NEWSLETTER No. 365

Jon Richardson, Ralf Little, Dr Hilary Jones and Mathew Baynton are just a few in a growing list of celebrities who have recorded bedtime stories to highlight the need for more accessible audiobooks for blind and partially sighted children. They’ve lent their voices to RSBC’s new campaign which aims to ensure that children with vision impairments don’t miss out on the magic of bedtime stories. Each celebrity has generously given up their time to record themselves reading their favourite children’s stories and poems to support RSBC in tackling the chronic shortage of audiobooks for children with vision impairments.

Read the full story and find out how you can upload your favourite bedtime stories to the Bedtime Donations app here: https://www.rsbc.org.uk/blogs/news/famous-voices-unite-to-bringbedtime-stories-to-blindchildren#:~:text=The%20Bedtime%20Donations%20campaign%20is,to%20the%20magic%20of%20storytelling.%E2%80%9D

Editor’s note: this is a fully accessible app, available through the Apple App Store and Android Play Store.

Street obstacles like pavement parking and overgrown greenery are preventing blind and partially sighted people across the UK from walking around safely and confidently.

RNIB’s new report, In My Way: Navigating pedestrian journeys with sight loss, reveals the scale and seriousness of these obstacles and highlights the steps that the UK Government, devolved administrations and local authorities should take to make our streets more inclusive. The ‘In My Way’ report, which is the second in a series spotlighting blind and partially sighted people’s experience of getting around, is based on a survey of nearly 1,200 UK wide respondents, along with focus groups.

The report highlights that, while the street environment is crucial to blind and partially sighted people being able to make the journeys they want and need to, significant barriers to getting around mean that more than half (61%) say that they are not able to make all of the journeys they want or need to. Just 9% strongly agree that they feel safe making independent walking journeys in their neighbourhood.

Read the full report here: https://www.rnib.org.uk/news/in-my-way-new-rnib-report-onwalking-reveals-the-unnecessary-and-dangerous-barriers-on-our-streets/

On Friday 13 June, Fight for Sight hosted its first Early Career Researcher (ECR) Network event to help ECRs grow their network right from the beginning of their research journey.

Head of Impact at Fight for Sight, Eleanor Southwood said: ‘Bringing together members of our early career community is vital for building the next generation of vision researchers. We are incredibly grateful to all of our supporters for making this critical work possible.’ “Bringing together members of our early career community is vital for building the next generation of vision researchers.

Read the full story here: https://www.fightforsight.org.uk/who-we-are/charitynews/research-blog/connecting-the-next-generation-of-principal-investigators-in-vision/

Marie Tidball MP says she is joking when she threatens to chain herself to a Parliament door handle, but I am not entirely sure I believe her.

Tidball was born with a congenital disability, which affects all four limbs. She has foreshortened arms and legs, with one digit on each hand. When she was a child she missed three years of school because of the critical surgeries she needed.

The disability campaigner was elected as Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire last July, and says that while getting into politics is difficult, getting around the Houses of Parliament is hard when you have a disability.

Read the full story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crkz1j18g0do?utm_source=accessinformationnews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=09082025&utm_content=editorial

A UNIVERSITY of Limerick (UL) graduate has designed the world’s first fully accessible salivabased pregnancy test for visually impaired women. Leah Shanahan from Tralee, County Kerry, graduated with a degree in Product Design and Technology at UL’s autumn conferring ceremonies, making her mark with her innovative final year project.

Her bar-raising new product, ‘AMY’, is the first of its kind and delivers pregnancy test results through touch, sight, and sound using photosensor technology similar to that found in digital pregnancy tests – making it a welcome departure for people living with visual or other physical impairments.

After taking the test, a raised plus or minus symbol can be felt by touch. Users can also tap the test with their phone to open a webpage where they will view a bold red or green symbol (for positive or negative) along with large, high-contrast text for those who are partially sighted. Users can also choose to hear the result aloud.

Read the full story here: https://www.limerickpost.ie/2025/08/31/ul-grad-designs-worldsfirst-fully-accessible-pregnancy-test/