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Our very own Ouch columnist and Podcast presentr Liz Carr, has teamed up with Canadian Comedien to bring us Bravetarts.

"Bravetarts offers an unflinching spin on the overused word 'brave'. The gals are chucking out the cliches in favour of
edgy stand-up, squirm-in-your-seat anecdotes and a frank and fearless chat show steered by questions from the audience."

There are 8 dates in all, three previews in London and 5 at the edinburgh fringe.

To find out more, check out the show website at where you can even ask the girls a question to be answered during the performance.

"They may take our wheels but they'll never take our freedom..."

Belief.net - a site which bills itself as "A Spiritual Approach to your Daily Health and Happiness" - "wants to put together a collection of stories and photographs of disabled people of faith accomplishing amazing things."

.

They want to hear "your stories of inspiration and courage" because "many disabled people find that they can accomplish amazing feats despite challenges that they face each day."

Quite right. Why, only yesterday, Lady Bracknell managed to carry a laptop computer down two flights of stairs despite the fact that she experiences terrible pain in her lower back. If she had a religious bone in her body, she would undoubtedly have attributed this "amazing feat" to her faith in the Lord.

Ouch readers who are less cynical and hard-bitten than Lady Bracknell have until the 15th of August to submit their stories and photographs to beliefneteditorial2@gmail.com.

Nadine Geddes, a researcher at Loughborough University, is hoping to produce an on-line system which will help disabled people find work more easily: .

To this end, she's looking for disabled people who are currently in work and who are willing to be interviewed about:

"who they spoke to when looking for a job; who helped them out; if they had to find information themselves or if it was given to them. I would also like to know if they feel their working environment caters for their needs. Knowing that disabled people have difficulties finding a job is not enough. We need to know what these difficulties are and then do something about them. That is the long-term aim of this study."

If you volunteer to take part in the study, you'll be asked to take part in a 40 minute telephone interview. If you're interested, you can contact Nadine by phone on 01509 226903 or email her at N.L.Geddes@lboro.ac.uk.

Well, if you can't see the keypad, or you can't reach the keypad, or you simply can't remember a 4 digit PIN number then, no, you're probably not one of its biggest fans.

Leonard Cheshire (yes, them again) are

"investigating the impact of this 'Chip and PIN' system on disabled people, as part of our wider campaign around access to banking and financial services. All responses are important, from disabled and non-disabled people, so that we can compare people's experiences"

You can download a Chip and PIN survey in either Word or PDF format from links on this page:. If you need the survey in a different format, they want you to let them know. Lady Bracknell assumes - in the absence of any other contact details for this - that the chap to whom the completed surveys are to be sent would be as good a person as any to ask. You can email him at lee.webster@lc-uk.org.

Closing date for surveys to be returned is Friday 4th August. Which is a bit tight for time, but the survey is pretty short and shouldn't take very long to complete.

It's long been our belief at Ouch Central that blind people have all the cool gizmos and gadgets. I mean, lets compare a grip stick to a speaking electronic colour detector? Need I say more?

Anyway, to mark the big tech fest taking place this week in Birmingham, we thought we'd share a few cool blindie innovations we've come across in the last few weeks.

Éù is where you can download a FREE screenreader. It's called Thunder. Not so much freeware as ethicalware, the people behind the project say: "We see the talking computer as
the gateway to literacy, learning, work and financial independence for blind people and our mission is to make the blind-friendly talking software available
worldwide." Check out the site for details.

Éù is satellite navigation for visually impaired people that you load onto your mobile phone. No more getting lost between the station and shopping centre, then?

The bargain here is that it's free! But the downpoint is that it doesn't have map data on it so you can't plot street routes. What it does have is an online points of interest library where you can upload and download routes or markers. For streetmaps, software is available but costs a couple of hundred pounds.

Though it works at its best with a little 40 quid satellite receiver that you can attach to the shoulderstrap of your bag or guide dog harness for instance, it also has some functionality without a satellite receiver. It is not self-voicing so you will need a speech enabled mobile phone. Details on the site.

Éù We're never entirely convinced by self-voiced websites that claim to be the ultimate in accessibility; they may talk but you can barely navigate and it's a time-consuming slog. The latest that has come to our attention, though, is . They're asking for help beta-testing this service now, maybe you could help? If you read their site you'll see they've been working on navigation issues lately. But it's not just blind people who appreciate talking websites so go and have a play.

Éù Ouch highly recommends that you join the Access-UK mailing list if you want help, support or ideas around tech for visually impaired people. Ask your questions and contribute to this medium traffic list with some very highly skilled and knowledgeable blind IT professionals reading it daily. Send a blank mail to access-uk-request@freelists.org with the word 'subscribe' in the subject line.

Éù Finally, we are quite intrigued by the K-NFB scanner launched at Sight Village this week. It's a pocket-sized scanning device that reads stuff out to blind people ... for want of a better description.

"They've tested it on bus tickets and the spines of books in libraries," said In Touch reporter Sunil Peck who was at the event earlier this week. "It costs two and a half grand though." If you've tried the new gizmo, why not tell us about it. And check out Sunil's Sight Village report on this week's In Touch programme for VI people, originally broadcast on Radio 4 Tuesday night's but available to listen to on the web for the next couple of months too.

[update] Renowned New Zealand blind IT commentator Jonathan Mosen mentions the K-NFB on his blog . I gather he rather wants one now he's seen one. You can also listen to an interview he's done with Tre Strovel, a K-NFB Ambassador, from this page.

Got any gizmo talk? Leave a comment under this blog entry.

The New Zealand Office for Disability Issues has recently published Life is for Living, the collected stories of 25 New Zealanders who are either disabled themselves or who have disabled family members, and who are therefore described as "living with disability".

There are various methods of accessing the publication online, the easiest of which is the .
You can also download it as a
(in which case you don't get either the photographs or the index) or as a .
The whole thing is well worth a read. However, given that it's 125 pages long, Lady Bracknell has picked out two of her favourite characters from it for you as an indicator of the sort of stories it contains.

is a radio ham who discovered that the cable which ties his aerial to a steel tower in the garden had come loose. He started to climb up the tower to fix it but, because he's blind and was in his eighties at the time, his neighbours were concerned for his safety and persuaded him to come back down. So he waited until it was dark, and went back up and fixed it when they couldn't see him.

describes himself as a typical 18 year old, but his story consistently demonstrates a remarkably mature attitude. He says,
"I value my independence. It's not just a matter of having independence, it's a matter of having the want to be independent. I think a lot of people with disabilities, especially young ones, are wrapped in cotton wool by their parents, and not pushed to be as able as they could be. I'm not talking about being able to walk or put their own shoes and socks on, but catching the bus or going into town by themselves and meeting up with friends – doing the things that everyone else is doing. I have the attitude 'there’s no reason why I can't!'."

Don't forget to log onto the website this Tuesday (18th July) at 1.30pm, where Jim Murphy MP, Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform will be
taking part in a live discussion, .

If you haven't already, there's still time to register with the Disability Debate to get involved with this live discussion on welfare reform and to submit questions either in advance or on the day. Registration is quick and simple, and will also allow you to contribute to their discussion forums and receive regular updates from the website.

Click here to read the to the welfare reform bill (Word Document)

Deaf actor and performer Sophie Woolley is launching her one person show, When to run, at the Edinburgh fringe this summer.

According to the publicity, "When to Run is about the growing phenomenon of women running: why they run in the first place, what they're thinking while they're pounding the pavements and the psychologies of women trying to find health and happiness in present day Britain. It is about the culture of self improvement and the unattainable dream of perfection. It's about unnecessary distractions, dangerous romances, dodgy blokes and knowing when to run. Part homage to the sport and part satire, When to Run is definitely not a self help guide to running. Joggers and couch potatoes alike will love this entertaining one person play."

Sophie Woolley is obviously well respected, having had huge compliments paid to her by Ervine Welsh, "She's massively talented and is already becoming hugely successful", and Blake Morrison, "She's stimulating to read, exciting to listen to, and an inspiration to all".

When to Run plays at the Edinburgh Fringe from 4-28 August, at 3.20 PM in C central, venue 54. To order tickets go to , or call 0131 226 0000

Sophie follows her run at the festival with a UK tour. Find out more about this, and hear clips of When to run, by going to

George Jacobs, 66, a disabled fella living off benefits, was turned away when he went to receive his latest cheque because the records showed he was dead.

"I said to the woman, 'How on earth can I be dead? I'm standing right here in front of you!'." reports People's Post in an article entitled .

George isn't going to push the matter too much though because the shopping vouchers he is receiving to cover this emergency period, are worth more than his usual grant.

Red tape, eh?

They say necessity is the mother of invention, yes? Well thanks to hearing impaired people we're now going to get metal detectors built into our mobile phones reports this week.

Disability has certainly been the driver of many an important innovation - both email and telephones were invented by deaf people in search of hearing aids and a method by which to communicate, for instance. But as Nokia strive to make their phones more accessible to those of us who can't hear so well, they realised that the audio boosting induction coil technology that they are including in their handsets can also double up as short range metal detecting devices.

So, we've had: satnav, calculators, compasses, spirit levels, cameras and thermometers on phones to help us with daily living (whether we want them or not) ... well now you'll be able to check out where wires are embedded in walls before you drill or if the person standing next to you at the bus stop is packing an AK47 in his jeans pocket. And all with the same device you text yer mates with to tell them what pub to meet in.

On behalf of the hearing world, can I extend thanks to all deaf people reading this. If you didn't exist, I might have got knifed.

Have you heard the news? Jim Davidson has just been pronounced bankrupt. Read the story

Ouch would like to point out that we are gaining no pleasure from this news whatsoever and are sure that our readers won't either.

It's fairly well known that people who are blind or visually impaired get a heck of a raw deal when it comes to sources for accessible, affordable books.
What may be less well known is that an organisation called

is working to resolve the problem. Their stated objective is:

"to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet."

They do this by recruiting volunteers to record chapters of books, or individual poems or short stories. Once the entire book has been recorded into digital format, Librivox releases the audio files back on to the net to be downloaded by listeners. The catalogue of available works is
.
Recent releases include The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams and The Invisible Man by HG Wells.
To take part as a volunteer reader, all you need is "a computer, some free recording software, and your own voice". If you're interested in volunteering,
check out the " page".

Librivox is currently seeking volunteer readers for too many books to list in full here, but examples include Jane Eyre, The Three Musketeers, Don Quixote,
Oliver Twist, The Divine Comedy and, er, How To Cook Fish by Olive Green.
If you don't want to read, you can still help out by volunteering to for certain types of error - i.e. repeated text - before a particular
work is released as an audio file.
And if you don't fancy volunteering at all, but you'd still like to promote the work Librivox is doing, you can download promotional materials such as posters
and audio spots for podcasts .

Remember, every book on the site is already in the public domain, and therefore more than likely to be available as a text download. However, if you prefer to read audio books, considering this is all done voluntarily and at home, many titles are well read, and the books are downloadable in a range of file sizes.

Why not give it a go. And if you're visually impaired, how do you get hold of your accessible books? Tell us using the form below if you have a moment.

Help Leonard Cheshire choose a new name

In a recent survey, discovered that there was only a 1 in 5 awareness of the charity amongst younger people. It has kickstarted a debate about a name change though the family of the man who set it up don't like it much.

The Telegraph the directors are keen to rebrand with a 'does what it says on the tin' name such as Disability UK. You have to agree that would be pretty genre-busting and rather a clever repositioning.

Some of the alternative suggestions mentioned in the telegraph article are a bit, um, well, I'm trying not to say crap. I'll run you through them with my thoughts added for clarity and with a genuine hope that LC might listen to what the monkey has to say today.

Éù Equability UK -- That's like equal and ability merged together and cleverly not having to say that awful word 'disability'? c'mon with yer Equability. It's not clever, it's just two perfectly good words mushed into something meaningless and apologetic. Test: can you imagine someone saying: "I'm running the Marathon for Equability?"

Éù A-BL UK -- Huh? Is this text message language? If so it's actually harder to tap into your phone than 'able uk' would be. A-BL? Sounds a bit like Kabul? And what's with this 'able' stuff anyway. Diss is more trendy than Able. I know it's about accentuating the positive but it makes me vom chunks. 'See the ability not the disability' my bottom.

Éù eQual UK -- equalness, equality, it's a good thing to promote but why bother dropping 'Leonard Cheshire' if you're going to rebrand with a name that still doesn't point at disability? Unless the Chesh crew are thinking of taking on a few race and gender issues too, that is? Watch this space for breaking news on that should it ever happen. And what does the capital Q bring? Or is that some kind of electronic Qual they're trying to flag?

By the way, Leonard Cheshire was a fella who, after the war, took a disabled bloke in and cared for him. News spread, probably a bit like when jesus was born in a manger, and people came to visit and be part of it. Ta da, a charity was born that created homes for disabled people - lights out at 8pm everyone, no talking. Good in their day perhaps but it is felt that things have largely moved on. You can betcha the directors are keen to disassociate themselves with that particular past and move forward in a new direction. So, yes, makes sense they'd want to drop the albatross - you have to stop yourself saying 'homes' after you hear the words Leonard and Cheshire in a row don't ya.

So, if you've got an alternative name for Leonard Cheshire, why not leave us a comment.

John van Breda has sent us a link to his wife's new website, , which provides links to goods, services and support groups for families with special needs children.

The site is young, knew, and therefore, "a little rough around the edges", but it is growing all the time and there are already lots of useful linksin each section.

That website again is .