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In Touch: Guide Dogs and Guide Runners

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02/06/2020

Guide Dogs and Guide Runners

BBC Radio 4 - In Touch, Guide Dogs and Guide Runners

Guide Dogs director Peter Osborne talks waiting lists and lockdown restrictions

Lockdown restrictions ended training for new guide dogs. But one listener says delays started a long time before Covid-19. Guide Dogs' Peter Osborne tells us about the future.

The face-to-face training of guide dogs came to an end with lockdown. And the crisis has led to questions about how dogs may be losing their skills in this period of relative inactivity. Guide Dogs Director of Operations  Peter Osborne takes on questions about how much of the delays pre-dated Coronavirus and where the My Guide project fits into future plans. You can contact their helpline on 08007811444.

And Iris Peel puts the miles in. The accomplished runner was training for the Manchester Marathon when Covid struck. She thinks she can safely go out with her guide runner in a park operating while still respecting the two metre social distancing rule, but England Athletics say it's not safe. Should blind people lose their ability to make distancing choices that are left up to other members of the public?

And attention is turning to the NHS tracing app which will be a key tool in fighting Coronavirus. But how accessible was the version trialled on the Isle of Wight? Ruth Hollingshead of Sight for Wight gives us her verdict. 

Presented by Peter White
Produced by Kevin Core

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