[Tech1] Radio for Visually impaired people

[Hugh Sheppard]

Got it Dave, thank you! Freeview 730 found it straightaway. Seems to be 
v. much what I had in mind.

That US acronym of 'VIP' for Visually Impaired Person/People sounds a 
good one - among the 695 variations sourced from the internet.

Hugh


On 20-May-18 2:15 PM, Dave Buckley via Tech1 wrote:
> In answer to Hugh's question - does such a service exist in the UK - yes it
> does - see below................
>
> RNIB Connect Radio is a radio station serving the UK, and is funded
> primarily by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and also by
> other local councils.
> We are Europe's first radio station for blind and partially sighted
> listeners, and we broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week online, on 101 FM
> in the Glasgow area, and on Freeview channel 730.
> Our mission is to broadcast news, information and advice to blind and
> partially sighted people.  All of our presenters are visually impaired.
> Although the station's main studios are based in Scotland, the station is
> for everyone in the UK and beyond, with many listeners in the USA and
> Canada. Other studios are in Cardiff and London and more locations across
> the UK are planned for the very near future.
>
> As Hugh also says, local Talking Newspapers (TNs) have been around for many
> years (most of them starting in the mid 70s to mid 80s) and used cassettes
> sent out through the Articles for the Blind postal concession. What may not
> be known, is that this concession only applied to blind people, not those
> who had some sight and known as partially sighted. This was 'put right' in
> the early 80s when the chairman and secretary of the then national
> organisation (Talking Newspaper Association of the UK) had a series of talks
> with a senior figure in the Post Office, after which the regulations for
> using the concession were drastically updated.
>
> Nowadays, recordings are sent out on USB sticks, streamed on the internet -
> either from the TNs own website or through the BWFtB website. However, there
> are some TNs having to still supply the material on cassettes!
>
> The USA has a system used by VIPs (visually impaired  people) which uses the
> unused part of an FM channel above the main modulation, which in this
> country is used for data transmission. The system needs a special receiver.
> After a few unsuccessful searches on DuckduckGo, I came across the following
> from the American Foundation ft Blind.......
>
> 'Radio reading services are typically broadcast on a sub-carrier channel of
> an FM radio station. Listeners must have a special, pre-tuned radio receiver
> to pick up the closed circuit broadcast. Receivers are frequently loaned to
> listeners by the reading service at no cost.
>
> Some services provide radio reading services programming on television over
> a SAP (Second Audio Program) channel, community cable system, or FM cable
> service. Many services also offer live audio streaming of their programming
> over the Internet while others offer access to archived readings through the
> Internet or telephone dial-in system.'
>
> I became involved with TNs in 1977 in Harrow. From 1978 to 1998 I was the
> Technical Advisor for the then national organisation - TNAUK. Although no
> longer active with a TN, I look after an email discussion group which works
> along similar lines to this one.
>
> Dave Buckley
>
>
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>

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