22-year-old Matthew Shiffrin contacted Lego to ask them to make instructions for their construction sets accessible to visually-impaired people. The blind Lego enthusiast had been devising his own, with the help of a friend, for ten years and making them available on his own website.The toy company has met the challenge and released instructions in a downloadable format for screenreaders, for braille, and to listen to directly online. Peter White speaks to Matthew Shiffrin about why he loves Lego so much when it’s not historically been accessible to him, and also to Fenella Blaize-Charity from Lego about its plans.12-year-old Hester is this week’s studio guest, and she and her Mum Sarah, try out the new instructions with mixed success. Hester also shares her recent experience of visiting a blind school in Ethiopia.Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Lee KumutatPictured: Sarah, Hester and Peter in the Radio 4 studio in Salford.
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News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
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Folge vom 03.09.2019Lego’s ‘Accessible Instructions’ Pilot
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Folge vom 27.08.2019The politics of power and blindness – part twoThis is the second episode of our series examining the times in our lives as blind people when we are faced with a loss of control and power entirely caused by our visual impairment. Both programmes look at ways of gathering yourself, restoring your dignity, suppressing that sense of powerlessness, and giving you back the control everyone needs to be functioning adults. Situations like feeling loss of control because of access, orientation and/or mobility. Handing power over to someone else over something you need help doing. Our thanks to everybody we spoke to during researching these programmes.Presenter: Peter White Producer: Lee Kumutat
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Folge vom 20.08.2019The politics of power and blindness - part oneThis is the first episode of a two-part series examining the times in our lives as blind people when we are faced with a loss of control and power entirely caused by our visual impairment.Both programmes look at ways of gathering yourself, restoring your dignity, suppressing that sense of powerlessness, and giving you back the control everyone needs to be functioning adults. Situations like feeling loss of control because of access, orientation and/or mobility.Inability to take part in a meaningful way in activities: moving house, financial transactions, managing forms and paperwork. Our thanks to everybody we spoke to during researching these programmes.Presenter: Peter White Producer: Lee Kumutat
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Folge vom 13.08.2019Where's my pizza?Guillermo Robles took the pizza company Domino's to court because he claimed he was unable to access their website and app to order his meal of choice using the software that reads the screen aloud to him. He also claimed he was unable to take advantage of their discounts, and build his own pizza. But Domino's argues that the Americans with Disabilities act, the Ada, pre-dates the introduction of websites that was passed in nineteen-ninety, and that in any case making its website accessible would place an undue burden on the company. Guillermo lost his case, but then won on appeal in a federal court. But now Domino's Pizza says that because lower courts can't agree on the online responsibilities of companies, the US Supreme court must provide some clarity.Quartz journalist Ephrat Livni gives us the facts of the case, and Chris Danielsen from the US National Foundation for the Blind explains why this case is so important at this particular point in time.Presenter: Peter White Producer: Lee Kumutat