NEWSLETTER No. 373

Portsmouth Libraries have a webinar coming up on 10 June 2026, starting at 10:00 am, as part of the Living Knowledge Network. This webinar is for anyone in libraries, archives and the broader GLAM sector interested in widening access, co-production and reinterpreting collections in inclusive ways.

Further info. on this session can be found at: https://staff.living-knowledge-network.co.uk/webinar/access-first-co-creating-inclusive-collections-experiences
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/access-first-co-creating-inclusive-collections-experiences-tickets-1986906702433?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

RNIB and the Motability Foundation commissioned and have now premiered a new short film, Nyla’s Story, which aims to reimagine transport systems that truly work for blind and partially sighted people. The film aims to influence accessible transport thinking by sharing lived experience insights and learning from Future Journeys to encourage meaningful action by decision makers.

On 29th April, Nyla’s Story, made by Bowman and Poole, premiered at the British Library in London, which follows Nyla, a teenager with sight loss, on a journey in the future where transport is safe and accessible for her. The film depicted the potential for seamless independent travel for blind and partially sighted people.

It showed how innovative technology, use of data and thoughtful street design can revolutionise how blind and partially sighted people travel by foot and public transport. The film is part of Future Journeys, a bold new project delivered in partnership by RNIB and the Motability Foundation, which explores how journeys could be better for people with sight loss.​

Read the full article here: https://www.rnib.org.uk/news/new-film-depicts-future-travel-for-people-with-sight-loss/

A 14-year-old girl who has been blind since birth had to make a 140-mile round trip to attend a cinema screening after struggling to find an accessible option closer to home. Eryn said the journey, which took about three hours in total, was necessary because the cinema was the only one her family could find offering audio description headsets for The Magic Faraway Tree, a film adapted from Enid Blyton’s book series. Her family contacted several local cinemas, including the nearest to their home, but were told none could accommodate her needs. Eryn says more cinemas should offer audio description headsets for blind and visually impaired people.

Eryn was born with a rare congenital disorder called septo-optic dysplasia, which means she has been blind since birth. She said it impacted many aspects of her life, including schoolwork and hobbies “I’m not able to have the same hobbies either, such as watching movies or going to the cinema. I’m not able to enjoy visuals. I wish I could go to the cinema more”.

BBC News NI has contacted IMC Cinemas for a response and asked other cinema chains what services they provide for blind and visually impaired audiences. Fermanagh and South Tyrone DUP MLA, Deborah Erskine, said this issue was first raised with her several years ago and brought to the attention of the IMC cinema group, but she said little appeared to have changed.

Read the full article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c15d8q8w0xdo

Fight for Sight (www.fightforsight.org.uk) believe blindness or vision loss shouldn’t be a barrier to opportunity. Yet the number of people in employment remains stubbornly low: fewer than 1 in 3 blind or vision impaired people in the UK is in paid work. The impact of this is devastating – economically, socially and in terms of well-being.

The purpose of their Digital Inclusion fund is to improve access to employment for blind and vision impaired people by driving digital inclusion at crucial points as people start to get themselves work ready and start or develop their careers. “We are proud to share the four projects that have been awarded this grant, all dedicated to delivering a step-change in people’s ability to know what’s out there, how to access and use it and how to take control of their own digital development.”

The grantees include: Project VIEW (Visual Impairment Experimental Workspace); My VisAbility Employment Service; Employability Support for Visually Impaired Job-Seekers; and EyeT Transform Employment Project.

Read all about the projects here: https://www.fightforsight.org.uk/news-and-insights/news/social-change/unlocking-employment-through-digital-inclusion-meet-our-grantees/

In 1950, two researchers noticed something that didn’t quite add up. Hector Chevigny, a writer who had lost his sight in adulthood, and psychologist Sydell Braverman were studying the psychological lives of blind people when they stumbled upon an intriguing pattern: schizophrenia, a serious mental illness affecting people across virtually every known society, appeared to be entirely absent in people who had been blind from birth. The observation sat largely ignored for decades, held back by limited understanding of the disease and a lack of patient data. Then, in the early 2000s, large national health databases allowed researchers to follow entire populations from birth into adulthood, and the pattern held up.

The most rigorous evidence comes from a 2018 whole-population study tracking nearly half a million children born in Western Australia between 1980 and 2001. Of those, 1,870 developed schizophrenia, but not one of the 66 children with cortical blindness did. That sample of blind children is small, but the pattern holds across more than 70 years of evidence: not a single congenitally blind person with schizophrenia has ever been reported. The protection seems to be specific to cortical blindness, which is caused by damage to the brain’s visual cortex.

People who lose their sight later in life, or whose blindness is caused by damage to the eyes rather than the brain, can still develop the condition. This makes it clear that blindness itself isn’t the deciding factor. Something specific about the visual brain is. This might seem odd. Schizophrenia is most commonly associated with hearing voices, or holding unusual beliefs, not with vision. But the explanation lies not in what people see, but in how the brain uses vision to make sense of the world.

Read the full article here: https://theconversation.com/people-who-are-blind-from-birth-never-develop-schizophrenia-what-this-tells-us-about-the-psychiatric-condition-281369