some of the most fascinating technologies we've featured on the show have been the ones that help people with disabilities. as the world's first bionic games proved, the possibilities now emerging offer so much potential, this weekend sees the international day of people with disabilities and that's a great chance for us to devote a whole programme to the latest tech developments in the area. now, in the uk, around 5% of all railjourneys are made by those with a disability or a long—term illness. that equates to around 85 million rail journeys every year. a quarter have reported problems with using public transport. the rail company london midland is hoping to improve accessibility for its disabled passengers with a new app, passenger assist, and we asked emily yates to try it out for us. i'm emily yates and i'm just planning my train journey to birmingham. it requires a fair bit of advanced booking. i'm confident travelling by myself, but i'm not a huge fan of the train, which is actually why i'm making this journey. that equates to around 85 million rail journeys every year. i've heard about an app in development called passenger assist that could be a game—changer for disabled travellers. thank you! i think anybody watching this who's disabled will probably agree with me that you can have some pretty horrific travel journeys if you're disabled. i've been left on the train before, i've booked assistance and somebody has said, "yeah, we're going to come and meet you," and i've been left on the train unable to get off and i've had to go four orfive stops down the line to be able to come back again so i'm really excited to see what this app has to offer. thank you! i've got this new app which is currently in development and i'm just about to fill in my own profile. what's brilliant about this app is it asks things like, "do you need room for a guide dog, do you have a hearing impairment, do you need a ramp, do you need help buying a ticket?" so, roxanne, i've added my profile details and now i've just planned a journey. this is obviously in development but this is how it would work. i've put in myjourney and now it should come up on your phone any minute. here you are. you've got my picture and everything so you know exactly what i'll look like. i know what you look like, know what to expect, i press "i'm here to help." brilliant. i can send you a message saying i'm here, my name is roxanne. 0k. back on the train for me and now i have this. passenger assist is being developed by start—up tranreport under the guidance of london midland lab. we've brought a staff phone on the train too so we can see how the app works for them. so right now the phone is tracking both the staff member and the passenger. we're obviously in the same place so you can see the two dots are quite close together. they're using the technology such as bluetooth beacons, wi—fi, ag, gps, we can use multiple tools. you know exactly what carriage i'm in even. yes, down to the carriage, we can pinpoint less than one metre to your location and find out which carriage, which train and the direction of travel you're going in as well. and it's notjust about the app. transreport is also making trackable wristbands and these key fobs, they'll be available for those unable to use phones as easily. let's face it, in a world where we can now track our pizza delivery by the minute, having to book train assistance 2a hours in advance seems a little old school, and this way staff will have information at theirfingertips too. transreport hope to roll out the app across the london midland service early next year and the plan is for the entire uk rail network to be able to access it byjune, 2018. if there's one thing disabled travellers need that the current system doesn't provide its the reassurance that someone will be there to help and not leave them stranded when getting on or off the train. accessnow really began with my own reality. someone using a wheelchair to get around, i'm consistently frustrated when i show up at places and i don't know if they're accessible or not until i get there. countless times i show up and there are steps or other barriers that prevent me from doing the things that i want. and so i was really motivated to try and solve this problem and the way that we've gone about doing that is by creating a mobile app that can simply allow people, who've experienced accessibility needs, to share information about what is accessible on their own communities and around the world. it starts by selecting a place, then rating that place as accessible or partially accessible. patio access only or not accessible. you can go one step further and add a description. so you can say things like, "i showed up at this place, the customer service was fantastic." so this cafe looks like it's not accessible. there's two steps here at the entrance. but when i look at my app, i can see there's an alternative entrance through the building here, that will let me into the cafe. so let's check it out. i think for me the main magic, the most exciting part about accessnow, is that the information is all crowd sourced from people who have experienced accessibility needs in their own life, or are just motivated to get involved and share information. we started in toronto, with a couple of 100 pins, and now we've reached over 20,000 pins throughout the world. but we really want to make this a global movement. there are many times where people who have mobility needs, they're isolated in many ways and it's simply because, you know, from the way i see it, it's not people who are disabled but it's our environments that are disabling. so if we can remove the barriers that restrict people from engaging with their communities, with their workplaces, with their lifestyles, i think we can come to a much more inclusive world for everyone. i've come to dorset 0rthopaedic, a private company that fits amputees with prosthetic legs, from running blades to hyperrealistic looking limbs. 0ne sport that's always been very hard for me is snowboarding, because my normal feet are designed specifically for walking. but here, they've got some feet that could make that easier. the requirements of a foot are quite different with skiing compared to walking. with normal walking, you need a foot that has a fairly small range of movement that gives you energy back, so as you roll over the foot you get some push off at the end to help your walking. with skiing you need more movement in the foot to compensate for the uneven surface and you also need some shock absorption, so when you go over a bump or you land on the ski you need some of that shock taken out and that's what this does. while i'm left to my own devices, kevin agrees to fit my legs with some of these feet so i can give them a go. this requires a lot of honing and alignment to make sure i'm not pushed too far forwards or backwards. ta—da! my legs! so i'm quite intrigued as to how these are going to feel. i actually have no idea. oh, wow. if you push your weight forwards, you should be able to feel the movement in the ankle. oh, wow. oh, yeah, there! that sensation i've not felt in the ten years since being an amputee. these feet work by putting air into an adjustable cylinder, which controls the amount of resistance in the foot. more air and more resistance. as well as giving this movement, shock absorption in the foot means that going over rocks or bumps is easier. but they're not cheap. with the price of £2500 each, it means only some people can get access to them. it's clear that they're not for walking. they're very, very rigid, very square and very hard. but if i let my mind go and imagine myself snowboarding, which i've done badly in the past, i can feel that and they move and that's weird, because i have not felt my feet move in that way for ten years. there's only one thing left to do and it's try the feet out on some proper snow. i've come to an indoor slope, but i've got to admit i'm feeling very nervous. this is emma gillespie, a prosthetist who's agreed to come with me to fit the feet and help me try them out. so you've boarded on these before. yeah. and how was that? hard. but you did it. yeah. so, one leg. this is what you don't see about being an amputee. when i've snowboarded previously on my normal walking feet, it's been really difficult. but these offer much more and the way they're set up offers a natural bent on my knees, a stance that's almost impossible on my usual legs. ok, here we go. try and think about your posture a bit. and a turn! woohoo! ok, so it's been awhile since i boarded and expecting an instant result is probably asking a too much, but the best thing for it is to keep throwing myself down this slope and see what happens. despite the technology of these feet, there's only so much they can do when it comes to hitting the slopes. the real work is definitely still coming from the person. and if you're not very good, they're not going to stop you from falling. laughs i'm soaking wet. that last fall has drenched me. but it's amazing when you merge technology and disability. it's about giving people independence and the feeling that they can try things that they perhaps thought weren't there for them. so it's fun, but now i want these feet and they're expensive. that it had a shortcut of click for the international day of people with disabilities. the full version is my player and you can keep an eye on the bbc‘s disability stories throughout the year on our website. thanks for watching, we will see you soon. hello and welcome to newswatch with me, samira ahmed. everyone loves a wedding but did bbc news go into overdrive with harry and meghan? and... my congratulations to harry and meghan. i wish them well. jeremy corbyn congratulates the happy couple. what could possibly go wrong with bbc subtitling 7 first, a row involving donald trump's twitter account is not a new thing. but this week was the first time that theresa may got involved so directly. the us president had retweeted three videos from the far right group, britain first, alleging to show violent acts by muslims. roger watts felt the wide coverage given to the story was unhelpful, e—mailing: at the start of the week, the government handed over an 850—page document, detailing how it thought the uk's departure from the european union would affect 58 sectors of the economy. but, some sections of the so—called brexit impact studies were blacked out to the fury of opposition parties. there was little about this on bbc news on monday or tuesday, which prompted chris hill to write... well, one reason why that story received less attention than it have done was a certain engagement announced this week, which we think you might just have noticed. victoria derbyshire was on air when the long—awaited and much—predicted news broke on monday morning. clarence house have just announced in the last few seconds that prince harry is to marry his american girlfriend, meghan markle. for the rest of the day, the bbc news operation, in common with almost all british media organisations, went into overdrive. with presenters and reporters deployed to kensington palace, bulletins devoting more than half their time to the engagement, a scheduled edition of panorama changed to a special programme on the royal news, and extensive coverage on the news channel and online. the response of sarah louise ellis:

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