

Access All: Disability News and Mental Health
BBC Sounds
Weekly podcast about mental health, wellbeing and disabled people.
Life stories and solutions with a friendly touch – for listeners around the world.
Life stories and solutions with a friendly touch – for listeners around the world.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 14, 2016 • 18min
Disabled hip-hop fight
It's a disabled hip-hop fight. Listen to what happened when we got a young disabled rapper into our London studio and linked him up with another disabled rapper in New York and let them freestyle. That was six years ago so we decided it was about time we caught up with that young fella - Harpreet Gill - as we liked his music so much.Listen in and find out whether he took the rapping any further and we ask just how easy is it to get on if you're young, disabled and full of creative energy?Presented by Damon Rose with a transcript available in the Related Links section of this page. If you want to get in touch, email ouch@bbc.co.uk, tweet @bbcouch or find us on Facebook. We love hearing from you and we'd be chuffed-to-all-bits if you shared our podcasts with all your mates and reviewed us on iTunes or whichever podcast service you use.

Nov 4, 2016 • 55min
Sisters together forever
We're talking about siblings, "crip hacks" and trigger warnings on this month's hour-long talk show. (to find a transcript of this podcast, scroll down to the Related Links section on this page) Meet Laura Smith. She's 33 and has a slightly younger sister who has autism, is non-verbal, and also has epilepsy. We take a look at the expectations, the extra worries and mental health difficulties that siblings often experience and what kind of support would be helpful while growing up. If you'd like to join a support group for adult siblings of people with learning disability or autism, or to get support with a sibling issue contact sibs.org.uk - find a link in the related links section on this page. What unexpected items do you carry around with you to assist with those little disability difficulties? Find out how wooden spoons help one woman with cerebral palsy and why tennis balls seem to have so many uses for different disabled people - bit weird really but worth a listen. Emma Tracey has been trawling for your stories. And finally, No Superhero blogger Heather Lacey joins us for her take on disability in social media over the last month. With presenters Simon Minty and Kate Monaghan. The producer is Damon Rose. If you want to get in touch with the programme, email ouch@bbc.co.uk tweet @bbcouch or find us on Facebook.

Oct 28, 2016 • 10min
Seizures and shopping
Journalist Helen Purves reveals how she always finds herself mid-shopping spree when she comes around from a non-convulsive epileptic fit.The neurological disorder means she is able to continue her everyday life while having a fit, although may appear slightly confused or disengaged to those who know her. The BBC journalist says before she was diagnosed she thought instances of deja vu may have been God communicating with her, but now recognises that as a trigger to an attack.With Emma Tracey and Beth Rose.If you want to get in contact, please do. Email: ouch@bbc.co.uk tweet @bbcouch or find us on Facebook and like us. Who would you like us to bring on as a guest in future? And what would you like to hear more of?We'd particularly love it if you were to go to iTunes, rate us and leave a review. The more of you who do this, the more this podcast will reach those who will appreciate it.

Oct 21, 2016 • 21min
Read all about it
This week, it's a quiz. Beth gets the rest of the team to guess the missing words from recent disability headlines. (scroll down to find a transcript of this programme in the Related Links section on this page) A bit like the game they do on Have I Got News for You but full of fascinating facts from the brain of Mr Cassidy. Also, in a bit of a departure for Ouch, we end with a short poem from Kirsty Nicolson, a spoken word artist from Edinburgh. Called shiver, it's a nicely performed poem about having MS - taken from a Facebook Live we did with her on Thursday. You'll love it. As a bonus, if you scroll down to the Related Links section, you can find a video of Kirsty performing the poem outside an Edinburgh hospital.With Beth Rose, Emma Tracey, Johny Cassidy and Damon Rose. If you want to get in contact, please do. Email: ouch@bbc.co.uk tweet @bbcouch or find us on Facebook and like us. Who would you like us to bring on as a guest in future? And what would you like to hear more of? We'd particularly love it if you were to go to iTunes, rate us and leave a review. The more of you who do this, the more this podcast will reach those who will appreciate it.

Oct 14, 2016 • 21min
Coming Out
Why are celebrities now choosing to talk openly about their mental health?Is it because social media gives us more access to all aspects of their day-to-day lives? Or is stigma decreasing? (a transcript of this programme can be found in the Related Links on this page. Scroll down to find it) To mull it over, we are joined by blogger Seaneen Molloy-Vaughan and social enterprise director Mark Brown. They have lived-experience of mental health struggles and can empathise with celebrities, like Zayn Malik, who has had to cancel shows due to anxiety.With Damon Rose, Beth Rose and Emma Tracey.email ouch@bbc.co.uk tweet @bbcouch or find us on Facebook. Join in, tell us what you think of this weekly podcast hurl us suggestions for other topics or guests you'd like to hear on the programme. Oh and tell your friends about us.

Oct 7, 2016 • 52min
Pigs and the asylum
On this month's talk show from Ouch: Tilley Milburn had a late diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome which meant she received assistance later than was helpful, and found herself living in a care home. She talks about the comic she has created for disability art group Heart and Soul, her performances and how she sometimes speaks to the world via her toy pig Del.James Leadbitter, also known as artist The Vacuum Cleaner, has struggled with his mental health over time. He returns to the programme to talk about the outcome of the Madlove project where he and collaborator Hannah Hull asked people to send in ideas to help them create the most ideal and healthy psychiatric ward. In a wide-ranging discussion James also talks about having experienced the controversial practice of face-down restraint. Visually impaired YouTube vlogger Holly Scott-Gardner joins us to run through some recent stories which may have weedled their way onto your social media timeline. Presenters: Kate Monaghan and Simon Minty. Producer: Emma Tracey. To contact the programme email ouch@bbc.co.uk or tweet @bbcouch - you can also find us on Facebook. Please like, subscribe, share and review us on iTunes or your preferred podcast platform.

Sep 30, 2016 • 17min
Facebook salad
Meet Matt King. He’s an engineer who works at Facebook HQ in California. He’s one of the people on a team who works towards making the big social network accessible. King explains the recent AI innovation on Facebook which describes photos to blind people. He talks about future aspirations and tells us what you can get to eat on Facebook campus, for free, at lunchtime. His favourite is a huge big salad, hence the title of this podcast.Presented by Damon Rose.If you want to contact us, share your views or anything else, email ouch@bbc.co.uk Tweet: @bbcouch or find us on Facebook.

Sep 23, 2016 • 16min
How do blind people interpret emoji's? - Repeat
The internet is becoming increasingly visual. How do blind people experience emoji's and is digital communication becoming more inaccessible? This episode was originally podcast in October 2015.

Sep 16, 2016 • 16min
Concealing Disability
New research by charity Scope says 38 percent of us do it, but why? Emily Shanahan hid her Asperger’s and dyspraxia because she was being bullied at school. The London 2012 Paralympics helped her feel more positive about her impairments, and support dog Magic has given her confidence. Emily spoke to Emma Tracey.

Sep 9, 2016 • 58min
I Need to Sit Down
Transport for London are trialing a badge which asks travellers to give their seats to passengers with invisible mobility impairments. Alan Benson from campaign organisation Transport For All gives us the background, and we find out what happened when presenter Kate Monaghan wore it on the tube.In Bite Me, a one-woman show about having therapy for bulimia, Joanne McNally ‘s eating disorder physically manifests itself as Louis Walsh. The Dublin-based comedian talks us through the nuts and bolts of the illness and describes her journey from binging and purging all day every day, to being in recovery and sharing the funny side of her “dark” and “scary” experience.Jack Binstead joins us with his social media update, and there’s music by blind singer songwriter Joe Kenny.
Kate Monaghan and Simon Minty present.