New talking newspaper service for the partially sighted to launch (From Haringey Independent)

New talking newspaper of the Haringey Independent to launch

12:21pm Tuesday 16th October 2012 in News By Bruce Thain

People who are partially sighted will be able to enjoy all the news from Haringey with a new talking newspaper service.

The Haringey Phoenix Group will be creating a talking newspaper of the Haringey Independent for people registered blind or partially sighted.

The Phoenix Group, based in Wood Green, is a charity supporting blind people in the borough and will be providing stories from the paper and website www.haringeyindependent.co.uk.

Manager of the group Tom Stapleton said: “We always have a lot of interest in our talking titles and we have more than a hundred people using it each week.

“It a very important service mainly because blind people can’t use newspapers the same way sighted people can simply because they can’t read them.

“Visually impaired people can become very isolated and having access to local news is very important as it gives them a connection to their area.”

The weekly audio newspaper will be recorded once a week by some of the many volunteers who help at the group.

The recordings will then be sent out on a data stick via free post to users of the group who have signed up to the service.

After listening to the service people send the stick back free of charge to the charity to be used again.

The Haringey Phoenix Group, based at the Winkfield Resource Centre, in Winkfield Road, Wood Green, offers a number of different services and activities to people in Haringey including gardening, arts and crafts, exercise, computer courses and the talking library.