RNIB Conversations

Charity VICTA UK is supporting young people is working to develop some exciting accessible materials for the Canal Museum in London. 
They recently held workshops around it in Scotland and Paulina caught up with one of the participants, Emmy Anstee, to learn more.
Image shows the RNIB Connect Radio logo. On a white background ‘RNIB’ written in bold black capital letters and underline with a bold pink line. Underneath the line: ‘Connect Radio’ is written in black in a smaller font.

For the RNIB Out of Sight campaign and the Life On Pause petition RNIB Ambassador, content creator and Radio Broadcaster Claire Sisk plus Celebrity Chef, Presenter and Podcaster Briony May Williams came together to film a baking session at PaperMill Studios in London to support the campaign and to encourage people to sign the petition which is all about the importance of Vision Rehabilitation Services ensuring blind and partially sighted people get the support they need when they need it.
Claire and Briony began by telling RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey about what they baked together for the video shoot, then to Claire explaining how important Vision Rehabilitation services were for her when she started to lose her sight, plus highlighting some of the gadgets Claire uses when baking and cooking and finally why the Out of Sight campaign and the Life on Pause petition is so important to ensure blind and partially sighted people get the right support they need when they need it.
To find out more about the RNIB Out of Sight campaign and to sign the Life on Pause petition do visit - https://www.rnib.org.uk/campaign-with-us/support-a-campaign/out-of-sight/

On Guide dog blogs this week, Hubert chats to George Plumridge about his guide dog, and how his life has changed. They chat learning new environments and the joy of having very vocal guide dogs.

In this week's sight loss story, Hubert chats to Lee Roak. They talk his sight condition, Lee's passion for the support he has been given throughout his education journey, how he wants to give back, and his love for doing radio.

With 2026 marking the 50th anniversary of the first ever Winter Paralympic Games held in Sweden in February 1976 with teams of blind and partially sighted athletes competing in both alpine and nordic skiing for the first time too here on RNIB Connect Radio’s we thought it would be a good time to look back on that very first Winter Paralympic Games and find out what it was like taking part in the games for the first time as a visually impaired Paralympian.
RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey caught up with Mike Brace CBE DL who was there along with five other young visually impaired athletes competing for Great Britain at that very first Winter Paralympic Games.
Mike began by telling Toby about how the opportunity came about for him to compete as a blind person in that very first Winter Paralympic Games plus what the training was like to get him and the other visually impaired skiers ready for the games.
Mike then talked about how the games have evolved over the last 50 years from his view point competing as a blind skier in that first ever Winter Paralympic Games, managing the great British Paralympic Cross-Country Ski Team from 1988 to 1994, Chef de Mission for the Great British Team at the Winter Paralympic Games, Director of ParalympicsGB and being involved in bringing the summer Olympics and Paralympic Games to London in 2012.
Mike ended by reflecting on the great success of the Paralympics GB visually impaired skiers over recent years winning many medals, how with the right support and opportunities blind and partially sighted people can achieve so much in sport at whatever level to finally thoughts on the legacy of both the Winter and Summer Paralympic Games.
To find out more about Paralympics GB and opportunities to get involved in some of the Paralympic sports do visit - https://paralympics.org.uk
And for more about other opportunities to get into sport as a visually impaired person do visit the British Blind Sport website - https://britishblindsport.org.uk