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IN TOUCH 鈥� The Elections Bill; Hearing the Universe

TX:听 08.02.2022听 2040-2100

PRESENTER:听 听听听听听听听 PETER WHITE

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PRODUCER:听 听听听听听听听听听 BETH HEMMINGS

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Music

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White

Good evening.听 Tonight, most would be astronomers, professional and amateur, use their eyes plus highly sophisticated equipment to appreciate the immensity of the universe.听 But how do those of us with little or no sight get to enjoy it too?听 Well astronomers from the universities of Newcastle and Portsmouth have turned the light from objects in space into sounds as part of an educational tour of the universe.

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Audio Universe music

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We have lift off.听

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Audio Universe music

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But we鈥檙e down to Earth with a bump for our first item.

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Our right to a secret and independent election vote at polling stations could be in danger of sinking into its own black hole.听 What seemed to be going in the right direction with a high court judge describing the current arrangements for blind and partially sighted people to vote as being 鈥渁 parody of the electoral process鈥� and with the RNIB introducing an audio aid to enable us to identify where to vote for the candidate of our choice without sighted help, we seemed, for the first time, to be close to a solution to this long-running problem.听 But now the RNIB fears that the Elections Bill, currently going through parliament, is far from guaranteeing that right to an independent and secret vote.听

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Well, the Chair of the RNIB, Anna Tylor, joins us.

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Anna, first of all, what is it in this bill which you say weakens our voting rights?

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Tylor

So, first of all, it doesn鈥檛 recognise that this is essentially a very visual activity and so there are no specific name protections for blind and partially sighted people.听 And that鈥檚 the practical bit.听 And then there鈥檚 the principled bit 鈥� the right to a private vote.听 And this has only been recognised for a generation.听 In addition to that, the proposed wording reverts to a position of reasonable adjustment.听 And what it suggests is that it will be up to individual returning officers to make the decisions without any particular expertise around disability access themselves, this is burdensome for them, but it also adds on this additional unspecified layer of administration for individual voters.听 And there is nothing like the addition of prescribed administration which turns people off from pursuing a particular course of action.听 And I think this runs the risk of doing the absolute opposite to the stated intention, which is to make voting accessible and inclusive.听 I think this will probably deter people.

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White

Well, we did invite the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on to the programme, they鈥檙e now dealing with this, they told us the minister was not available but in a statement they said: 鈥淭he Elections Bill will make it easier for people with all disabilities to vote, including voters who are blind and partially sighted.听 It will promote more flexible and tailored support for disabled voters by removing barriers to change and innovation.鈥澨� They went on to say: 鈥溾��it鈥檚 clear that a one-size fits all approach isn鈥檛 right for all disabled voters.鈥�

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What do you make of that?

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Tylor

Well, we鈥檝e been working with the government over quite a long period of time, as you probably know Peter, and we successfully rolled out some trials in the Norfolk election, I think it was last year, that shows the way that it is possible to make voting a more inclusive activity.听 And, in fact, we fully expected that we would move towards the addition of the audio devices, alongside tactile voting devices and were told that there was a procurement issue that was going to cause a delay because of covid.听 So, this move has really come as something of a surprise to us and I really hope that it will turn out to be something of an oversight or a misunderstanding but think there really is still time to put this right.

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White

Well also with us is Rachael Andrews.听 Now Rachael was the person whose judicial review drew that stinging condemnation of the current system from a high court judge.听 Rachael, how do you react to all this?

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Andrews

Well, Peter, I mean from my point of view it almost feels like there was a judgement to say that the government were unlawful, so, forgive me for saying, it rather feels like in order to change that judgement they鈥檝e just changed the goalposts, they鈥檙e going to change the law.听 So, the issue is, is currently it is law that the tactile voting device and the large print ballot must be available in every polling station.听 And, personally, the reason I took on this legal challenge in 2015, where it all started, was that they are not often available.听 At the moment, current polling station staff don鈥檛 know that the current provisions are lawful, so half the time we鈥檙e not getting them anyway.听 If we now have new legislation that says it鈥檚 up to returning officers to make their own judgements, quite honestly, I fear that we鈥檙e going to get nothing.听 It鈥檒l be a postcode lottery, there will be people who will be clued up about it and will still provide the TVD and the large print ballot and there are people who won鈥檛 be.听 And so, this is very concerning to me, very concerning indeed.

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White

Because you see what the government is saying is they don鈥檛 want a law that suggests a particular piece of equipment, they want a law which says that the returning officers will try to ensure that visually impaired people should get the equipment that they need.听 Now, put like that, it鈥檚 not such a dreadful thing that they鈥檙e suggesting, is it?

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Andrews

No, it isn鈥檛 but the thing of it is, is that the RNIB, as Anna has just said, have worked with the government for many, many years on trying to get a solution.听 At the moment, they have no perfect solution.听 There is an audio device out there, that鈥檚 been trialled, which I鈥檝e used myself, which is fantastic for telling us who we鈥檙e voting for but there is no solution, at the moment, that tells us where we put our mark because it鈥檚 an absolutely visual process.听 So, if they鈥檙e going to say 鈥� well, let鈥檚 not prescribe a certain device 鈥� we may well get nothing.听 It needs to change from the ground up, there needs to be alternative methods not just a ballot paper, not just a purely visual method of doing this.

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White

Is part of you wondering whether inadvertently your intervention has actually made things worse rather than better?

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Andrews

Yes, I鈥檝e got to say I lay awake at night and think have I actually made this worse, yes, you鈥檝e hit the nail on the head right there, yeah.

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White

But, obviously, unintentionally because this is the last thing you would have expected to have happened?

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Andrews

Well, yeah, absolutely but unfortunately, you assume that a judgement is going to be actioned and then you find that maybe that鈥檚 not the way after all.

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White

Let me just go back to Anna at the end.听 What now, what is the RNIB intending to do next?

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Tylor

The door is very firmly open, Peter.听 So, we absolutely invite government to continue talking to us so that we can help explain our position.听 In addition to that we鈥檒l continue to talk to all those engaged parties including our disability partners.听 We, last week, launched an online petition, which, when I looked this morning, had 3,000 or so signatures.听 If you go to Google and type in RNIB Voting Petition up it will pop, so please do lend your support to that for anyone who鈥檚 listening.

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White

Anna Tylor, Rachael Andrews, thank you both very much indeed.

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Now, here鈥檚 a conundrum.听 If you can hardly see your hand in front of your face, like me, how are you going to appreciate stars and other celestial bodies millions of miles away?听 Well, no problem, it鈥檚 all been turned into sound.

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Audio Universe music

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Now this is designed to represent the light of the Sun.听 While this鈥�

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Audio Universe music

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鈥�that鈥檚 the sound representing Uranus.

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Now the idea is that different musical notes represent different stars and planets.听 Now those sounds were taken from a new educational astronomy project by the universities of Newcastle and Portsmouth.听 It鈥檚 called Audio Universe and it鈥檚 a guided tour of our galaxy and its aim is to allow people full access to the wonders of the Universe and encouraging visually impaired people to become keen amateur astronomers or even contemplate a career in astronomy.听 And if you think that鈥檚 unlikely, well, this project鈥檚 expert tour guide is Dr Nic Bonne, a visually impaired professional astronomer from Portsmouth University working alongside teacher of visually impaired children and doubling as spaceship captain for this particular project, Rachel Lambert.

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Lambert

Now it is time to leave the Earth.听 We will take off and study our planet from above.听 Hold tight, here we go.

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Audio Universe music

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Here we are above the Earth.听 Nic, could you explain to us why one half of the Earth is lit up and the other is dark?

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Bonne

Absolutely.听 You will hear the Sun is off to our left鈥�

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Audio Universe music

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鈥�the Sun is millions of kilometres away but so bright and hot that we can feel its heat.听 The stars are like thousands of pinpricks of light spread across the blackness of the night sky.听 Our sonification machine will first detect the very bright stars emerging鈥�followed by the thousands of fainter stars that become noticeable later.听 The brighter stars will be louder and the fainter stars will be quieter.听 The bluer stars, which are actually hotter, will sound as high notes and the cooler red stars as low notes.听 The moon is a sphere of dry dusty rock, about five times smaller than our Earth.听 The moon is only visible to us because sunlight bounces off it.听 Let鈥檚 select a piccolo to convert this light into sound.

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Lambert

I鈥檒l retune.

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Audio Universe music

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Now we are turned towards the Sun.听 We will show you how the planets orbit around the Sun.

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Bonne

The planets closer to the Sun go around much faster.听 Mercury only takes 88 Earth days for one orbit but Neptune takes 165 Earth years.

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Lambert

We will speed up time considerably, so that we can listen to all of the planets go round the Sun.

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Audio Universe music

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鈥�fading out now.听 Wow.听 Our solar system is an amazing place.

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Audio Universe noise

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And we鈥檙e home.

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White

Two youngsters who鈥檝e already been on the tour are Amrit Singh and Kiera Mills.听 Kiera, if I can come to you first of all.听 What were your impressions of the Audio Universe when you first heard it?

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Mills

Well, before I went, I thought that planets and stars and space was all for sighted people but when I went there it almost proved me wrong.听 And I then thought 鈥� oh wow, anything is accessible 鈥� and it was really good because usually when you go to a Planetarium or something like that, it鈥檚 often very visual and I鈥檓 like 鈥� what鈥檚 going on?听 One thing that I liked about it was all the sights and things were turned into sound for me and that was really helpful because I pick up sound better than I do sight, obviously.

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White

Any thoughts of studying this any further, now you鈥檝e been introduced to it?

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Mills

So, one of my passions is actually music, which is quite helpful for this.听 So, it can be science that I turn into music.听 But it could just be any subject because when I鈥檓 older I want to sort of help VI people understand the world around them, whether that be science, history, I don鈥檛 know, any subject.

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White

Any subject.听 Let me bring in Amrit, Amrit Singh.听 Now you were actually involved in the development of this project, what was your role, tell me a bit about what you did.

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Singh

I was chief advisor.听 So, I helped with the sound and decide which sound matched to the description of where the stars appear in the sky and also, a little bit of the script.

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White

And Amrit, Kiera has already said perhaps she leans a bit more to the music than to the astronomy but is this something you could imagine doing more of, if not as a professional then as an amateur enthusiast?

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Singh

Well, if those who are sighted can look at a telescope and tell us what鈥檚 going on but if we鈥檙e blind then we don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going on in space.听 And then space is quite a hard thing to believe because so many concepts and rumours and paths in space and I think it will help make it because I am interesting in space but I鈥檝e also enjoyed providing sounds and helping to think about how we鈥檙e going to display this to people who are blind to help them understand it.

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White

Let鈥檚 bring in Nic and Rachel.听 This project uses a specially designed computer code called, if I can get this mouthful out, sonification tools resources for astronomers using sound synthesis or STRAUSS for short.听 So, let鈥檚 stick to STRAUSS, shall we?听 It represents real astronomical data through sound.听 Nic, you use sound in your work as an astronomer, is it the same thing, can it really tell you as much?

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Bonne

I know for me, in particular, spatial stuff I find sound is really, really effective, so if I can hear something moving, if I can hear two things moving together or moving around each other, I can build up a much better, I guess the right phrase here is, mental image of what鈥檚 actually going on in that interaction, in that movement.听 Sound is also really, really effective.听 If we have signals coming from things, turning that into sound is obviously a really, really powerful way of being able to sort of hear those signals instead of seeing them.

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White

And, of course, there鈥檚 a difference, in a way, between sound and music, I mean you could have used [music underneath] all kind of different sounds, why did you choose music?

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Bonne

So, James Trayford, who wrote this software, one of the researchers at Portsmouth and Chris Harrison, who directed the show at the University of Newcastle, they both decided really, really early on and through talking to Amrit as well, that it was important to use sounds that would be familiar to the listener.听 So, we started off with really spacy sounds, sounds that were quite fanciful, quite different.听 What we were finding though is that those are actually quite distracting, whereas actually relying on instruments that people had probably heard before, it was a lot easier to get on and actually start working out what those sounds were telling us, rather than stopping and going 鈥� hey, what is that noise, that鈥檚 not for me, to me it鈥檚 not something I鈥檓 used to sort of hearing.

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White

Let me bring in Rachel, because as well as being the spaceship captain, you are a teacher.听 So, how effective do you think it is as a teaching tool?

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Lambert

I think it is effective.听 I think this is just the beginning, as well.听 It鈥檚 probably worth pointing out that we are actually going to carry on and develop lots of resources that won鈥檛 be teaching space as a separate add on for young people with visual impairment but that they can be taught alongside their sighted peers quite happily.听 I think space is an abstract concept anyway for most children, let alone those who have a visual impairment.听 And I think the sound can explain things like orbit, can explain how the stars come out in the sky 鈥� there鈥檚 that beautiful part in the tour where all the stars come out when we鈥檙e in the observatory.听 And I think fun helps people learn anyway.

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White

I just want to ask you and Nic one more question and it is that one about 鈥� is it really practical to talk about this in terms of a job?听 I mean I know Nic has done it and we鈥檝e talked to him before on the programme about that but I mean how practical is it?听 Kiera and Amrit have showed their enthusiasm but is it something that you could actually develop as a career?

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Bonne

It鈥檚 not easy, I guess, to be an astronomer if you鈥檙e somebody with a visual impairment but I think there are lots of groups around the world now who are starting to look at ways that we can talk about astronomy using less traditional visuals, so using more sound, using tactile graphics, using things like that.听 I think as more and more astronomers start to do that it鈥檚 just going to make the subject more accessible for everybody.听 But it鈥檚 something that鈥檚 happening and like any cultural shift it鈥檒l take time but there鈥檚 a lot of passion there, a lot of people who care about this a lot and who are working on this kind of thing.

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Lambert

If I may be so bold as to suggest it鈥檚 not just about astronomy as a career but it鈥檚 about breaking down those barriers and being aspirational to show young people that actually with determination there should be no barriers to be whatever you want to be and if space is what you want to study and explore further and learn about more, then you should be able to have access to be able to do that.听 And hopefully, this project is just going a little way part to show that to our young people.

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White

Well, Rachel Lambert, captain of the ship; Dr Nic Bonne, Kiera and Amrit, thank you all very much indeed and see you in space.

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And that鈥檚 all for today.听 As always, we want to hear about your experiences and perhaps any concerns.听 You can email intouch@bbc.co.uk, you can leave voice messages on 0161 8361338.听 From me, Peter White and producer Beth Hemmings, goodbye.