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In Touch - transcript BBC Radio 4 |
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22 March 2005 Listen to the In Touch for 22 March 2005 IN TOUCH TX: 22.03.05 2040-2100 PRESENTER: PETER WHITE PRODUCER: CHERYL GABRIEL WHITE Good evening. The whole object surely of having a guide dog is to ease your mobility but not apparently when you fly. CLIP It's not easy medicine to swallow, that one can see one's daughter, a fully grown adult, make the journey for £21 and I have to fork out £375. But not only that my partner was with me, so there's another £375. That's costly. WHITE We'll be looking at the problems of one man who simply wants to be able to land with his dog at his nearest airport. We'll also be examining the latest addition to the family of blind friendly mobile phones and Mani Djazmi will be here with news of particular interest to visually impaired people, including a major conference attracting eye specialists to Britain from all over the world. Now the relaxation the quarantine laws, so that guide dog owners with the correct medical certification would be allowed to take their dogs in and out of the country, was welcomed by most people as an important advance. But it seems you can't have an advance without many rules and regulations and those regulations can often lead to what seem like ludicrous restrictions. Take the case of Jim Mowat, who has to take a major round trip when he flies to Spain where he has a house because he can't bring his dog back into his nearest airport of Glasgow. Even more ironically Jim lives in Paisley and the airport is more or less on his doorstep. He told Ian Hamilton more about the problems he faces. MOWAT I came home from Spain approximately three weeks ago. I'd had my daughter and grandson out staying with me for a week. They came home using Ryan Air, flying Almeria to Stansted, Stansted to Prestwick, at a cost of £21. Had I wanted to fly home with them on the same day I would not have been permitted to use that route or that airline because Stansted's not an approved entry port and Ryan Air had not sought a licence to carry animals. I was obliged to come home with Air Iberia flying Almeria to Madrid and then British Midland Madrid to Heathrow and Heathrow to Glasgow - £375. I had the option of flying with British Airways from Almeria to Gatwick, Gatwick to Glasgow - that flight would have cost me £170 but Kirk, my guide dog, would not have been permitted to fly in the cabin from Almeria to Gatwick, he would have required to have been crated and to go into the hold. And the crate to meet British Airways specifications would be £460. I for the life of me cannot see why you as a guide dog user, I, or any other person using an assistance dog because of disability should have to a. pay a. lot more or b. be more inconvenienced than any other passenger. WHITE Well a bewildering Cook's tour. So how does this come about? What is the problem with Glasgow and indeed with several other airports in Great Britain and what would it take to sort it out? I've been talking to a spokesman from Glasgow Airport but first I asked the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association's director of policy Tom Pey to explain the route of Jim Mowat's problems. PEY We're very sympathetic with Jim's case. Basically what needs to be done are two things. First of all, there needs to be a facility at Glasgow Airport, an animal reception centre, to be able to receive in animals approved under the PETS scheme and declare them. The other thing that is required of course is that the airline must get in contact with both the airport and with Defra, and Defra in particular, so that there is an operating procedure known as RMOP in place which regulates how the transport provider can bring the dogs in. In the case of guide dogs and assistance dogs they're coming off the cabins of aircraft now, as you know, and that means that there's an additional difficulty in that the dogs will be cleared inside the arrivals hall, which is slightly different than animals that would not be guide or assistance dogs who will go through an animal reception centre. But as far as the airport is concerned my understanding is that if they open the airport under PETS then they must be able to take both guide and assistance dogs as well as other animals approved under the PETS scheme. WHITE Now could you just briefly Tom go back to first principles for us because a lot of people will not understand why - they'll understand that there are quarantine requirements for bringing in dogs but they won't understand why you can bring a guide dog into one airport and not into another. PEY As you know PETS was set up to protect both the human and animal health of the country and that means that bringing animals into the country, be they guide dogs or not, require very strict procedures. Those procedures are that the animal must have had a rabies vaccination with a six months blood certification and also between 24 and 48 hours of coming back in it must be certified by a vet that the dog has been treated for tic and tape worm. That's just to minimise the risk to all other living creatures in the United Kingdom. So for them to come into say Heathrow there is an animal reception centre which is staffed by vets and they check both the paperwork and if necessary they will check the animal as well. WHITE So is it a space problem or is it a staffing problem that means that not all airports can provide this? PEY It is a staffing problem, it is simply a resource problem. I'm sure busy airports are always under pressure for space but space can be found, it simply requires a capital investment and it's an ongoing revenue cost. WHITE Let me bring in Donald Morrison, who is a spokesperson for Glasgow Airport. Donald, can you just tell us what the situation is and what the likelihood of Mr Mowat and other guide dog owners being able to fly into Glasgow in the future. MORRISON Well Peter we obviously fully understand the concerns of passengers like Mr Mowat, passengers who are visually impaired and do require to bring their pets with them back into the country. I'm pleased to say that we at Glasgow Airport are working very closely with our airline partners and with Defra and the Scottish Executive to set up an animal reception centre at Glasgow Airport. WHITE And what needs to happen - what needs to be in place before Glasgow would be able to receive guide dogs? MORRISON Well as Tom says the airlines themselves have a responsibility to licence the routes to allow pets to travel into Glasgow on the PETS passport scheme but we obviously recognise that we have a commitment to our passengers too and a responsibility to them, especially those with mobility problems or perhaps those who are visually impaired. So what we're working to do is to establish, as I say, an animal reception centre. We've put in place the capital that will allow us to do that. It's very much a chicken and egg situation - some airlines have expressed some interest in the facility but obviously they won't commit themselves until it's actually operational. So what we're going to do is push ahead with the proposals, hopefully have it up and running by the end of this year and that will obviously encourage we hope some other airlines to follow. As I say we have had a very encouraging response from a number of airlines that we've spoken to initially, including some transatlantic and charter airlines, but obviously once the facility's in place we do hope that many more airlines will follow. WHITE Because I'm sure you'll agree it does seem a nonsense really that you can't fly into your home airport and Glasgow, after all, is a fairly significant airport. MORRISON Absolutely, Glasgow is Scotland's busiest airport, it handles almost nine million passengers a year and growing. We recognise that we have a commitment to all our passengers, including those who are visually impaired or have mobility problems, so we do recognise the difficulties they face flying back into Glasgow at the moment, so that's why we're committed, as I say, to establishing this animal reception centre as a matter of urgency. WHITE Tom Pey, what do you feel needs to be done at this moment and are you talking to the airlines? PEY Well first of all let me welcome the statement from Glasgow, it was what we were hoping for. And yes we are currently working with the airlines and we're assured by all the carriers that certainly the British flag carriers operating into and out of Glasgow that they're going to make applications to Defra to licence the routes. So I think we have everybody working together in the interests of guide dog owners and other assistance dogs users and I think it's just really great to see it happening. WHITE What about other airports? PEY Well as you know it's our long term aim on the 4th April of this year at Gatwick we're launching a policy document which has been agreed between the airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority, ABTA, IARTA, you name it, the Department for Transport and basically it is a modus operandi for the airlines to carry dogs in cabins. It has satisfied all of our requirements and has addressed all of our concerns, Civil Aviation Authority concerns have been addressed and I think there is now nothing to stop it. And as you know Europe are currently looking at this question and they've been studying the proposals that we've put forward from that international working group and I think we're going to see freedom of movement for all guide and assistance dogs into and out of Europe on a much easier basis than before. WHITE So that would be any guide dog into any airport would it? PEY That is any guide dog into any airport that is going to happen, it's going to take some time but we have a dedicated resource put in place to work with airports and to work with airlines to make it happen. WHITE Tom Pey of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and Donald Morrison from Glasgow Airport. And remember you heard it first here on In Touch and we'll keep an eye on other airports and what actually is happening there. And now for more firsts - Mani Djazmi and news of particular interest to visually impaired people. Mani. DJAZMI Thanks Peter. VIP on Air, the internet radio station run by visually impaired people for visually impaired people has applied to become a community radio station. But it's having trouble with the definition of community, as far as the regulating body Ofcom is concerned community refers to the local area rather than a community of interest, for instance. It may not grant them a licence. But as VIP on Air station manager Kerryn Krige told me there's always more than one way of skinning a cat. KRIGE The media world, especially in radio, at the moment is really exciting, we've so many different ways of broadcasting and for people to tune in. So we're looking at digital radio and the first talking digital radio receiver has actually just been launched, so that really makes that an accessible option for us. And another really promising option which is coming through is the ability to broadcast on the Sky - or any of those digital television platforms. There are other obstacles with licensing and the way that we're funded but really I think if all of those long term come together that would really give people different choices as to how they would like to access a radio station. DJAZMI It sounds like if you're aiming to expand like this that VIP on Air's doing pretty well for itself. KRIGE We've just been highly commended in an award that recognises different local authority projects across the United Kingdom, so it really was quite a feat for us. I think really the achievements and what makes the project so successful is the fact that we're always looking forward, we're always trying to look at different ways that we can broadcast. DJAZMI Bristol University is running another Insight into Employment course for visually impaired graduates. Some of the topics being covered include confidence and assertiveness, finding and applying for jobs and getting support in the workplace. Students will also be able to share experiences with each other. This is the third time the course is being offered and its coordinator Paul Sullivan is proud of its success rate. SULLIVAN Twenty five per cent of working age visually impaired people are in employment and that means 75% are not. We're rather proud of the fact that as a result of the first course that we ran we turned that upside down and 75% of the people on our course are actually in employment. We don't guarantee anybody a job but we feel that along with the other support services that are available to visually impaired people through job centres, through other organisations and charities, all working together on this we can turn those figures round. DJAZMI Paul Sullivan from Bristol University. Selection day is the 8th April and the course itself is free. It's the 50th anniversary of the Association of Blind Piano Tuners this May. Piano tuning's often come in for a bit of stick among visually impaired people, some of us see it as being a bit old fashioned or stereotypical but the association's chairman, Richard Foster, says not only is it a worthwhile career but it's one which requires a lot of hard work. FOSTER It absolutely is not a soft touch and people who go into it thinking it is they wouldn't be very long before they realised how wrong they were. There aren't many jobs where you can get a reasonable income, if you are prepared to work hard, and so much job satisfaction. The other way of looking at the facts that it is a traditional avenue of employment is that it has proved to be a good one. DJAZMI And finally over 200 delegates from 70 countries are about to hit London for the world's biggest conference on sight loss. Vision 2005 runs from 4th April to 7th, issues up for discussion range from the latest advances in clinical care and the delivery of low vision services to the latest and best technological developments. The conference will also have a number of speeches, including, it says here, a gripping keynote speech Peter. WHITE I'd be very suspicious of that information. It is true that I have been asked to give a speech early on in the conference but don't worry about that there's lots of other good things to come. Mani, thanks very much. We will, by the way, be devoting a whole programme in a couple of weeks time to Vision 2005 and talking to many of the guests it's bringing to Britain but we won't be talking to the keynote speaker. Now mobile phones have made huge strides, if mobile phones could stride, in the past few years when it comes to being accessible to us. For a long time we were excluded from using many of their menu features but phones with the so-called Talx software, which added speech to the features have become very popular, indeed on this programme we've even had one blind presenter photographing another, yet one more first. But now there's another development and Tony Shearman is here to tell me about it. Tony, this is the Owasys 22C phone, so what's so special about it? SHEARMAN Well there you go Peter, you tell me, have a feel of that and tell me what's different from any mobile phone that you know. WHITE Okay. It's chunky, it's got quite a lot of buttons on it, in sets of three - oh and it's got no screen. SHEARMAN Exactly, this is the world's first mobile phone specifically designed for blind people. Because everything you do on it you can hear because every button you press - if I can take it back Peter ... WHITE Yes you can. SHEARMAN Oh - on cue there's a phone call. I won't take that call at the moment. WHITE Sounds like Radio Tirana. SHEARMAN I'll actually divert that and in a moment it'll come back and tell me that I've actually a missed call, hopefully the person will leave me a message and it'll say unread message. WHITE Okay. So Tony tell me some of the phone's other features then. SHEARMAN Peter, I'm really excited about this because I've recently joined the wonderful world of texting. This phone, because it speaks every action to you, I can send and receive text. Now I've got a little text here that I sent to myself earlier, because I haven't got any friends, let me just play that to you. PHONE Messages two. SHEARMAN We're in message, so number two. PHONE 22nd March. Hello Tony, welcome to the wonderful world of texting. SHEARMAN Ain't that great? WHITE Well so people tell me. That is - I can see that's quite exciting. And what do you regard as its other main advantages? SHEARMAN Well before Peter I've never been able to store phone numbers in my phone because I've not been able to see the screen but with this of course they are readily at my fingertips, before I had to install them on a PC or on a pocket memo and retrieve them and put them into the phone when I wanted to dial someone. Here it's one touch, one button and I'm talking. WHITE Now you have been able to do these things in the past with the phones using the Talx software, so what do you see as the advantage of this phone over that? SHEARMAN Well the thing about the Talx software, that goes into a conventional phone and the thing about conventional phones, as you know, is the fact that you've still got to deal with those fiddly buttons. Because this has been specifically designed with blind people in mind the buttons are much better spaced out and they're raised, so that you've got less chance of hitting the wrong button. WHITE So what are the downsides that you see? SHEARMAN It's quite difficult to follow the instructions first of all and you will need sighted help. Once it's been explained to you then it all becomes self apparent and you can learn about the phone just by using it. The other thing is I 'd like to see a better quality speaker, it distorts sometimes, whereas on a conventional phone using Talx software the speaker quality is much better. And the final criticism is quite strange really because this is designed specifically for blind people, let me describe the colour - it's dark blue the main body of the phone but the area where the keys are is actually pale blue and the keys are silver. So if you looked at the phone, someone with sight problems probably wouldn't be able to see the contrast. WHITE Which is a really strange mistake, if indeed they would accept that it was a mistake, to make on a phone designed for people with a visual impairment. SHEARMAN It is isn't it rather. But having said that I don't need to look at the phone because I feel so confident about navigating around the phone just by touch, I think it's great. WHITE What about cost and availability? SHEARMAN Cost is not so great, it costs £300 plus VAT, but remember as blind people we're exempt from the VAT on products like this. And it's available from the Royal National Institute of the Blind. WHITE Tony Shearman thank you very much indeed. That's it for today. But information about everything on the programme, including that phone, can be obtained from our action line on 0800 044 044. And indeed that's where you can make your comments and suggestions about today's programme or indeed about items you'd like to see us covering in the future. That's it from me Peter White, my producer Cheryl Gabriel, goodbye. Visit the In Touch Message Board Back to the In Touch page The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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