It may not come as a surprise to you that, for many years, unemployment rates amongst blind and visually impaired people have been consistently high. This is despite government efforts to combat this. Well, the recent release of two reports has put disability employment back on the agenda.
We ask the Minister for Disabled People Justin Tomlinson about this government's plans, outlined within their new disability strategy, to get more blind and visually impaired people into work.And the sight loss charity The Vision Foundation has recently published their See My Skills report. It gives a detailed but rather bleak insight into the employment landscape for blind and visually impaired people. We speak to two people with direct experience of seeking work, the charity's Chief Executive Olivia Curno and previous Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and now Vice Chair of The Vision Foundation, Lord David Blunkett about the report and what their charity is doing to help the situation.
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News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
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Folge vom 17.08.2021Disability Strategy and Employment
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Folge vom 10.08.2021Audio Description; Goalball ClassificationsDuring the lockdown period, we all added an extra 40 minutes a day, on average, onto our TV watching time; whether that was watching live TV or via streaming platforms. But are there sufficient levels of audio description available able to accompany this increase? We'll be asking this of some TV consumers and looking into the minimum legal requirements for audio description, set by the UK's regulator of communication services Ofcom. Goalball is the sport designed to be played by blind and visually impaired athletes. And, like all parasports, it has a classification system that determines what athletes will compete together to make it an equal playing field. However, some athletes of goalball believe that their classification system has discriminated against them because they are deemed to have 'too much sight' to compete at an international level. We speak to one of the athletes on this and hear about a new PHD research study that could determine any future changes to the sport's classification system.Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings
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Folge vom 03.08.2021Assistive Technology For Pupils; Comedian Jamie MacDonaldHome learning can be difficult for blind and visually impaired children. But the charity Guide Dogs is aiming to change that with their new Tech for All scheme. Within the pilot of the scheme, Guide Dogs are aiming to provide free iPads to around 3,500 children to help them with their school work and overall independence. We talk to the charity's Director of Operations, Peter Osborne about the background to the scheme and we hear from a family who have benefitted.If you've not heard of him already, we're introducing you to stand-up comedian Jamie MacDonald. We talk to him about his career to date, including his Radio 4 comedy series Life on the Blink and his latest project, a BBC 2 documentary called Blind Ambition. The documentary examines blindness in relation to the way creative people, across different professions, continue to create fantastic work despite losing their sight.Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings
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Folge vom 27.07.2021A Paralympics SpecialThere has been more than a year of uncertainty about whether the Olympic and Paralympic games will actually go ahead in Tokyo this year. The Olympics are already in full swing and the Paralympic games will start on the 24th of August. Ahead of the games, we hear from two visually impaired para athletes, Alison Peasgood of triathlon and Elliot Stewart of judo, about how the past year has been. We hear about their training and fitness levels and how they're feeling about heading to Tokyo to compete. We'll also hear from Team GB's Paralympic Chef de Mission - the woman taking our athletes to the games, Penny Briscoe and BBC World Service's Mani Djazmi on the medal hopefuls for this year.Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings