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	Tuesday 11 February 2003 Listen to the In Touch for 11 February 2003 PIN PADS AT POST OFFICES Electronic pin pads at banks and post offices are to replace giro cheques and benefit books from April 2003, The programme ask how is it going to affect visually impaired and blind people? The RNIB says that electronic pin pads are small and badly designed and visually Impaired people are going to have problems using the screens and the keys. There is also a security issue as they might be easily overlooked while tapping in the number. The RNIB has had meetings with Post Office officials and have raised the issue with the Department of Work and Pensions(DWP). STATEMENT FROM RNIB NEW BANK ACCOUNTS FOR BENEFITS "IMPOSSIBLE FOR BLIND PEOPLE" Tens of thousands of people with a sight problem could be denied access to their benefits when the government scheme to replace benefit books or giro cheques with bank accounts starts to be introduced from April 2003. The electronic "pin pad", being introduced in post offices all over the UK to provide access to new bank accounts, is too small and badly designed for blind and partially sighted people to use, says the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB). Pensioners and benefit claimants will have to punch a pin number into a key pad at the Post Office counter. But RNIB believes blind and partially sighted people will have severe problems using/seeing the screen and are also concerned about the size of the keys and the layout of the pin pad. The Post Office had asked RNIB's advice and also commissioned its own experts to check how easy the pin pads would be to use. However, they have ignored recommendations given by RNIB and others about the problems they would pose for people with a sight problem, and other disabled people. RNIB has already received hundreds of calls from worried blind and partially sighted people who have encountered the pin pads in their local post offices. Th RNIB wants to reassure blind and partially sighted people that they will be able to insist on using their order books until the end of 2004. MATTHEW WADSWORTH In 1997 Matthew Wadsworth, the world's only blind luteinist, won the London Student of the Year award for his development of Braille lute tablature. Matthew works extensively with Live Music Now! working primarily with special needs children and has proved invaluable in workshops with visually impaired children. Matthew studied the lute and theorbo at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Nigel North. As there was no Braille lute tablature, at that time, he developed his own with the help of Tim Crawford. An American company, Dancing Dots, are incorporating Matthew's system into their Braille music computer software and it is also to be included in the international manual of Braille music. In February, Matthew gives his debut solo Wigmore Hall recital which coincides with the release of Matthew's first solo CD recording for the Deux-Elles label. MATTHEW WADSWORTH - Luteinist Debut solo recital at the Wigmore Hall Friday 21st February 2003 at 7.30pm Tickets £14 £12 £10 £8 Box Office telephone 020 7935 2141 Matthew Wadsworth celebrates the release of his debut solo CD recording on the Deux-Elles label with a concert of dynamic and colourful music from 17th-century Italy, in which the poetic and intimate solo works of Alessandro Piccinini will be performed alongside the flamboyant experimental style of music from Giovanni Kapsberger's Libro Quarto. RYAN KURO The programme talked to Ryan Kuro, an American broadcasting student at Western Illinois University on his first blind basketball commentary. Last Saturday on WIUS FM 88,3 Macomb, Ryan Kuro, blind from birth, delivered his first radio basketball commentary; Kuro took his place behind the microphone as a co-commentator on campus radio for Western Illinois University's (WIU) game on Saturday with Valparaiso University. His preparation involved converting media guides and game notes into Braille and walking the court and auditorium to assist his mental picture. He shared his prodigious basketball knowledge with listeners, relying on two fellow commentators for scores and the game time. "My key thing is I'm not doing this as, you know, look at the blind person doing the broadcast. I'm just another person doing it. I happen to be blind. Previous week's Factsheet>> Visit the In Touch Message Board Back to the In Touch page The BBC is not responsible for external websites

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