About Stevenage & North Herts Talking News

Many of us enjoy keeping up to date with local news either when the paper edition lands on our doormat or reading it online, but for some, reading the local paper is not so simple. As we get older, our sight can deteriorate, and certain disabilities can make it hard to read a paper. According to the RNIB, 1 in 5 people aged 75 and over are living with sight loss; it affects 1 in 2 people aged 90 and over. The majority of those affected suffer from macular degeneration.

The idea of a Talking Newspaper is to help those who cannot easily read their local paper by turning it into an audio file so that users can listen to the paper instead of trying to read it. Our stated aim is to provide blind and visually impaired people in the local area with a regular, weekly, dependable news and information service, free of charge to the user. Our service is open to anyone who is blind or visually impaired; they do not have to be registered blind. It is also open to anyone who is unable to read a newspaper for any other reason. We have around 50 listeners at present. Many of them are referred to us by sight loss professionals or hear about us at local support groups or by word of mouth.