Peck's picks from the web

Disability Now reporter Sunil Peck talks us through his ABC of the web: archives, books, blogs, cash and campaigns

As someone who relies on his mobile phone to keep in touch with people, find his way around London and listen to music, I was fascinated recently to see a 1979 clip of a Tomorrow’s World presenter using a crackly prototype of a mobile phone to talk to someone a short distance away.

It’s on my current favourite website bbc.co.uk/archive which contains hours of TV and radio footage from the corporation’s archive of news, sports and wildlife programmes.

I’ve only scratched the surface so far but I can recommend reminiscences of Birmingham’s Snow Hill train station from the 1920s broadcast in the 1970s, programmes about 1960s, stockbrokers, and a clip intriguingly called Are there fairies on the hillside?

In the current climate of economic stress and welfare and benefit reform, what is certain is that disabled peoples’ incomes are dwindling at an alarming rate. That’s why I’d recommend visiting the personal finance site moneysavingexpert.com. I recently used it to find a good home insurance deal and the site also contains clear guides to choosing the right broadband providers, energy companies and high street stores. You can sign up to a weekly email with the latest deals in it too.

I love reading and I’m a huge fan of the digital books site audible.co.uk, the website where you can download literary classics, comedy and political biography among other formats. Although it’s getting easier to gain access to new books in an accessible format, it was only a couple of years ago that Audible provided the only means for me to access newly published books. I’ve just finished listening to Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell’s account of fighting in the Spanish Civil War and just started Alan Partridge’s autobiography I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan which is read by the esteemed broadcaster himself.

For work, nothing beats Channel 4’s news site at channel4.com/news for keeping up with current affairs, political developments and sharp analysis. I also find The Guardian’s coverage of the public and voluntary sectors useful at guardian.co.uk/society

The BBC’s Ouch! blog gives me a heads-up on disability-related programmes broadcast on BBC TV and radio, and its easy-going tone is always refreshing after a visit to Hansard at parliament.uk to read the debates our disabled parliamentarians have been involved in.

Some of my favourite websites created by disabled campaigners are thebrokenofbritain.blogspot.com and diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com and I check them regularly. Reading the responses to posts from other disabled people means I can see opinions that I might not otherwise be aware of.