Hi.
I totally agree here. I cant see what all the
fuss is about. Never at any time in my life as
far as I can remember have I ever had talking
books paid for by my local council or charity,
be it public or private. Talking books as
supplied by the RNIB is only £69 per year, a
significant subsidy when you consider they loan
you a player and potentially dozens of books per
year. If you want to read, you should be
prepared to pay for it as reading is not a human
right and even if it were, the council in most
boroughs provide their own library services with
books on cd, cassette and even playaway as is
the case in Peterborough where I live. The fact
that some blind people are either too lazy or
just plane ignorant of these services is no
excuse not to ask them, for all they have to do
is get off their asses or pick up the phone and
ask. In an age where most young blind people
and even a large majority of the middle aged and
elderly have access to technology of some sort
or other or know people who have access to said
technology, the information about service
provision in your local borough is readily
available online and details of how to access
these services is often posted in libraries and
town halls. For heaven sake, wake up everyone,
smell the roses and start putting your hand in
your pocket and paying for things you want or
that you feel you need. Joe public doesn't get
free books, so why the heck should we.
All the best, Ibrahim.
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:n.weston42@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>David
To: <mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:36 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Charity for blind hits
out at Bromley council (From News Shopper)
Hi,
I would like to say that for that the last forty
years or more I have had to pay for my equipment
and also for my talking books. So far as I can
see their is no change for me, or is Hertfordshire unique?
David Weston.
-----Original Message-----
From:
<mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Gordon Keen
Sent: 11 January 2011 09:38
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Charity for blind hits out
at Bromley council (From News Shopper)
Here we go then, the big society - my arse!
Charity for blind hits out at Bromley council
1:18pm Monday 10th January 2011
By David Mills
A CHARITY which represents the blind and
visually impaired has hit out at
<http://www.bromley.gov.uk/Default.bromley>Bromley
Council for temporarily suspending equipment provision.
Services which include the talking books, as
well as equipment such as walking canes and
liquid level indicators, are all under review by the council.
Kent Association for the Blind (KAB), which has
a sight centre in Blyth Road, Bromley, will be
pressuring the council to continue providing funding.
Dick Groves, aged 65, of South View, Bromley,
said: ?Visual impairment is the most feared of
all sensory impairments. Provision in Bromley is extremely patchy.?
Mr Groves, who is blind, said: ?This is a
classic example of the way in which action has
been taken without consultation and without
information being given to one of the weakest
sections of society and least able to respond.?
A KAB spokesman said: ?We are currently in
contact with our service users to explain the
service has been temporarily suspended by the London borough of Bromley.
?We are sharing other providers of these
services such as the Calibre audio library, a
completely free service, to ensure users are not
going to go without talking books.
?We at KAB are going to be making
representations to the council to press the case
that it would be more cost effective to continue
to fund provision because we believe withdrawing
that service represents a real risk to people?s
safety and their ability to get out and about.
?The costs that could be generated by injury
would far outweigh the cost to the council of providing equipment.?
A council spokesman said: "We have a strong
commitment to providing talking books in our
libraries with no plans to cut the service and
we will continue to make special concessions to
waive charges to people with a registered visual impairment.
"We have however moved from cassettes to CDs and
downloadable material over the years but we
still keep a large collection of older cassettes
in our Home Library Service, which supports
customers who are physically unable to get into a branch.
"There are also free national talking book
service and as well as our library service we
will be assisting people to access the talking
books from the national Calibre service together
with the equipment provided by the British Wireless for the Blind Fund.
"To make sure we make the best use of our
resource we wanted to avoid duplication and
whilst we no longer fund the KAB talking books
service, KAB is pointing people to our library and to these free services.
"In terms of equipment supplied by the KAB on
our behalf such as portable lamps, talking
clocks and mobility aids, again we want to make
sure we use resources as efficiently as possible
and have suspended this KAB while we carry out a review.
"However we do continue to fund KAB to provide
assessment and rehabilitation services for people with visual impairments."
Back
© Copyright 2001-2011 Newsquest Media Group
<http://www.newsshopper.co.uk>http://www.newsshopper.co.uk
