In Touch

The Royal National College for the Blind has sold its southern campus to Herefordshire Council. Peter asks why did it have to be sold, and why did the council want to buy it? After 25 years of providing services to visually-impaired people in Merseyside, Henshaws Society for the Blind is moving out of Liverpool. Henshaws' director of community services tells us why. Jo Parsons used to be a chef before retiring to Devon a few years ago. She has not stopped cooking though, setting up a pudding club in her local community, to fund cooking lessons for aspiring visually-impaired cooks. Yuen Har Tse is taking Aviva Financial UK to court for discrimination for not providing her correspondence in a format she can read. She tells us why she has taken this step. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Lee Kumutat

Dr Damion Corrigan wanted to be a medical doctor and when that seemed out of his reach, he took another route to working to improve medical testing. He says the field of science is opening up for prospective visually impaired scientists. Comedian Chris McCausland and actor Chloe Clarke debate whether it's a realistic assertion that all visually impaired roles on TV, in film and on stage should be played by partially sighted actors. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Lee Kumutat

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 Producer: Lee Kumutat

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 Producer: Lee Kumutat and Tom Walker

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 Reporter: Dave Williams Producer: Tom Walker