Access All: Disability News and Mental Health

Access All: Disability News and Mental Health

Weekly podcast about mental health, wellbeing and disabled people. Life stories and solutions with a friendly touch – for listeners around the world.

Episodes

August 13, 2025 37 mins

Be kind to yourself, GCSE and A-Level results are on the horizon and some of us get much higher doses of anxiety and stress than others

Emma Tracey, with BBC journalist Hayley Clarke, examine the experience for neurodivergent students and give some tips on the build up.

They talk to Paddy, who went through difficulties at school thanks to his OCD brain, and feared the very worst when his A-level results came around. He is now a You...

Mark as Played

Access All’s Emma Tracey chats to three comedians taking to the stage at Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer. Joe Tracini has been battling with borderline personality disorder (BPD) his whole life but is in a good place and ready to wow the crowds in Scotland with his show, alongside the negative voice in his head, Mick. This year marks 20 years since comedy troupe Abnormally Funny People was formed, made up of a collection ...

Mark as Played

Disability minister Sir Stephen Timms talks to Access All's Emma Tracey a month after the government climbdown on benefits changes.

They discuss the Access To Work scheme which Sir Stephen says is no longer the government's "best kept secret" because more people are using it.

Plus they talk about a newly announced set of five collaboration committees featuring people with lived experience of disability and other stakeholders on imp...

Mark as Played
July 30, 2025 32 mins

It's 35 years this week since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) came into being. In the UK we waited a further five years until we got an equivalent act, the DDA as it was then known. we take a look at how it came about with journalist Eric Garcia.

Later we bring you top tips on how to be a total "gig pig" if you're a disabled person. The lowdown on Nimbus cards and booking accessible tickets to see your favourite band with...

Mark as Played

Presenter and model, Christine McGuinness, has thrown herself into dating for the first time since discovering she is neurodivergent. She reveals to Access All some of her autistic dating tips and tricks and talks about her new BBC podcast, Situationships. She also chats about campaigning for more accessible playgrounds for disabled and neurodiverse kids. When he heard we were chatting about dating, BBC journalist, Alex Taylor, r...

Mark as Played

Comedian Robin Ince speaks with Emma Tracey about his relatively new diagnosis of ADHD. He has written a book to try and help neurodivergent people "walk unafraid through the world" as he puts it. The Infinite Monkey Cage comedian speaks personally about distraction, creativity, intense interests and - perhaps the worst part of ADHD - RSD, Rejection Sensitivity Disorder. Recorded and mixed by: Dave O'Neill Producers: Emma Tra...

Mark as Played

After weeks of debate and political rebellion, proposed changes to the health element of Universal Credit have cleared the House of Commons.

The government's bill sets out that new claimants from April 2026, who have limited capacity to work and have been approved to receive the health top-up of the benefit, will receive £50 a week, compared to £97 for current claimants who will continue to receive that amount.

The Universal Credit ...

Mark as Played
July 3, 2025 41 mins

This week, the programme is about cute disabled kids, how attitudes to disabled people are different in New York, kettles, faces, headlines, hackathons and a brilliant woman who's bringing education to kids spending time in a hospice in Wales. Paul Carter joins Emma Tracey in a show where we've deliberately edited out all the stuff about that welfare bill for the sake of all our sanities. It'll be back again soon enough though. ...

Mark as Played

It's been a fast-moving day in the House of Commons as MPs voted to send the welfare bill on the next stage of its journey through parliament, but it's been far from clear-cut.

Halfway through the impassioned debate from MPs on the effects of eligibility changes to benefits, the government offered up another concession - to delay any changes to one of them, Pip, until after a report involving disabled people is published in Autumn 2...

Mark as Played

Just after the clock struck midnight in Westminster all of the rumours and rumblings around the government's welfare reform plans to save £5bn came to a head as Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall, released a letter to MPs outlining a series of concessions to the plans. They include making no changes to existing deals people have and disability co-production, which means inviting disability organisations to the table to help...

Mark as Played

Financial journalist and author Jessie Hewitson was amused when her five-year-old came home from school and declared he has DHD. She thought he'd somewhat ironically missed out the 'A' in a hurry. But after thinking about it for a while, she thought he may well have succcessfullly diagnosed himself. A few years on and both of Jessie's sons have been diagnosed with ADHD, and she has received a diagnosis too. Having previously writ...

Mark as Played

From benefits to AI, Emma Tracey looks through the headlines with BBC tech reporter Paul Carter, as well as sharing a few unexpected stories from their personal lives as innocent-looking 'smugglers'.

And comedian Rosie Jones with actor and reporter Ruben Reuter join Emma to talk about Pushers - the new Channel 4 sitcom written by Rosie about a disabled woman who becomes a drug pusher through desperation after losing her benefits mon...

Mark as Played

The much-awaited government bill introducing benefits changes has been published today and officially introduced to parliament, kicking off the process of getting it into law.

There were no surprises in the snappily-named Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill which outlined and confirmed the tightening of Pip eligibility and acknowledged the concession that there will be a 13-week transition period for those whose b...

Mark as Played

Emma Tracey explores how accessible beaches are if you are a wheelchair user, and how inclusive open water swimming is if you can't see. Some really useful and interesting info you won't want to miss in this chat with Will Behenna, Director of the Beach Access Project, and Sadie Rockliffe from the University of Brighton And Dr Grace Spence Green is the woman who was disabled when a man fell on her from a height at a shopping cent...

Mark as Played
June 4, 2025 30 mins

Ever wondered what other people's therapy sessions are like? We meet a counsellor with her client and talk about the why and the how of building back the self esteem of a man who's had his legs amputated and wants to rejoin the dating scene. Plus ... is getting a wheelchair accessible taxi difficult in your area? Find out why Northern Island has lost a lot of cab drivers these last few years (Clue: Covid didn’t help). Presenter...

Mark as Played

More than 100 influential disabled people have signed an open letter to Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, calling £5bn worth of benefit cuts, “cruel”.

Screenwriter, Jack Thorne, behind hits including Adolescence and Toxic Town talks exclusively to Access All about why he signed the letter which dubs the planned reforms “cruelty by policy”. The Department for Work and Pensions says its “determined to support people in all parts of the co...

Mark as Played

On both sides of the Atlantic disabled people are protesting, despite the sometimes tricky logistics.

In the UK, a mass lobby event was held on 21 May at Westminster to enable disabled people to 'green card' their MP. That means the MP is informed their constituent is waiting for them in Parliament and they should go and meet them. The hot topic for this event was the £5bn welfare cuts announced in the Spring Statement. But how succ...

Mark as Played

Labour MP for Nottingham East, Nadia Whittome, cannot support the announced benefits changes and speaks to Emma Tracey about the experiences she has had as a disabled person herself. BBC's political correspondent Helen Catt walks us through whether government will face a significant challenge getting their legislation through parliament this summer, with other insights.

Then, music from American artist, Gaelynn Lea, who's touring t...

Mark as Played
May 7, 2025 29 mins

The dotty medium of Braille has just turned 200 years old. Famously invented by French boy, Louis Braille, it spread worldwide and became the way blind people were finally able to read. Access All's presenter Emma Tracey explains what she does with it and why she loves it whilst meeting interesting people who have used the medium in very interesting ways…including, Stevie Wonder. Presenter: Emma Tracey Producer: Adele Armstrong...

Mark as Played

There's a bit of a parental feel about this week's podcast. Two mums from Nottingham were categorised in a hospital computer system as having learning disabilities and, they say, received poor treatment as a result. Claire Whyte and Elizabeth Jones are autistic but their local NHS trust only has the ability to (inappropriately) categorise them as having a learning disability, because there is no neurodivergent box to tick on the ...

Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

    The Breakfast Club

    The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

    The Bobby Bones Show

    Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.