Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

In Touch

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: Disability

News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted

BBC Radio 4 FM

In Touch: A new way of booking assistance on trains

A new way of booking assistance on trains

BBC Radio 4 - In Touch, A new way of booking assistance on trains

A look at a new way of booking assistance on trains for visually impaired passengers.

A train company turns to a voice assistant to try to make the experience more seamless for visually impaired passengers who are booking assistance.

Virgin Trains offers customers a new way of booking assistance during travel on its routes. It has developed a skill for Amazon Alexa-enabled devices. Emma Tracey tries it out for us and Vic Whitehouse from Virgin Trains explains why they've developed it.

Hester, an eleven-year-old visually-impaired student from Bath, is going on a fund-raising journey to Ethiopia. She'll be visiting other visually-impaired schoolchildren and doing a 5km run to raise money for the school. Hester says she's nervous but looking forward to the experience.

Mike Lambert believes more resources and effort should be put in to inclusion for visually-impaired people, after Liz Smith, a Conservative in the Scottish Parliament, put forward a motion questioning the current "presumption of mainstreaming" for visually-impaired students. He explains his personal reasons for why he is sure inclusion should work.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Lee Kumutat

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

In Touch

A new way of booking assistance on trains

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4