With regard to talking books:
The RNIB provide all the books and a player for £70 a year. If you are
lucky, your council pays for this.
I do believe there is a better solution. We require information to be
available in an accessible format.
The best place to find information is on the web, and that includes
talking books.
The usefulness of a daisy player is very limited, and they are expensive,
as is all equipment designed for disability groups.
If we can make use of a standard, off the shelf, piece of equipment, then
the cost saving is massive.
Therefore, I believe the Apple I pad to be the intelligent choice.
You can listen to talking books, listen to music through I tunes or free
from Utube and listen to podcasts.
You can surf the internet, email, take notes and so much more. Plus it
cost less than some daisy players and is fully accessible.
If the RNIB were to bulk buy I pads, and supply instead of daisy players,
the cost of the talking book service would reduce, and the availability of
information increase and empower it's users.
It's time for change, and I fully recommend it to the house.
Cheers
Dave
Thank you for a few words of common sense on this topic at last! People
who whinge about not getting their library subscription paid for them and
thus not being able to read, really haven't a clue. Yes, sighted people
don't have to pay as much to belong to a library, but then sighted people
don't get their books delivered to their doors, do they?
Find me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/barkingbabs
Barbara Wilson
M: 07917710779
T: 02887784046
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IM: creativeeyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Skype: creativeeyes
----- Original Message -----
From: Ibrahim Gucukoglu <mailto:ibrahim_gucukoglu@xxxxxxxx>
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:56 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Charity for blind hits out at Bromley council
(From News Shopper)
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 oth
er 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: David <mailto:n.weston42@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 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: 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!
Site Logo<http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/resources/images/1000734/>
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
Bromley Council <http://www.bromley.gov.uk/Default.bromley> 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."
Kent Association for the Blind's Bromley
branch<http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/resources/images/1536532/>
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."
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