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´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 In Touch |
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Listen to this programmeFactsheet of this programmeTranscript of this programme Print this page FactsheetTHE FUTURE OF RADIO FOR THE BLINDGuests: Ted Davis, Chairman of Talking Newspapers Enterprises, Margaret Granger Chief Executive of the British Wireless for the Blind Fund, and Marianne van der Meulen of Solutions Radio in the Netherlands. Peter White and guests discussed talking media, including the Orion Web Box and the Daisy Player. ORION WEB BOX The ORION Webbox is a compact device on which people can listen to spoken reading material. The product works on a subscription basis. It offers the opportunity to listen to talking books, newspapers, magazines and radio stations. THE DAISY FORMAT DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) is a universal standard format for reading and publishing digital talking books. Growing from worldwide co-operation between the major libraries for the blind, one of the DAISY project’s main aims was to devise a standard which could be universally adopted. This would allow organisations to work together more efficiently; sharing the production of talking books and creating an international collection of accessible information, available to people with sight problems. What is a DAISY book? A DAISY book is a digital talking book, designed to allow the reader to move around the text as efficiently and flexibly as a print user. DAISY allows the reader to: make bookmarks, pause books, speed up or slow down, read or ignore footnotes and jump easily from chapter to chapter, heading to heading and page to page. Books and information published in the DAISY format can only be read using a DAISY player or DAISY software on a computer. DAISY books are available to loan on disc from the RNIB Talking Book Service. DAISY talking books can also be read immediately through an internet connection from the RNIB Bookstream bookclub. Some RNIB magazines are available in DAISY, including 'DAISY TV Listings' which provides details of programmes on the main terrestrial channels and 20 popular satellite and Freeview channels. CONTACTS RNIB CUSTOMER SERVICES Tel. 0845 702 6843 Web: email: cservices@rnib.org.uk For further information on Daisy Talking Books. SOLUTIONS RADIO Solutions Radio is a Dutch company specialising in broadcasting through the internet. They have developed a stand-alone Webradio for easy listening to the internet without the use of a computer. A standard telephone line or DSL connection suffices. TALKING NEWSPAPERS (T.N.A.U.K.) National Recording Centre, Heathfield, East Sussex, TN21 8DB . Tel: 01435 866102. Fax: 01435 865422. Email: info@tnauk.org.uk. Provide national newspapers and magazines in audio on tape, CD, DAISY, CD and by MP3 download, and in digital full-text format by, e-mail, download and CD-ROM for visually impaired and print disabled people who find reading a strain. BRITISH WIRELESS FOR THE BLIND FUND Gabriel House 34 New Road Chatham Kent ME4 4QR Tel: +44 (0)1634 832501 Fax: +44 (0)1634 817485 Email: info@blind.org.uk Commission the making and supply of specialist radio and audio equipment for blind and partially sighted people who are in need. ZAMBIA Tanvir Bush provides the first of her reports on life for the visually impaired in Zambia. MARATHON MAN Mani Djazmi spoke to Dave Healey who just completed his seventh marathon in seven days raising money for Guide Dogs UK. ´óÏó´«Ã½ news online THE GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND ASSOCIATION (GDBA) Burghfield Common Reading RG7 3YG Tel: 0118 983 5555 Email: guidedogs@guidedogs.org.uk Web: The GDBA’s mission is to provide guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services that meet the needs of blind and partially sighted people. GENERAL CONTACTS RNIB 105 Judd Street London WC1H 9NE Helpline: 0845 766 9999 Tel: 0207 388 1266 (switchboard/overseas callers) Web: The RNIB provides information, support and advice for anyone with a serious sight problem. They not only provide Braille, Talking Books and computer training, but imaginative and practical solutions to everyday challenges. The RNIB campaigns to change society's attitudes, actions and assumptions, so that people with sight problems can enjoy the same rights, freedoms and responsibilities as fully sighted people. They also fund pioneering research into preventing and treating eye disease and promote eye health by running public health awareness campaigns. HENSHAWS SOCIETY FOR BLIND PEOPLE (HSBP) John Derby House 88-92 Talbot Road Old Trafford Manchester M16 0GS Tel: 0161 872 1234 Email: info@hsbp.co.uk Web: Henshaws provides a wide range of services for people who have sight difficulties. They aim to enable visually impaired people of all ages to maximise their independence and enjoy a high quality of life. They have centres in: Harrogate, Knaresborough, Liverpool, Llandudno, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Salford, Southport and Trafford. THE GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND ASSOCIATION (GDBA) Burghfield Common Reading RG7 3YG Tel: 0118 983 5555 Email: guidedogs@guidedogs.org.uk Web: The GDBA’s mission is to provide guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services that meet the needs of blind and partially sighted people. ACTION FOR BLIND PEOPLE 14-16 Verney Road London SE16 3DZ Tel: 0800 915 4666 (info & advice) Web: Registered charity with national cover that provides practical support in the areas of housing, holidays, information, employment and training, cash grants and welfare rights for blind and partially-sighted people. Leaflets and booklets are available. NATIONAL LEAGUE OF THE BLIND AND DISABLED Central Office Swinton House 324 Grays Inn Road London WC1X 8DD Tel: 020 7837 6103 Textphone: 020 7837 6103 National League of the Blind and Disabled is a registered trade union and is involved in all issues regarding the employment of blind and disabled people in the UK. NATIONAL LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND (NLB) RNIB Customer Services on 0845 762 6843 Email: cservices@rnib.org.uk Web: The NLB is a registered charity which helps visually impaired people throughout the country continue to enjoy the same access to the world of reading as people who are fully sighted. Trustees from the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) and the National Library for the Blind (NLB) have agreed to merge the library services of both charities as of 1 January 2007, creating the new RNIB National Library Service. EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION DISABILITY HELPLINE (England) FREEPOST MID02164 Stratford upon Avon CV37 9BR Tel: 08457 622 633 Textphone: 08457 622 644 Fax: 08457 778 878 Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9:00 am-5:00 pm; Wed 8:00 am-8:00 pm. Enquiry: englandhelpline2@equalityhumanrights.com Equality and Human Rights Commission Helpline Wales Freepost RRLR-UEYB-UYZL 1st Floor 3 Callaghan Square Cardiff CF10 5BT 0845 604 8810 - Wales main number 0845 604 8820 - Wales textphone 0845 604 8830 - Wales fax 9:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday to Friday (an out-of-hours service will start running soon) Enquiry: waleshelpline@equalityhumanrights.com Equality and Human Rights Commission Helpline Scotland Freepost RRLL-GYLB-UJTA The Optima Building 58 Robertson Street Glasgow G2 8DU 0845 604 5510 - Scotland Main 0845 604 5520 - Scotland Textphone 0845 604 5530 - Scotland – Fax 9:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday to Friday (an out-of-hours service will start running soon) Enquiry: scotlandhelpline@equalityhumanrights.com DISABLED LIVING FOUNDATION 380-384 Harrow Road London W9 2HU Tel: 0845 130 9177 Web: The Disabled Living Foundation provide information and advice on disability equipment. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for external websites General contacts Back to top TranscriptIN TOUCHTX: 15.04.08 2040-2100 PRESENTER: PETER WHITE PRODUCER: CHERYL GABRIEL White Sources of information for blind people are multiplying, but so are the pieces of kit that we all need to play them on. But what if you could have them all under one audio-roof as it were? Well it could happen, and tonight we'll be telling you how. And Tanvir Bush brings us her first report on life for visually-impaired people in Zambia: which runs the gamut from a hi-tech library to bush medicine. Now, imagine the scene on many blind people's desks: a radio for your favourite shows; an audio-cassette player for your local talking newspaper; a daisy-player for your RNIB digital talking-books (although you'll still need an ordinary CD player to play your commercial audio books or those you get from the public library), oh and probably a computer too. Expensive, space-consuming, and a considerable challenge to people who like to keep their technology simple or who are just intimidated by it. But it could be that you can meet all those needs with just one piece of equipment, and not have to bother with a computer at all if you don't want to. It's called the Orion Webbox. The man who's been a keen advocate of the possibilities of this technology here is Ted Davis, who's Chairman of Talking Newspaper Enterprises, and a veteran of the talking newspaper movement and he's with me in the studio. Just explain a bit more about the philosophy behind this equipment. Davis Well I first saw this Orion Webbox demonstrated at the Kent Association for the Blind meeting last June and it struck me immediately that this was the answer that blind people and Talking Newspapers, in particular, were waiting for. It will solve the problem of the demise of the cassette, the environmental disaster of CDs that are only used once and the possible inconvenience of postal strikes. White And who basically do you see this as being - as helping most? Davis Well it will help blind people who are not interested in using a computer. This Orion Webbox just plugs into the internet and it will then provide a whole stream of information - it will give you radio stations, local radio stations, talking newspapers, talking books - all sorts of programmes under one box. White Now we're talking about one piece of equipment there but I mean there are internet radios around aren't there, is this the same as that? Davis No it's quite different. An internet radio will give you a wide variety of radio stations but this is a managed programme in which the listener can choose what they want. They can choose, for example, the type of radios they want, maybe they'd want four or five stations - I had a chap the other day ring me up and said I'd love this box, if only I could have radio - ´óÏó´«Ã½ Merseyside and Manchester - and we were able to fix that for him and he got them the next morning. White So you can get round this problem of feeling that this could turn into a monster, almost as complicated as the very things that you're trying to get away from? Davis No you can simplify it to give the listener exactly what they want. White And just to explain - I mean how can you connect it into a website without a computer? Davis You just plug it into the broadband connection, usually through a router... White So you will need a broadband connection to do this? Davis You will need a broadband connection but broadband connections are becoming more and more popular these days, in the future they'll be just like a utility - like water, electricity and so on - and they'll be as common as indoor plumbing. White Well clearly such equipment could potentially help large numbers of people but only if a way could be found to finance it because we all know about the fact that a lot of visually-impaired people are on relatively low incomes or on benefits. On the other hand you could hardly expect large numbers of people to want to move from machines which many of them are able to get free, for example from their talking newspaper associations, unless it was very affordable and offered them something pretty special. Enter the British Wireless for the Blind Fund, who only last Thursday have decided that this is a project they would like to become involved with. Margaret Granger is the Fund's Chief Executive, so what actually have you decided to do? Granger Well we believe very strongly that internet radio is the way forward. We have been looking at various pieces of equipment and the Webbox, particularly, caught our eye because it does offer so much. We provide, at the moment, radio equipment to people who are in need and we felt that they should not miss this opportunity. White So have you worked out how you're going to fund it? You, at the moment, supply radios free, would that be the basis on which you would do this? Granger We would supply this equipment in exactly the same way as we do any other piece of equipment. And yes we would be providing this free of charge to people who meet our criteria. But we would also be supplying it, as we do at the moment, for those people who don't meet the criteria and can afford to purchase, they can purchase from us. White Now the Orion is the piece of equipment that, if you like, is in pole position but it's only a type of a piece of equipment, so presumably, as with radios, you'll survey the field in the end, if a field exists? Granger There's always a field and we're always looking at various pieces of equipment from all different types of manufacturers. This particular piece of equipment is unique at the moment and yes of course we'll keep our eye on what's going out in the marketplace and keep an eye on the future. White Right, we should also explain this is not available at the moment, at least only on a trial basis, we're not talking about a piece of equipment that you can buy in the shops or get from the Wireless for the Blind fund. However, this isn't pie in the sky, the equipment manufactured by Solutions Radio in the Netherlands, the Webbox there, is up and running, and already being used by a large number of Dutch visually-impaired people. Marianne van der Meulen of Solutions Radio joins us from the Netherlands. Just explain what blind people are actually using the service for there. Van der Meulen Well just as Ted and Margaret said they too are using it for radio stations, internet radio stations, talking books, talking magazines, talking newspapers and in particular I would say that in Holland TV subtitling is of importance. We also have plays, different music programmes and we have employed a journalist who makes a programme for the visually-impaired of 20 minutes every morning and in our evaluation we hear that that's the one that grips most people first thing in the morning, they switch that one on. White You made an interesting point about subtitling, can you just explain what kind of service that is? Van der Meulen Well in Holland we do not dub our TV programmes so they're always subtitled, even our news when a foreigner speaks is subtitled and this is read out through the Webbox synchronised with the TV picture but it is not audio-description. White Okay, just finally, Ted Davis where do you think we are as far as this is in terms of Britain, I imagine with the way these things work we're probably some way from an up and running service aren't we? Davis Not at all no, we have got an up and running service at the moment. We instituted the sound talking internet radio service and we were supplying 12 different channels of information on that and when the trial came to an end at the end of February we continued that service and people are actually buying the boxes when we can get them from Solutions Radio. At the moment they're about £280, they've gone up because of the fall in the pound and the appreciation of the euro. White But there should be a way of making these available, certainly to those in greatest need, which wouldn't involve paying the commercial price? Davis Absolutely yes. White Just finally, Margaret Granger, what's the timescale on this, I know your big fear is that people will come hammering on your door saying can we have this now, what actually is the position, what's the realistic position would you say? Granger Well no you can't have them now but we are working on it at the moment, we're talking to Solutions Radio to make sure that the piece of equipment is exactly what we want and as soon as we have that agreement then we will be providing it. White Margaret Granger, Ted Davis, Marianne van der Meulen in the Netherlands, thank you all very much indeed. Of course a great deal of that technology is beyond the wildest dreams of many developing countries; most of them are still trying to find ways to provide an education and enough food for all their people, let alone high tech for visually-impaired people. It was to discover more about how people were coping in Zambia, the country where she grew up, that Tanvir Bush recently returned, and she's back with her first report which Tanvir began by giving me a brief, and necessary geography lesson. Bush Zambia is actually balanced on the top of Zimbabwe, it's a sort of butterfly shaped country right on the naval of Africa. White Because it was northern Rhodesia wasn't it? Bush It used to be northern Rhodesia exactly. White So remind us: what were your expectations, what were you really going for? Bush Well I was going out to see if I could get a feel for what it's actually like to live with a visual-impairment or blindness in Zambia itself. And I was actually very lucky - when I arrived I was shown around by Paul Chalele, who is a visually-impaired man and remarkably for Zambia he's actually a city councillor. And when I arrived he offered to show me around, to introduce me to some of his blind and visually-impaired colleagues. But before we started I asked him about his own sight condition. Chalele When I was born at around 1964 there came an epidemic - measles, not smallpox - of which I was one of the victims. So when I became more visually-impaired completely my grandmother called me, she had to use a few African - let me call it - medicines and to my surprise I started seeing when she used those bush medicines for about four or five days or so. Then when I healed I went back to my father's place. White To Western ears Tanvir that sounds a bit scary, what kind of bush medicines are we talking about here? Bush Right, well Zambia has a really fascinating culture of traditional medicine, it's very ancient and a lot of the practice is very interesting. Unfortunately this also combines with witchcraft and superstition. But what Paul was talking about is using herbs from bark or from plants, in the same way that you would use herbs in this country for herbal medicine. White And do these - I mean do these achieve successful results at times? Bush Occasionally they do. Of course not always and sometimes they can even make things a hell of a lot worse. And one of the problems of traditional medicine is - now especially - is that it's much easier to access and much cheaper to find traditional healers than it is to find medical doctors, so people tend to resort to them first. In fact Paul actually took me to meet one of this blind friends who works at the Department of Labour - Mark Tshabala - and he gave a really interesting perspective on what it's like to become blind in rural Zambia. Tshabala According to my parents explanation I was quite alright until the age of five when I lost sight due to measles. It is a very hard condition, according to the explanation that they were even chased out of the village and then they were chased because according to their customs they thought that is the only good way of preventing measles from being spread to other children within the ages of one up to five years. Bush So they chased your family, your whole family, out - away from the village? Tashabala No not really the whole family but the parents themselves, which was me and my two parents - dad and mum. White Tell us a bit about resources, Tanvir, I mean what kind of facilities are available. Bush Well there isn't a great deal and certainly one of the major problems is access for low vision aids. I went to visit the library and cultural centre for the blind which is run by the director James Mwita, who is himself blind, he was able to help set up the library with the initial aid of the Finnish Federation for the Visually Impaired when he retired from government and he talked to me about losing his sight but also about what resources he has at the Chelenji Library and Cultural Centre. Mwita I lost it gradually because I had some sight but because at that time we had no developed hospitals and they had to apply some herbs on my eyes which completely destroyed the sight. We have the rehabilitation part of the library where we are teaching the newly blinded individuals how to read and write Braille. We are also establishing computer literacy, we want to give skills to visually-impaired persons in the operations that they are doing on the computer. Bush And is this library accessible for anyone who's blind and visually-impaired, can anyone drop by? Mwita Yes, yes, yes and it's free. All the services that we provide are free to persons who are visually-impaired. White Now they sound as if they're facilities for adults, what about children, what about schooling? Bush Well for kids it's really interesting. There are blind schools dotted around the country and kids will travel miles and miles and miles to attend these schools from a very young age. One of these was Muneli Secondary School, there was a resource centre built there in the '50s, and I went to visit some of the teenagers there. First of all I spoke to Mr Myando, who is the acting head of department, special needs. Now how does it work here? The children come in - we can hear the chairs being moved around - children come in and they are integrated into the classroom but then they do separate studies at the resource centre? Myando For the visually-impaired the children are integrated but they do come to the resource room where they meet teachers who will transcribe for them, dictate for them. Say they are given an exercise in an ordinary classroom they'll first bring that exercise to the resource centre so that it's transcribed in Braille, then the pupils will answer, then after that the same resource teachers again will have to transcribe the same work back into ink so that the ordinary teacher who is teaching them will be able to read and mark the work. So that's what happens precisely. White But I gather the odd thing about that is that a lot of these children actually can still read print can't they? Bush Yes well this is the thing, so many of the children are actually - they're visually-impaired, they could work with low vision aids but they're just not available, so they're separated off, they're forced to learn Braille. White It's quite interesting because in the '50s a similar thing was happening, not so much because of the lack of low vision aids but just because of the fact that it was thought that children should learn Braille and often were kind of discouraged from reading print even when they could. So there's a strange parallel there. Bush What's also interesting about Zambia is that a lot of the schoolchildren are albino, one of the medical conditions with albinoism is visual-impairment, not necessarily sort of extreme, but a lot of these kids are separated out and put into blind schools. I was actually talking with one of the young men there - Joseph - who's 17 and albino and he told me about some of the problems that he's had with randomly donated glasses. Joseph They're the same glasses, when you put them on you'll find that maybe the eyes are itching, you're having more headaches, so I'll be just using the eyes, that's all, we're not using any magnifying glasses or anything. Bush Are you accepted do you feel as part of the student body? Joseph It takes time for people to accept who you are, unless they understand you that's when they can accept you. Sometimes you even feel more like why am I living like this and people can't just accept me. You'll be irritated, you'll be stressed, depressed and things like that. Bush There was also another teenager in the class - Machisa - he lost his sight when he was very young and although his father took him to several hospitals he later found out that his grandparents had thought he was bewitched and I asked him how he had coped with that. Machisa I was very disappointed. I went to my [indistinct words] and started learning and after I started learning there I found that teachers who are visually-impaired and there are also people who are visually-impaired they're doing different jobs and they encouraged me - that young man you can do it. And I started learning. In grade five I developed the interest of current affairs issues, I've got an ambition to become a journalist. So although I'm blind I can do anything what a person who is not blind can do. White An optimistic Machisa ending that report by Tanvir Bush and we'll have another - a second report from Zambia by Tanvir in a few weeks time. Finally today some stop press news from our news and sports correspondent, and that's very relevant as you'll see, Mani Djazmi. Mani. Djazmi Well a few weeks ago we heard from Dave Healey telling us about his extraordinary plan to run seven marathons in seven days. Well he's done it with the help of his guide, Malcolm Carr. They're only the third and fourth people ever to achieve the feat after Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Mike Stroud. And they're hoping to raise a million pounds for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. They started in the Falkland Islands and then went on to Rio De Janeiro, Los Angeles, Sydney, Dubai, Tunis and ended up with the London marathon two days ago. He still hasn't been able to get home to the West Midlands because of something of a media circus but I managed to catch hold of him earlier on on his mobile when he told me about his hectic schedule. Healey We started running on the Falklands at 8.01 local time, we was on a Lear jet a 1.30 a.m., we landed Rio at 9.00 a.m., we started running the Rio leg at 9.30 a.m. We was on a plane 7.00 a.m. into LA and it just went like that all week. We lived, ate, breathed, slept planes and then run. It was absolutely fantastic. White Dave Healey, who's now embarked on a marathon of interviews. Mani, thanks very much indeed. That's it for today. If you'd like more information about anything you've heard on the programme you can call our Action Line on 0800 044 044, or by emailing In Touch via the website. From me Peter White, my producer Cheryl Gabriel, and the rest of the team, goodbye. Back to top |
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