Rnib Connect

Volunteers' Week 2024 runs from 3rd till 9th of June and we celebrate 40 years of the event by saying a big ‘thank you’ to all of our amazing volunteers. RNIB volunteer Dorothy Leeman chats to Barry Snell about her love of volunteering and being involved with the UK's leading sight loss charity, RNIB. Learn more about volunteering on the RNIB website - Volunteer to support blind and partially sighted people | RNIB | RNIB Image shows RNIB Connect Radio logo. RNIB is written in bold black capital letters and underlined with a bold pink line. Underneath, 'Connect Radio' written in smaller black letters. 

Do you match your prosthetic eyes to your glam outfits?  Pop musician and content creator Norma Night (also known as Kelsey Ellison) certainly does.  She talked to Amelia about her career and love of pop music...  Image shows RNIB Connect Radio logo. RNIB is written in bold black capital letters and underlined with a bold pink line. Underneath, 'Connect Radio' written in smaller black letters.  Image shows RNIB Connect Radio logo. RNIB is written in bold black capital letters and underlined with a bold pink line. Underneath, 'Connect Radio' written in smaller black letters. 

Kelsey Ellison uses her platform to challenge stigma and misinformation about prosthetic eyes. She went viral for reacting to a promotional video, and talked to Amelia about her experience... Find Kelsey on Instagram and Youtube as @kelseyellison, and on Tiktok and Spotify as @normanight. Image shows RNIB Connect Radio logo. RNIB is written in bold black capital letters and underlined with a bold pink line. Underneath, 'Connect Radio' written in smaller black letters. 

RNIB See Differently Awards are just around the corner, with the big night taking place on Tuesday 21st of May. People’s Postcode Lottery are the headline supporter of the awards, with players raising over £10 million pounds for RNIB since our partnership began. We spoke with their Head of Charities, Laura Chow. Find out more about the See Differently Awards here: See Differently Awards | RNIB | RNIB More about the causes supported by People's Postcode Lottery here: Helping Charities And Good Causes | People's Postcode Lottery Image: People's Postcode Lottery logo. On a red square a white box with a gold ribbon on top and then written in three rows below: 'People's' in blue, 'Postcode' in bold green letters, 'Lottery' in red. 

OrCam products uses a smart camera and AI technology to instantly read out text from any printed surface or digital screen. Tech Talk’s Dave Williams has been hearing about several devices in the range, now available from the RNIB Shop. More information can be found on the RNIB Shop website: OrCam Read Smart - Orcam Read Smart | RNIB OrCam Myeye Pro - Orcam Myeye Pro | RNIB OrCam Myeye Smart - Orcam Myeye Smart | RNIB

With the pressures and stress of life that many blind and partially sighted people face on a day to day bases there are more than likely many links between blindness, mental health and anxiety. Reaching out to a trained Psychotherapist or Counsellor might be a good way of working through the stresses and emotions of being blind or partially sighted. For Mental health Awareness Week 2024 (13 - 17 May 2024) RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey was joined by Freelance Opera and Classical Singer Victoria Oruwari who is also a trained Psychotherapist to talk about some of those links between blindness, mental health and anxiety. If you or someone you know is feeling the pressures of life as a blind or partially sighted person you will find a wide range of information and advice on the following pages of the RNIB website or if you would like to talk to someone you can always call the RNIB Helpline on 0303 123 9999 -  https://www.rnib.org.uk/your-eyes/navigating-sight-loss/resources-for-mental-wellbeing/guides-to-goo

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s theme is movement, from more active things like running or doing sports, to something smaller like going out for a walk in nature. Today, we chat with Julia Smith from Thrive, who shares her tips for gardening and growing your own produce at this time of year. Find more tips here: Gardening when blind or visually impaired - Thrive Image shows a woman walking through a lush green garden. She has short brown hair, light rimmed glasses and a red beaded necklace over a peach-toned sweater. She's passing two budding roses in shades of pink and rich purple.

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s theme is movement, from more active things like running or doing sports, to something smaller like going out for a walk in nature. And to help you enjoy the great outdoors a bit more, we’re joined now by Adrian from Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) who will teach you to recognise some commonly heard birdsong. Listen to part 1 here: RNIB Connect / Learn Birdsong With RSPB Pt 1 (audioboom.com) Image shows a swift mid flight with a pale blue sky above. Swifts are plain sooty brown, with a white throat, but in flight against the sky they appear black. They have curved wings and a forked tail. (Photo credit: RSPB)

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s theme is movement, from more active things like running or doing sports, to something smaller like going out for a walk in nature. And to help you enjoy the great outdoors a bit more, we’re joined now by Adrian from Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) who will teach you to recognise some commonly heard birdsong. Listen to part 2 here: RNIB Connect / Learn Birdsong With RSPB Pt 2 (audioboom.com) Image shows a robin with his bright orange-red chest and lovely round black eyes. Its head is turned gently and its perched on a dry branch. (Photo credit: RSPB)

The 13th to the 19th may is world Retinoblastoma awareness week. Amelia talked to Richard Ashton, the CEO of Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT), to learn more about the disease and who is affected.  Learn more about CHECT by https://chect.org.uk/ Image shows CHECT logo, an eye with a blue outline and blue centre with the white outline of a baby sitting down. The baby is reaching up towards a white sparkle in the eye and text around the eye reads 'Fighting Retinoblastoma Childhood Eye Cancer Trust'.

Each week we sit down with Matt Stringer, CEO of RNIB, to look at some of the big stories coming from the UK sight loss charity. This week Matt started by talking about the launch of the RNIB’s Be Helpful Guide and campaign which provides hints and advice for sighted people on how best to offer a helping hand or voice to blind and partially sighted people, wonderful news that His Majesty King Charles III will be continuing the Royal patronage of the RNIB and ending with congratulations to everyone at RNIB Connect Radio on winning Gold for Community Station of the Year at the 2024 ARIAs (Audio and Radio Industry Awards) on Tuesday 7 May 2024 in London. If you, or someone you know, would like information on the support and services available from RNIB, go to www.rnib.org.uk You can also call our Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or ask Alexa to call RNIB's Helpline. #RNIBConnect Image shows a smiling Matt

For all those lucky blind and partially sighted Swifties, Taylor Swift fans who do have tickets for the up-coming The Era’s Tour concerts at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Friday 7, Saturday 8, and Sunday 9 June 2024 there will be live audio description of the concert provided by two of ADA Scotland Describers. RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey caught up with Veronica Kinahan, who has described many Scottish Opera productions over the years but this will be her first description of a big outdoor music concert with fellow Describer Caroline Jaquet, to firstly find out whether there are any differences or not when it comes to describing an opera compared to the Taylor Swift concerts. Veronica then explained to Toby how she and Caroline will be preparing their description for the live concerts and how the live audio description will work on the night for those lucky blind and partially sighted people who do have tickets to the Taylor Swift concerts in June at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield stadium. If you do have

RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for the next in his regular Connect Radio theatre reviews. This week Vidar was reviewing Emma Rice’s up-to-date version of the French folk tale Blue Beard which certainly has a powerful political punch at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. About Blue Beard: Blue Beard the Magician makes hearts flutter and pupils dilate. With a wink, a stroke and a flick – things just seem to vanish. Cards, coins, scarves… and women. Puff! Gone. Without a trace. He meets his match when his young bride discovers his dark and murderous secret. She summons all her rage, all her smarts and all her sisters to bring the curtain down on his tyrannous reign. This celebration of female power – revelling in all kinds of naughtiness, sensuality, rage and joy – is a music-fuelled feminist revenge plot infused with high comedy, tragedy, romance, and just a

The Outlook Trust was set up in 2000 to offer adventure sports and activity weekends and holidays for young blind and partially sighted people with activities ranging from sailing, rock climbing, zip wires and much more all from their base on the shores of Lake Windermere.  RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey was joined by Jeff Davies from the Outlook Trust to firstly give a bit of background to the setup of the trust, then highlight the range of activities on offer to blind and partially sighted young people.   Jeff then talked about how all the activities that the Outlook Trust offer are facilitated and supported by trained instructors and support staff before ending with some of the feedback they have had from young visually impaired people who have attended their weekends and holidays. To find out more about the Outlook Trust and book a place on one of their adventure sport activity weekends or holidays for a young blind or partially sighted person do visit their website - https://www.outlooktrust.org/even

This June sight loss charity ‘Blind Veterans UK’ are encouraging everyone to raise money and mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, by getting creative with the number 80. As Hywel Davies has been finding out. If you'd like to support Ian's 'Blindfolded Bimble', you can find more information on his Just Giving page - Supporter of Blind Veterans UK is fundraising for Blind Veterans UK (justgiving.com)

National Galleries of Scotland are offering a free descriptive gallery tour and art workshop for blind and partially sighted people centred on Johannes Vermeer's 'A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal'. The event takes place on Wednesday 15 May from 10.15am to 3.30pm. This piece comes Scotland as part of National Treasures, a programme celebrating the National Gallery’s bicentenary. To celebrate 200 years of the National Gallery, 12 of the UK’s most iconic and well-loved paintings from the gallery's outstanding collection are being lent to 12 venues across the UK. Amelia talked to Meg Faragher from the National Galleries of Scotland to learn more. Learn more by going to the National Galleries of Scotland Website - https://www.nationalgalleries.org/event/visually-impaired-programme-live-gallery-vermeer-edinburgh Image shows RNIB Connect Radio logo. RNIB written in bold black capital letters upon a white background and underlined with a bold pink line. Below the line, 'Connect Radio' is written in a small

Sight Village exhibitions are a great way to learn more about products and services designed for blind and partially sighted people in your area. Hywel Davies has been hearing all about plans for this year’s Sight Village Central. Find out more about this year's Sight Village Central here: Sight Village Central - Queen Alexandra College (qac.ac.uk)

Some exciting news to share! RNIB Connect Radio was named Community Station of The Year at ARIAS, the Audio and Radio Industry Awards which are annual awards awarded for excellence in UK radio and audio presenting and production. Our Paulina spoke with Allan, post the big event to hear how it was attending and winning an award. Image: Yvonne and Allan smile wide as they hold up the award, which is a rectangle block shaped like a speaker. Yvonne is on the left and wearing a deep green dress and Allan has a crisp white Ghillie shirt with dark leather laces tied at the top of the shirt.

There are over 1 million adults with a learning disability in the UK and it is estimated that 1 in 10 adults with a learning disability will be blind or partially sighted.  Sight loss charity RNIB and the CareTech Charitable Foundation worked together to design and roll out a unique package of training to care sector staff supporting people with Learning Disabilities. Our Paulina Kuchorew spoke with Iain Kennedy from RNIB's Health and Social Care Team to find out more about the partnership.  Image shows RNIB Connect Radio logo. RNIB written in bold black capital letters upon a white background and underlined with a bold pink line. Below the line, 'Connect Radio' is written in a smaller font in black. 

Despite losing her sight at university, Victoria Harrison has risen through the Civil Service to become the new British Ambassador to Slovenia. RNIB Connect Radio's Allan Russell spoke to Victoria about her education, career and favourite assistive tech, not forgetting her guide dog Otto of course. #RNIBConnect Image Shows Victoria and Her Guide Dog Otto, Posing on a Very Grand Staircase