In Touch, In Touch, Habilitation Support, Holiday Horrors

In Touch

In Touch

Habilitation Support, Holiday Horrors

3 March 2026

19 minutes

Available for over a year

Following last week's coverage of the SEND reforms (the government's major plans to improve the support pupils with special needs will get in schools in future), In Touch hears about another far less publicised report from charity Guide Dogs. It highlighted that seven out of ten visually impaired children and young people surveyed were missing out on essential mobility support and training of daily living skills (a service known as habilitation training). Eleanor Briggs, Guide Dogs’ head of Policy, public affairs and campaigns, tells the programme more about what they found and what they would like the government to do about it. And Fiona Fiona Broadley, Chair of Habilitation UK, provides information about what a pathway to referral for habilitation should look like and where things could be slipping.

More of your holiday horrors: stories of visually impaired people's experiences of trying to get basic assistance in hotels.

Presenter: Peter White

Producer: Beth Hemmings

Production Coordinator: Helen Surtees

Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word ‘radio’ in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside of a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.