Access services in supermarkets are, for some blind and visually impaired people, an essential service to gather the exact groceries you need. Services like assisted shopping, where a member of staff takes you around the store gathering items for you, are offered by a lot of supermarkets but some were suspended during the pandemic. Auriol Britton decided to take Sainsbury's Supermarkets to court when she had a problem with her local store in Bristol, primarily based on the suspension of their assisted shopping service. We invited Auriol onto the program to outline the problem she had and what happened in court.
Demand for eye services is rising rapidly and the NHS is struggling to keep up. Well, The Eyes Have It is a partnership between the Macular Society, Fight for Sight, The Royal College of Ophthalmologists and other sight loss organisations and they held a parliamentary a drop-in event at Westminster last week. They are calling for a national eye care plan to tackle the problems patients are facing. Our reporter Fern Lulham provides the details. (NB - Dr Peter Hampson is from the Association of Optometrists.)
And swimming can be a great form of exercise for blind and visually impaired people but keen swimmer Aletea Sellers contacted us when she had a problem in getting access provisions put in place at her local swimming pools. She tells us the responses she got, good and bad.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image. He is wearing a dark green jumper with the collar of a check shirt peeking at the top. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo, Across Peter's chest reads "In Touch" and beneath that is the Radio 4 logo. The background is a series of squares that are different shades of blue.
