大象传媒

Our latest podcast is now here to grab online, presented by Mat Fraser and Liz Carr. For what it's worth, I'm the producer of the show.

Listen or subscribe to the show

鈥� Family favouritism. Did you get more attention from your parents than your brothers and sisters because you're disabled? And do you get more money left to you in wills? Mat, Liz (and me) discuss it.

鈥� Might changes to benefits mean that you find yourself back in the job market? Or perhaps you are thinking about self employment or something more adventurous? Two disabled businesswomen, Vanessa Heywood and Liz Jackson MBE, discuss setting up their own companies.

Vanessa runs a children's entertainment and education franchise called Tiny Mites Music; she recently won the Stelios award for disabled entrepreneurs. And Liz, founder of Great Guns Marketing, may have grabbed your attention when she gave away thousands of pounds on Channel 4's Secret Millionaire show in 2009. So they both know a bit about this stuff.

鈥� Jade and Tim, collectively known as music duo The Wasted Day Collection, join us on the line from Hull. We play out with their track Barbarian in Pink.

Read a transcript of the show

鈥� Off air - We spent a lot of time in our production meeting talking about wills and favouritism and couldn't quite work out what we should focus on. It started as a discussion around the recent Friday night show You Can't Take It With You, where families wrangle and worry about who should get what and why, after they've passed on. So producer Damon gets posted into the studio to see what he can add.

Liz and Vanessa, the businesswomen in our second item, were both really nice people and the conversation really takes off, as you'll hear. They both care deeply about what they do.

Liz, employer of a 100 strong workforce, shocks our presenters when she reveals she barely ever gets job applications from disabled people. It surprises her because she had thought that fellow disabled people might find her more approachable (paraphrasing a little here). It's well worth a listen to hear it in her own words.

鈥� Leave your feedback or suggestions for future items in the comments below. Or email us on the address that Mat and Liz regularly give out ouch@bbc.co.uk

Six actors with learning difficulties have created a new theatre piece celebrating the role of jesters in history.

The play, All The King's Fools, is influenced by historical research revealing that some of the most famous jesters of the mid sixteenth century had intellectual disabilities.

鈥淭his is really important work uncovering a hidden chapter in the history of popular entertainment. We aim to show the true skill of these historic performers and the debt owed to them by comic entertainers over the last five centuries,鈥� says Director Peet Cooper.

The show is to be performed at in Surrey in the courtyards and cloisters where jesters entertained the Tudor Court nearly 500 years ago.

Inspiration for the project came after Cooper was asked by Hampton Court Palace to play the role of Henry VIII鈥檚 fool Will Somer.

When he discovered Somer was said to be a 'natural fool鈥� or 'innocent鈥�, Cooper felt he couldn鈥檛 play the role authentically and decided to contact actors who could help.

The performers are from , a theatre company which provides opportunities for people with learning disabilities, and who work to challenge discrimination.

Penny Lepisz, Maude Winkler Reid, Marsail Edwards, Paul Prangly, Bill Loveridge and Greg Tibbets incorporate traditional fooling and clowning techniques with their own style of performance.

Music is by musician Sarah Moody who has worked at the Theatre Royal in Bath, the Nottingham Playhouse and for 大象传媒 Radio 4.

Marsail Edwards said: 鈥淸the audience] will learn that people with learning difficulties can act. They don鈥檛 think we can act very well and also they think the words 鈥榣earning difficulties鈥� means we can鈥檛 do a lot, but we can. I think, most of all, people will find our performance moving.鈥�

All The King鈥檚 Fools starts on Thursday 24 February 2011 and runs to Sunday 27 February. There are performances at 11.00聽and 14.00聽each day.

The Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted is Norway's oldest association of disabled people.

The Association's website states that its objective is "to achieve equal opportunities and status in society for people with visual impairment - and other groups of disabled people."

They have created the following quirky TV commercials as part of a campaign to encourage companies to hire blind people to work for them:

(In which a blind person works in a dark room)

(In the photocopying room, two workers get fruity while an oblivious blind colleague retrieves a file)

(A blind man has a meeting with a female colleague who, in a rush, gets dressed in front of him. He is handily unaware)

What do you think of this campaign? Does the humour translate?

What kind of film would you make to promote blind or disabled people in the workplace?

Tell us in the comments section below.

Four short radio plays have been created by Spare Tyre's inc. Theatre artists in conjunction with 大象传媒 Radio Drama.

Spare Tyre have been helping "voiceless communities and individuals" create theatre for over 30 years. They currently work with older people, adults with learning disabilities and women who have experienced sexual violence.

The company's inc. Theatre Ensemble are a group of artists with learning disabilities who recently teamed up with 大象传媒 producers to write several short plays which were then recorded by professional actors.

All four dramas are now available to hear online:

by Daniel Berryman features a couple winning the lottery.

Ellie Mason has created

by Lucy Meah is about two girls who like the same boy.

by David Munns is about a mysterious fishing trip.

Meeting Point is a new online conversation space hosted by Scope.

It has been created in response to an increase in the number of calls the charity's helpline has been receiving about young disabled people who feel isolated, different and misunderstood.

The forum is aimed at people aged between 10 and 18 years and is a closed room, which means you have to be registered to use it.

After inputting your details, a regional response worker will make contact to arrange a visit and talk through the forum, how it works, any specific areas of interest, and obtain authorisation from your parents.

At present Scope can only accept registration requests from young people living in England and Wales.

The boards are post-moderated which means that once registered you can post messages and interact with other users immediately. However, the moderating team can edit, remove or delete messages which don't comply with the forum rules.

"Many teenagers find it difficult to talk to their parents about their feelings and disabled teenagers are no different. Increasingly we're hearing about young disabled people who feel frustrated and angry at being misunderstood. We wanted to create a safe space for them to come together, to share their experiences, find information and talk through issues they are experiencing with their peers," commented Jacqui Piper, co-ordinator at Scope.

Jhon Bateman, aged 13, said about Meeting Point "I think it will be good as it's an instant way of communicating with other people of a similar age. Even if you're ill because of your disability you would still be able to talk to people."

Meeting Point can be found at .

Here are the show notes for episode 64 of the Ouch! Talk Show. Mat Fraser and Liz Carr present. For what it's worth, I'm the producer. I know no one cares about producers.

Listen or subscribe to the show on the 大象传媒's main podcast pages.

鈥� We've tried to do valentine's day in a cute and lovey dovey way in years gone by but sometimes we're met with bad vibes. So this year we're doing the opposite and talking about all the horrible complex anxieties around falling for your carer or personal assistant. What can I say ... it happens. And we can't always help it. Course, Mat takes it a step further but then he would, wouldn't he.

鈥� Kaliya Franklin from joins us in our Merseyside studio to review some recent disability news. Woah it's a biggie. You can't get much bigger than the story about the remains of 220 disabled which were discovered in Austria last month. And she makes an interesting, if extremely controversial, link between that and what's happening with the present cuts to disability benefits in the UK today.

鈥� Our Vegetable Vegetable or Vegetable contestant is Sarah from Didcot. It's not as bad as it sounds, honest. I believe it might be called 'empowering' by some.

Read or download a transcript of the show

鈥� Off air: As per usual we provided some lovely 大象传媒 coffee in our production meeting before the show. And, as per usual, Mat went straight to the coffee bar for a double espresso instead. Everyone turned up on time for a change which was nice.

Mariella Frostrup was in our regular studio before we got in it and I swear Mat was a bit star struck. My guide dog tried to eat her as she left, I think she was OK about it but you can never tell. Last month CBeebies Cerrie Burnell came wandering in after Mat and Liz had gone home, that could've been a fun encounter. Maybe another time.

鈥� The next show goes live on Feb 22 and includes an interview with two disabled businesswomen who have 'got on their bike' and are ploughing a successful furrow in the big commercial world out there.

leave your feedback or suggestions for future items in the comments below. Or email us on the address that Mat and Liz regularly give out ouch@bbc.co.uk

Buried near the end of The Streets new album Computers and Blues - released today - is an interesting track called Trying to Kill M.E.

The fulll stop in the middle of 'me' grabbed my attention and a little Googling confirmed my disability radar hunch..

It was fairly well known that Mike Skinner (not even a frontman, he is the band) had epilepsy and indeed has mentioned it in previous lyrics. But now here comes a song about having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as M.E. or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

It includes the kind of lyrics we've come to know and love from the softly spoken Brit rapper cum street poet: "I used to love the night and now I dread my bed," and "Torturous virus get out from my eyelids."

In in January this year, he told how he'd had an episode of the illness back in 2009: "It's not really that interesting - it wasn't severe. I've kind of still got it now. It's a feeling I've missed a meal."

Trying to Kill M.E. is track 12 and sits alongside other songs like: Roof of Your Car, Puzzled by People and We Can Never be Friends.

is a film festival based in New York "dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities."

The third annual ReelAbilities festival opened in the Big Apple yesterday and includes films about Down's syndrome, brain damage, mental illness, blindness, manic depression, war injuries and autism.

Three films which caught our attention are:

which charts Jacks McNamara's journey from psych ward patient to mental health advocate.

focusing on four wounded soldiers who set out to compete in the Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

And , which follows two men with autism as they travel to Sri Lanka, Japan and Finland trying to change attitudes about disability and intelligence.

The full list of films can be found and screenings take place between 3 and 8 February in various locations around the New York metropolitan area. They will be followed by discussions with filmmakers, special panels, concerts, dance performances and art exhibits.

Yesterday morning, The Thick of it actress Rebecca Front tweeted the following: "Hey well known Twitterers. Fancy taking the stigma out of mental illness? I'll start: I'm Rebecca Front & I've had panic attacks.#whatstigma".

Noone could have anticipated the impact this post would have on the world of Twitter.

Within a few short hours, had become one of the UK's top trending hashtags and as Rebecca had hoped, other well-known tweeters, like Alistair Campbell and Caitlyn Moran had added their voice. Timelines were filled with a steady stream of messages from celebs and regulars alike, as they shared their mental health stories.

Comedian Sue Perkins admitted: "I regularly get bitten by the black dog"

Someone called Lisa from London let her hundreds of followers know that she has; "Chronic depression, anxiety and mostly-recovered-from agoraphobia. Life sometimes a challenge, but never, ever dull."

Yesterday was also the day that the coalition government launched it's mental health strategy

The charity was quick to get a news story on their website drawing attention to both. In it, their campaign director Sue Baker, said of the tweets:

"This just shows how many people are affected by a mental health problem. It is fantastic that Rebecca Front's leadership and the viral power of Twitter has helped encourage thousands more people to talk openly about this issue."

The #whatstigma hashtag is still active, with new 140 character-long mental health stories being posted every minute. Why not add yours?

鈥� A hashtag, for those of you who don't do Twitter, is a set of words preceded by a # symbol. When used widely, hashtags make it easy to find Tweets on a specific topic, like stigma.

On the evening of the 2nd of February, I travelled to the Green Note in Camden for a bit of what you might call disability art but, today, it was part of a regular mainstream event.

describes itself as: "one of London's premiere spoken word nights - hosting poetry with a good sense of humour, and humour with a poetic sensibility." Each evening in the series is themed, this one focused on the happy subjects of sickness and disability. Three performers took part.

First up was Niall Spooner-Harvey. A performance poet with a childhood diagnosis of ataxic cerebral palsy, Niall describes himself as only partially disabled now, and is quick to point out he was much more disabled in childhood, the main focus of his poems. He does admit to still being "rubbish at spacial awareness and depth perception".

He read from his book, Only Not Walking, which, according to his publisher Smokestack Books: "addresses the experience of living with an invisible disability in an impatient and unaccepting world."

Niall's memories of life as a misunderstood disabled child are condensed into angry, passionate and painfully honest poems about the school bus, an egg and spoon race and the trauma of tying laces.

The audience, who were crammed into a small and very warm venue, with not much room between them and the low stage, may have been a tad uncomfortable with his depth of feeling but for me, it hit home.

Welsh-born followed straight afterwards with a performance which, while much calmer and quieter, was no less personal or passionate.

Faye was much more comfortable with her disabilities than Niall appeared to be, proven by a name check for in her final poem. This was the only one with obvious references to her multiple invisible conditions. In a room full of non-disabled people, it could have been seen as a brave piece. She summarised the poem afterwards for me.

"I have conditions that affect my daily life but talking about it gets exhausting. It becomes kind of draining to constantly self-define by disability, even though you do sometimes have to, or it can all go a bit wrong."

Finally, the main event. is a one-man show, which takes you on a journey from Richard as an uber-fit, 30 year old performer, through cardiac failure, surgery and near death experiences, to life with a heart condition and a cabinet full of meds.

It's raw, at times graphic, and very funny. He's taking the show to a couple of London fringe festivals later this year and hopes to hit Edinburgh with it in 2012.