[accessbangla] Radio volunteers bring daily paper to visually impaired
- From: "Vashkar" <vashkar79@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <accessbangla@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:04:42 +0600
Radio volunteers bring daily paper to visually impaired
By Stephanie Eddy
CAPTION: Jackie Goodson, 58, and Dave Hobson, 62, both of Boise, record
themselves reading the news from The Idaho Statesman for radio broadcast to
Idahoans
who can't read a printed newspaper. Goodson has been volunteering with the
Radio Reading program of the Idaho Commission for the Blind and Visually
Impaired
for four years and Hobson for six. Photos by William DeShazer / The Idaho
Statesman
CAPTION: Bobbie Hobson, 65, of Boise reads the Scene section of Friday's Idaho
Statesman as part of the Radio Reading program.
Idaho Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired needs volunteers for Radio
Reading and other programs. The commission also welcomes financial donations.
Volunteers read and record for about an hour beginning around 7 a.m. and can
choose whichever morning of the week works best. Training is provided. The
commission is temporarily located at 120 S. Cole Road. For information or to
volunteer, call Brett Winchester at 334-3220, Ext. 104.
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Community volunteers rise early each morning, don headphones, address
microphones and summon their best stage voices as they read and record news
items
published in The Idaho Statesman.
Their efforts provide hundreds of blind and visually impaired people in
Southwest Idaho with vital access to national, state and local news items they
otherwise
might not receive.
The Idaho Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired's Radio Reading
program is growing and needs more regular and standby volunteers to help read
the
daily broadcasts, which are recorded each morning at the commission's office
then broadcast through Boise State University Radio, said Brett Winchester
of the commission's volunteer services.
"Access to daily newspapers empowers blind and visually impaired persons to
compete on terms of equality with their sighted family friends and co-workers
on the job socially and personally," Winchester said.
Bobbie and Dave Hobson, both retired elementary school teachers, have been
Radio Reading volunteers for more than five years. They read every Friday
morning.
"We loved reading to our students, so we thought this would be a vehicle for
our talents of reading aloud," Bobbie said "Generally, I read the world and
national news and Dave reads state and local.
"We like to read Scene together - we take turns and kind-of banter back and
forth - our favorite part is 'News of the weird.'"
Dave said the program allows him to enter an imaginary world where he can
fulfill a hidden desire to be a professional broadcaster.
"I really get a kick out of practicing my reading-out-loud skills and try to
put some feeling into it like I'm a big-time radio personality - a Walter Mitty
sort of pretending," Dave said.
"We always need help," he added.
"I would like to immediately add 15 or 20 volunteers to our programs in order
to cover needs for vacation, illness or other purposes," he said. "We need
to develop our pool of on-call and fill-in volunteers as well as those
individuals who want to make a longer commitment to radio reading and other
commission
services."
If additional volunteers can be recruited for sessions later in the day,
Winchester plans to add additional recordings from publications such Family
Parenting
and faith-based news.
"I may also investigate ethnic newspaper reading in the future to reach
unreached blind persons," he said. "I would also like to recruit volunteers to
scan
materials and edit them in preparation for Braille production in coordination
with the private correctional facility south of Boise."
Volunteers record news items, via computer, from The Statesman's national and
local news sections. Each segment lasts about 30 minutes. Most days, volunteers
begin by 7 a.m. and are finished between 8:30 and 9 a.m. The broadcast is
repeated 24 hours a day.
The commission is currently operating in a temporary location until a remodel
of its original structure in Downtown Boise is complete. Winchester expects
to move back to the permanent site this fall.
The radio program, which began in 1977, helps visually impaired individuals
keep in touch with the community, giving detailed local information not
available
elsewhere. A special radio receiver, free through Idaho Commission for the
Blind and Visually Impaired, allows listeners to hear the broadcast.
Jackie Goodson, a Boise homemaker, also volunteers at the commission on Fridays.
"By the time I get there, I usually get to do the obituaries, business or
opinions and editorials," Goodson said. "There are a lot of people now who are
living longer, but their vision is not so good and this helps them out."
"Sure, you can get some things on the TV and radio, but you can't get things
like the obituaries and editorials or some of the things that don't make the
headline news, especially some of the smaller stories: These are the things
that help people feel a part of their community."
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060227/NEWS01/602270315/1002
VASHKAR VATTACHARYA,
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