Blinded in Ukraine; Forza Motorsport

Published: Oct. 17, 2023, 8 p.m.

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Vlad and Valeria Yeschenko are a young newly-wed Ukrainian couple. Vlad was clearing out and dismantling mines when one exploded, resulting in severe injuries, including the loss of his eyesight. The couple got married soon after Vlad\'s recovery. The BBC\'s senior international reporter, Orla Guerin visited the couple in their home at the edge of Kyiv to find out more about what happened and the impact that day has had on their lives. It is a story of war, loss, love, and a determination to help other people in the same boat, through the couple\'s charity \'Let\'s See the Victory\'. This interview contains some graphic detail of injury.

On In Touch, we have been reporting for some time on the progress of video games becoming more accessible to blind people. The progress is slow but is surely happening and the most recent demonstration of this comes from a motor sport racing game called Forza Motorsport. This is thought to be the first blockbuster racing game accessible to the blind. Brandon Cole is a games accessibility consultant and he tells us about the features that allow blind and partially sighted people to grasp the throttle and get driving (virtually) .

Presenter: Peter White\\nProducer: Beth Hemmings\\t \\nProduction Coordinator: Liz Poole \\nWebsite image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter\'s head is the BBC logo (three individual 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 a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

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