Access All: Disability News and Mental Health

Lily-Grace Hooper, 7, was told by her school that she can't use her white cane

What's it like to step off a station platform into thin air, instead of on to a train? Three blind journalists tell their tales of travelling on trains when you can't see.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the first disability anti-discrimination law in the UK. It's a time to look back at the disability rights movement in the early 90's, which was so vibrant during the period, and to canvas some views about what has been achieved, and what is still left to be done. Imagine never having disclosed your chronic pain to anyone except close family? Sandra Lawry has waited 62 years to tell her story, and she shares it with us.Justin Tomlinson, appointed as Minister for Disabled People back in May after the general election, gives one of his first long-form interviews since he took up the post.

It’s Halloween and disability related costumes are doing the rounds. Is it offensive to dress up as a mental patient, Oscar Pistorius, or a blind stereotype?

Apple has released 150 brand new emojis. The internet is becoming increasingly visual but how do blind people experience these graphics, and is digital communication becoming more inaccessible?

This week a picture of a disabled man hugging a stranger on a bus went viral. The man sat with Robert, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, for a half hour journey, holding his hand and comforting him. We discuss whether people need to be more compassionate, and what this means for disabled people.

Kate Monaghan and Simon Minty delve in to the complex, and sometimes difficult, area of relationships between disabled and non-disabled siblings. Their guests include a disabled member of a non-disabled family, and the only able-bodied sibling in a family of disabled brothers and sisters. We also hear what it's like to be the non-disabled twin.

A woman in America has chosen to go blind. We discuss.

Footage of John Lennon mocking people with learning disabilities has caused a stir online, was it offensive or just of its time?

MP for Elmet & Rothwell Alec Shelbrooke was said to have been "resting his eyes" during a debate in parliament this week. Shelbrooke is partially deaf and was resting his head near a speaker in order to listen to proceedings. BBC's Newsbeat retweeted the thread and has since issued an apology. We share our personal stories of when people believe we are not disabled. We also talk about Stevie Wonder and James Corden's Carpool Karaoke skit on the Late Late Show and discuss the conspiracy theories that follow Wonder.