concerned about what could happen once we begin longer-term space exploration, with this being considered a 'red risk' of reaching Mars.

Presenter: Peter White

In Touch invites three stand-up comedians - Jake Donaldson, Sydney May and Lizzy Lenco - to discuss how they use their blindness as a source of material in their comedy routines.

For more information on our three comedians and where to see them live:

Presenter: Peter White

The European Accessibility Act is a new piece of legislation that will apply to EU member countries from the end of June, but what effects might it have on the UK given that it is no longer an EU member state. The Act covers a wide range of products and services that blind and partially sighted people use daily. To help analyse this are Antoine Fobe, head of advocacy and campaigns with the European Blind Union and Léonie Watson, Director of accessibility consultancy and auditing company TetraLogical.

The Audio Description Association is looking for more visually impaired people to join their organisation as members, with the aim of shaping the future of audio description provision for consumers. They are currently offering some free memberships and to find out more, email: [email protected]

Presenter: Peter White

The Association of Optometrists will be asking MPs to amend what they regard as an outdated administrative task that is delaying thousands of patients getting their certificates of visual impairment. These certificates allow people to get access to essential care services after a diagnosis, but at the moment only ophthalmologists can sign them off. Adam Sampson is the Association's Chief Executive and he tells In Touch about the situation and about how thousands of optometrists across the country could help with this problem.

The Rayban Meta Smart Glasses have been on the market in the UK for a little while now, but for some months, many visually impaired users have been waiting for a particularly helpful AI feature to land in the UK. The roll out of the Look and Tell feature has been happening over the past few weeks, but some visually impaired users had questions about the seemingly random way in which is was rolled out. We ask this, and other listener's questions to Chris Yiu who is Director of Public Policy at Meta.

Presenter: Peter White

Times are hard for many charities, and those in the sight loss sector are no exception. In a previous episode of In Touch, we heard how Guide Dogs needed to take action to avoid a deficit of some twenty million pounds. So what form will that action take and what does it mean for jobs, services and waiting lists?

We're joined by Guide Dogs CEO, Andrew Lennox who tells us about the charity's plans to deal with the challenges it faces and he responds to concerns being raised.

Presenter: Peter White

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Matt Wadsworth has, for the last decade or so, been working to make fellow visually impaired people's access to the food industry much easier. He developed the concept of Good Food Talks, which is now available as a free app, and it can provide a raft of restaurant menus in an accessible format and on the go. Matt has been working with food data management company Nutritics, to reach more providers in the industry. Nutritics are currently conducting research, that aims to better understand visually impaired people's access to the food industry. If you would like to contribute to their research by providing your experiences, you can do so via the link below:

https://app.glowfeed.com/survey/727a96ce-a100-4560-b6e0-e4e02527dda7?linkId=c807f9ee-c876-4e70-9ede-bc033b3e1f3a&channelId=b212f786-3cc7-4dc2-b762-bd2762389ab7

Also on the programme: Jixie Dye has been visually impaired all her life, and she has recently fulfilled a long-standing ambition of becoming a published author. She joins Peter White in the In Touch studio to discuss her new children's book, The Welsh Witch and her subsequent series.

Presenter: Peter White

Visually impaired producer of the children's television programme Mixmups, Rebecca Atkinson has created a new concept for customising television access. It is called Ultra Access and is currently available online for episodes of Mixmups. Rebecca, along with Kate Dimbleby from Stornaway, who are the interactive video company providing the technology for Ultra Access, tell In Touch whether they think this could become the future of interactive access to television.

Sound of a Masterpiece is an album created by visually impaired composer Bobby Goulder, that reimagines famous pieces of art work into music. It was created with The BBC’s New Radiophonic Workshop, with the aim of bringing visually impaired people closer to art and to experience it in a more immersive way. Bobby Goulder tells In Touch about the concept behind the project and visually impaired art appreciator, Sam Leftwich provides her critiques of the reimaginings.

Presenter: Peter White

Over the past nine months, the RNIB, the UK's largest charity supporting blind and partially sighted people, has made some of their staff redundant and, more widely, has made changes to some of their services. They have also recently published their ambitious 10-year strategy, that aims to improve the lives of blind and partially sighted people. The charity's CEO Matt Stringer provides an update on the changes implemented and what the future of the organisation might look like.

Presenter: Peter White

In Touch dedicates this programme to the late Dr Fred Reid. His long career in academia and wider achievements make him one of the great blind all-rounders, having contributed to national campaigns that made a real difference to the lives of many blind and partially sighted people. He was also a historian, author, sportsman and lecturer at the University of Warwick. Fred tells his own story, in a revisit to a dedicated programme from 2018, along with people who worked with him over the years and knew him well.

Presenter: Peter White

In Touch returns to the issue of welfare reform, and how the proposed changes to benefits are likely to affect blind and partially sighted people. A panel of guests, comprising of Dominic Milne, The RNIB's Legal Rights Officer and Kevin Mulhern, visually impaired journalist and broadcaster, whose been covering the issue of benefits for visually impaired people for the best part of five decades, provide general information on what is important to know but they also aim to answer visually impaired people's questions on how the proposed reforms might specifically impact them.

The Government is consulting on some of their proposals. To submit your feedback and to get more information, go to: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper

Presenter: Peter White