±«Óãtv

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival takes place across three weeks in August in Scotland's capital city.

Featuring everything from unknown artists to top names in the world of entertainment this major event in the arts festival calendar includes theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, musicals, opera, music and exhibitions.

Many comedians and other acts with disabilities have performed at the event, but how accessible is it if you are a disabled festival goer?

In an attempt to improve disability access the Edinburgh Fringe Festival are trying to find out.

You can have your say on the current level of accessibility at the Edinburgh Fringe by completing this

Guest blogger: Jonathan Hassell, Head of Usability & Accessibility, ±«Óãtv Future Media & Technology

Back in February, we got a big response when we asked you to give us name suggestions for a new accessibility tool the ±«Óãtv was developing. This Christmas, we're giving you the opportunity to try it and shape its future.

We have been working hard all year, trying to create one accessibility tool which will allow you to change the way every one of the ±«Óãtv's 3million+ pages look.

It's been a real challenge to come up with something which lets the user get a personalised experience on everything from simple, text-heavy News archive pages from 10 years ago, all the way through to the much richer, more technologically complex pages on recent sites like iPlayer v3.

But we've finally managed to get the tool ready for a trial which launches today.

While the tool isn't perfect yet, it has user-tested really well with a sample of those people it intends to help: people with dyslexia, low-literacy, ADHD, Aspergers and limited vision. Feedback on the News redesign earlier in the year and the recent redesign of the Archers message-board has made it very clear that some people really need ±«Óãtv sites their way, in the colours, structure and font that works for them. That feedback has also confirmed findings from the user-research for the tool that different groups can have very different (sometimes completely contradictory) ideas of what the best colours and fonts for ±«Óãtv websites should be.

So we are now asking people in the tool's target audiences to try it out so that we can plan for its future. The ±«Óãtv needs to know that enough people are going to use the tool to justify the cost of making sure all future designs and technologies on ±«Óãtv Online work well with it. This is neither a simple nor inexpensive proposition.

We've called the new accessibility tool MyDisplay. While it wasn't any of the names you proposed in February, the MyDisplay team did take all your suggestions into account during the process.

Note that the name doesn't have ±«Óãtv in front of it. As we're investigating potentially sharing the technology with non-±«Óãtv sites, we couldn't really call it ±«Óãtv anything...

It's a good time for us to be trialling this tool, as it chimes with one of the suggestions in the new British Standard for Web Accessibility, BS8878, launched last week - that all websites should consider including such personalisation systems. While some sites do this at the moment, each tends to include different personalisation options, and users can't take their settings from one site to another.

If MyDisplay finds a large audience, and it proves possible to share it with other sites, the ±«Óãtv could help change this in the future.

So, now's your chance to give My Display a shot. Go to bbc.co.uk/mydisplay, and get ready to use ±«Óãtv Online your way.

We really welcome feedback, so when you've tried it out, please tell us whether we've created something which you'd use all the time to make ±«Óãtv sites work better for you, or whether we've missed something you'd need from a tool like this.

±«Óãtv Ouch's very own Liz Carr makes her Radio 2 debut later tonight. She'll be presenting a special report on Liverpool's DADAFest and the work of it's parent organisation DaDa.

Aired as part of The New Radio 2 Arts Show with Claudia Winkleman, Liz will be discussing the wide and varied work carried out by DADA, as well as hearing from some of the performers and behind-the-scenes figures involved in the UK's biggest disability arts festival.

Plus, in a first for Radio 2, on the show's web page after the broadcast there'll be a visual transcript of the report available for those who want to access it that way.

This isn't just a text offering either. In fact, the DaDa item's producer, Phil McGarvey reliably informs me that it contains 17 images in all, illustrating every aspect of the audio report.

The New Radio 2 Arts Show Team would welcome your feedback on the visual transcript so feel free to leave a comment below.

Last week I attended Learning Disability Today at London's Business Design Centre.

Celebrating its ten year anniversary, the annual one day event includes seminars, stands and interactive zones, all of particular interest to people with a learning disability, their families, friends and those who support them.

As I wandered through the exhibition hall, I noted a plethora of organisations and charities providing a similar mix of accommodation, support, care and training. It was the person centred projects which grabbed most of my attention, though.

I dropped in on an organisation which facilitates people with learning disabilities to run projects in their communities. The most well-known of their projects is probably The Bubble Club in Shoreditch. This is a club night run by and for people with learning disabilities. You can watch an Ouch! video about it here.

Further down the rows of stands, I met Carousel, a Brighton based arts organisation. Carousel have many strings to their bow, including the Oska Bright film festival and a number of LD lead bands including Beat Express.

I hadn't previously been aware of Carousel's radio show and podcast. Produced by 'learnies', the show is available online and goes out once a month on Radio Reverb, a community station in Brighton. It focuses mostly on music by learning disabled people but includes talk too.

Ryan, one of the presenters, was recording a report at the exhibition. This will be available to hear on their next broadcast.

As I continued my journey, I had the opportunity to play beautiful music by waving my arms about, using a sound beam.

Kath from the Carers With Learning Disabilities Network took time to explain to me that, because people with conditions like Down's Syndrome are living longer, and often remaining in the family home, there is inevitably an ever-growing number of learning disabled carers out there looking after parents and elderly family members. The network aims to support them.

Sticking with minority LD groups, I ran into an old friend of Ouch! Steve Palmer - former studio manager of our podcast - who now works for The Social Care Institute for Excellence. He urged me to watch a film they've just produced for Social Care TV about Richard, a gay man with a learning disability. Watch it

As everyone was packing away their posters and pamphlets, I came across a company who help people with learning disabilities manage their money and open bank accounts, and another which specialises in obtaining mortgages for people with disabilities. Two services I never knew existed.

There were loads of interesting things to do and see and plenty of the stands were run or co-run by learnies. Many of the attendees were service users as well and there were a range of interesting ways to get involved and to access useful information.

The (MPS) is looking for volunteers to contribute to a new independent advisory group.

They are seeking people as "critical friends" to offer a "valuable insight into how people with disabilities are affected by policing in London."

For more information or to get involved call 020 7161 2719 or email disability@met.police.uk.

This got me thinking...

Is this initiative helpful?
Would you consider being involved?

Announcement after announcement on disability benefits and related schemes are coming out of government at a dizzying rate of knots this month. All of them suggest that life is going to be quite different from now on. Disability Bitch is analysing this a bit more, in her own special way, tomorrow.

We're noting there are now more and more disabled people blogging and tweeting about the cuts, and the possible effects of change; we're reading and will be following it up in the new year with our ±«Óãtv colleagues as things hopefully become clearer.

This is a bit of advanced warning that on December 30 we have a special end of year podcast where we'll be looking back on the big events of 2010 and looking ahead to 2011.

The regular hosts of the show , Mat Fraser and Liz Carr, will be joined by ±«Óãtv Disability Affairs Correspondent Peter White and, former paralympian, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.

Find out what our guests think about the cuts and what response they expect to hear from disabled people in the UK. Politics aside, we'll also hear about upcoming paralympic sport, discussion on role models, TV and some audio clips you may remember from the year about to come to a close.

Touretteshero is a new UK organisation for young people with Tourettes Syndrome.

At a launch event on Saturday 18 December, children with Tourettes from around the country will meet the mysterious and enigmatic Touretteshero at a secret location in London.

Touretteshero has promised that together they'll devise and create superhero identities in a bid to save the world from a lack of imagination around Tourettes:

Check out this emergency broadcast on to find out more and discover the five terrible symptoms of the 'dull wave' identified by Touretteshero herself: being serious, not laughing, constant frowning, filling in endless forms and thinking inside the box.

This superhero pow-wow will mark the launch of - a website featuring personal reflections, original art, design, music and video.

Have you got what it takes to be a caped crusader?

London Ambassadors will host guests from all over the world during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. It is hoped 8,000 volunteers will provide an outstanding welcome to visitors to the capital.

Ambassadors will be based at 35 sites from 20 July to 10 September 2012 including visitor hot spots, famous landmarks, travel hubs and areas near the Games venues.

Volunteers must be 16 or over and be prepared to commit to five hour shifts across a minimum of six consecutive days.

Full training will be provided but we're told that candidates will need excellent interpersonal skills and a passion for London.

The organisers are really keen to encourage disabled people to get involved.

Have you got what it takes?

Take the and find out.

Or simply straight away.

The takes place tomorrow, December 3rd.

This global nod towards recognition of the rights of disabled people was inspired by the International Year of the Disabled Person, 1981. Each year the day focuses on something different. 2010 is all about inclusion of disabled people in development.

The official bit at will include discussions on community based rehabilitation in the developing world and how disabled people might become more involved with policy making, wherever they are on earth.

Outside of the UN, events will take place all over the world to mark the day. Wheelchair tango demonstrations are planned for Holland and the DaDaFest awards ceremony happens in Liverpool tomorrow evening. But the prize for most international offering has to go to British artist Simon McKeown. His work, , will be screened in 17 cities across the globe including Kolkata in India, Pristina (Kosovo) and New York.

Will the International Day of Persons with Disabilities pass you by? Or are you planning an event to mark the occasion? Let us know in the comments below.

Today's Access All Areas report follows Newsnight producer Jonathan Bell as he finds out what part sport plays in the rehabilitation of seriously injured soldiers. In this part, Jonathan goes back 15 years to recount his personal journey of recovery.

Looking back to the dark early days in hospital all those years ago is still uncomfortable. And as much as I remember the good friends that I made, it was a time of dramatic re-adjustment to my new disabled self.

I had been an infantry soldier on a training exercise on Salisbury Plain, preparing for deployment to Bosnia. One phase of the training was a night navigation exercise with my Company. We were fit, tough soldiers running the thirty-odd kilometres in full kit with ammunition and weapons. Nothing could have prepared me for the life changing moment when a car ploughed in to my foot patrol, seriously injuring me and fifteen other soldiers.

I received a spinal cord injury which left me paraplegic. My legs had also been mangled by the impact of the car. Lying in the hospital ward with my new injured mates, the future seemed a bit grim, uncertain at least. I was no longer a tall, physically fit soldier - I was a wheelchair user.

As I contemplated my future, I remember very clearly the wheelchair basketball team arriving each week in the ward waiting to use the gym for training. They balanced precariously on their back wheels as they bantered with each other - and when they were catapulted out of their wheelchairs after colliding with another player -they slipped effortlessly back in. This seemed so cool in contrast to our clumsy efforts. They were fit, young men and women. It was while watching them that I realised life was going to be ok.

Making the news report this week, I realised that charting my transition from hospital to the 'outside world' was as revealing as much as nostalgic. I have come a long way since then.

While filming the report, I met a guy I'd played in the table-tennis finals at the Inter-Spinal-Unit Games all those years ago. He's still involved in competitive sport. We talked about the adjustments we had to make and how we both found something in sport that helped us through that challenging time.

A couple of days later, I chatted to some wounded soldiers at Headley Court rehabilitation centre in Surrey. For them, sport has been crucial. Soldiers, broadly speaking, are competitive and this mind-set helps for a speedy recovery to battle fitness. Those who won't make it back to frontline soldiering are assessed to see if they're suitable for, or indeed have an interest in, getting involved in a sporting discipline.

As much as I'd like to tell you I became a talented basketball player - that was never going to happen. The same lack of coordination that kept me out of the school football team hadn't changed. However, I did stay involved in recreational sport. I got fit again and developed a new sense of physical 'self' that I was happy with. Getting fit also made me feel better about myself and helped to rebuild my confidence. I've since learnt to mono-ski and have become an instructor.

As a full-time wheelchair user, I feel as athletic now as I ever did in the Army.

Watch Jonathan's online report.

For details of what Access All Areas has in store for the rest of the week, take a look at this ±«Óãtv Press release.