Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Three's adult season continued this week with Small Teen, Big World. Originally broadcast on Tuesday the 27th of July, the documentary focuses on 16 year old Jasmin and her mum, who both have an undiagnosed form of dwarfism. The Cameras follow Jasmin as she meets other young people with restricted growth and goes in search of her dad who is of average hight.

On this week's File on 4, the last in the current series, Fran Abrams hears concerns about the financial arrangements for mentally incapacitated people. Next broadcast is on Sunday at 5 PM, Radio 4.

Now on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer, the most recent episode of Radio 4's Inside the Ethics Committee deals with childhood illness. A panel of experts discuss the case of Tanya, a nine year old girl who is seriously ill. Should she be told what is wrong with her and given a say in her treatment?

Barrister John Horan, who specialises in disability discrimination, is the latest in our interview chain in the series we cleverly call Dis Connected.

"I wanted John because he's the man who enforces the law." said director Kate Ansell. "We talk about discrimination and how terrible it is ... and, when you have a problem, he's the guy who sorts it out for you.

"He's used to how discrimination laws do or don't work in real life and is able to tell us how good they are."

John is interviewed by last week's interviewee, Blaine Harrison from indie band Mystery Jets. Blaine gets straight to the nub of the matter and asks if there's too much apathy in the disability community when it comes to fighting for rights.

Watch: Blaine Harrison meets John Horan (press play and hit S to get subtitles)

Every week, the Ouch! Newsletter has a Stuff section, where we draw the reader's attention to disability related programmes, either coming up or available to watch on iPlayer. Here's what made it in to this week's edition.

The Blind Me, which is part of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Three's Adult Season, is a one-off documentary following four blind young people as they make some important life decisions.

Coming up on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Three, Small Teen Big World, follows the relationship between Jasmin and her mum, who both have an undiagnosed form of dwarfism.

The first in a new series of Word of Mouth, originally broadcast on Radio 4, discusses the different ways in which deaf people communicate. Features an interview with Charlie Swinbourne.

Sound Waves from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's Film Network, follows two families, both with children who are deaf. One has decided to give their son a cochlear implant, the other has not. Why?

If you would like to receive a similar round-up delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday, then sign up for the Ouch! Newsletter.

Is it deaf week or something? we don't tend to do those awareness weeks on Ouch! because that's all we do all the time. But it seems like we're getting a lot of 'deaf' across our threshold in the past 10 days or so what with Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One's The Silence and Charlie Swinbourne's excellent article about his Hogwats and Glee-esque love for deaf schools. Oh and a signed Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Proms performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

So let me add to the pile by saying that you can also listen to a radio show tonight that marvellously dips into a bit of deafie signie culture and that Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Proms has gone a bit sign language love, too.

London Nights - Radio 4, 11pm tonight

Deaf actress Sophie Woolley travels home amid the capital's hubbub, and gives an audio picture of how she experiences it. She told me:

"For deaf people the sign for London also means 'noisy'. Almost the same gesture that hearing people make to indicate 'mad'. London's noise levels reach a crescendo at night. I've lived here all my life, but it's started sounding unrecognisable to me because over the last few years I've regenerated into a deaf person. Even though I can see other pedestrians talking, I can't decipher any actual words. It sounds a bit like listening to snatches of speech underwater, and the diction is terrible. The consonants are missing and the vowels honk like Charlie Brown's teacher or someone pretending to speak French...."

It's on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer here if you missed it going out live and features other contributors and their London lives.

In the comments below, maybe some kindly BSL user can describe this noise / mad sign for me? And what is it you mouth when doing it? I've never understood the 'brilliant' sign where you say 'vee' while doing it. Why do you say that? Aren't you making things ultra complex for yourselves? I know, it's a deaf thing.

Roll up, roll up. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Proms features a signed performance this year and has set aside 150 standing places for deaf patrons.

Sondheim at 80 - Saturday July 31st 2010, 7.30pm at London's Royal Albert Hall. Get more info on what proms are and how to buy tickets.

A starry celebration of Broadway marking the 80th birthday of famed composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim. Pieces include: excerpts from the horror-opera Sweeney Todd, the Ingmar Bergman-inspired A Little Night Music, the fairy-tale compendium of Into the Woods as well as Pacific Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George.

You're advised to get there early and queue.

150 'promming spaces' have been set aside to make sure that deaf customers get a good chance of seeing the performance. No more seats are available and you cannot prebook these standing only spots.

50% ticket reductions are on offer for all disabled people at the venue.

Paul Whittaker OBE, from Music for the Deaf, will be signing the event.

Read more about Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Proms, now in its 116th year.

Kate Ansell - The director of our Dis Connected video series, blogs about how it came about.

The Ouch! team and I had the idea for Dis Connected back in January, mainly because it was snowing and therefore impossible to film outdoors. We had until March to make some films, and making them in a nice cosy studio seemed like a good idea. We also thought it would be fun to line up an eclectic group of disabled people, put them in a room together, and see what they had to say to each other.

Then came the task of getting people on board. Mr Blunkett, we were told, would be 'very busy' in March, and was regrettably unable to participate. I asked if this was because he was preparing for a May election, and was greeted by nervous laughter. (Yes, as it turns out.) Prof Hawking had no election to fight but could not commit the time it would've taken him to prepare for such an interview and Verne Troyer... Verne Troyer was too expensive.

Nervously, I fired off cautiously worded emails to Trisha Goddard, Gail Porter, Alastair Campbell, Marcus Trescothick, guessing they didn't identify themselves as disabled people, knowing they all 'qualify' under DDA legislation, and thinking they would have interesting insights into the topic.

There was cheering when Trisha and Gail agreed. Alastair and Marcus both declined gracefully, wishing us well with the project.

And Tanni Grey-Thompson. We wanted Tanni because she had just announced she would join the House of Lords and we thought it was an interesting time to catch her. Unfortunately Tanni is actually the busiest woman in the world, and fighting for a space in her diary was an epic struggle. Likewise Cerrie Burnell, of CBeebies fame. We called Jane Campbell because she has led an extraordinary life; we thought she might appreciate the opportunity to talk about disability rights in a wider context than the voluntary euthanasia debate she is so regularly called to opine upon.

We wanted Blaine Harrison out of the Mystery Jets because he is super-cool, and were delighted when he agreed. Likewise Cara Readle, a young actress who is finding her feet in adult roles having starred in Tracy Beaker as a kid.

We looked at our line up and knew it was stellar, but worried that it lacked something. We wanted to up the ante and find someone who wasn't a shiny celeb but would stick up for the rights of everyday common-or-garden crips. And we found John Horan, human rights barrister. Who better to pair with Tanni, our newest Baroness and law maker. He could tell her where the law was going wrong for disabled people.

And so our line up was complete. It was almost accidental but somehow we managed to start with a chat show host who never knew she was disabled, and end with a lifelong disability rights activist. It seems appropriate.

Along the way, our contributors find common ground and difference, and seem to really appreciate each other's company and the stories they were sharing.

• Watch the latest video in the series ... where CBeebies presenter and actress Cerrie Burnell meets Tracy Beaker actress Cara Readle. Both being in 'the biz' they had plenty to talk about. (episode 2 of 7)

• Next week, the daisy chain continues. Cara swaps seats and becomes interviewer to TV presenter Gail Porter. The chain continues all the way to the end when activist Jane Campbell is interviewed by Tanni Grey-Thompson in early August.

Frank Gardner is our guest on this month's Ouch! Talk Show. It's well worth a listen. Frank is the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's security correspondent who was shot by Al-Qaeda gunmen while he was in Saudi Arabia in 2004. A brutal attack, they left him for dead. It's incredible that he's back working for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News and doing so well with such dignity. He's one of a handful of people who we can genuinely call brave and inspirational without worrying we might be patronising him.

And it's for that reason that I'm slightly ashamed to tell you that, in their typical inquisitive way, our lifelong disabled presenters Liz and Simon then painstakingly took him through a list of benefits to see if he is on everything he's entitled to. Yes, we are small minded but we had to ask. Some might find such questions a bit intrusive ... find out how Frank reacted. (I'm sure George Osborne loves this kind of 'free money' talk).

The paperback version of his book Far Horizons has just come out and we had mainly invited him in to discuss his love of travel before and after he became a wheelchair user. He has some great stories, some great tips ... and a strong message that nowhere in the world is out of bounds if you set your mind to it.

• You can listen to the talk show by hitting the play button on this page and you can also download it to your MP3 player or subscribe to our talk show as a monthly podcast.

The Wimbledon wheelchair tennis male and female doubles tournaments start tomorrow and continue until 4 July. This year, the UK is represented by Lucy Shuker and also taking to the court will be world number one Esther Vergeer.

This, plus all the hype surrounding Andy Murray's bid for victory has doubtless inspired thousands of us to dig out our rickety racquets and join the local tennis club. If your blind like me and have tonnes of enthusiasm coupled with zero chance of ever hitting the ball, then a new accessible computer game may be just what you are looking for.

is a project which aims to increase visually impaired people's activity levels by developing games which are based on the Wii Fit model. So far there are two to choose from, bowling and tennis. Both are free and available to download directly from the website's homepage.

Once installed, the games are played using a PC with Bluetooth connectivity and a couple of Wii remotes.

Helpfully, blind technology expert Jonathan Mosen has created an extensive and practical audio demo encompassing both games. To listen, click and find an FTP download under the Mosen Explosion Downloads and Podcast heading.

If wheelchair tennis is more your bag, you can catch coverage of the Wimbledon tournaments between 2 and 4 July on the .