[Missouri-l] FW: [leadership] Radio Reading Services: Help Urgently Needed!

[Peter Altschul]

-----Original Message-----
From: Carla Hayes [mailto:lengual at verizon.net] 
Sent: Saturday, September 26, 2009 10:11 PM
To: leadership at acb.org
Cc: bits at acb.org
Subject: [leadership] Radio Reading Services: Help Urgently Needed!

Hello Friends,
I hope all is well with all of you.  Many of you may not know this, but as
of midnight on September 30th, In Touch Network of New York, The Newsstand
of the Air, will be going off the air.  I just heard the announcement
yesterday.  They have been in business since 1977, and for the past 32
years, they have not only been providing programming to residents of New
York City, but thousands of people who are print disabled throughout the
United states whose local radio reading services carry their programming,
including RIS of Pittsburgh.  It is alarming how many radio reading services
throughout the United States are drastically cutting back on their
programming or even shutting down completely.  In Pennsylvania alone, 3
radio reading services have gone off the air to my knowledge including the
one in Philadelphia, and RIS in Pittsburgh has been taken over by Duquesne
University which means a drastic cut in local programming and much more
content from national sources such as In Touch.  With the demise of In
Touch, I am concerned that there might be a domino effect;  with less
content available, many local reading services who depend on this
programming might be forced to cease operation.  Some of you may say, "So
what?"  You may believe that radio reading services may have outlived their
usefulness with all the access to information available through the
Internet, NFB newsline, radio, television, library services, etc.  I would
strongly disagree with anyone holding this view.  I know there's a lot of
information available on the web, but what about those people who, for
whatever reason, do not have access to or cannot use a computer?  Many users
of radio reading services are blind or visually impaired, but there are many
others who are print disabled because they can't hold a book.  Such people
do not have the manual dexterity to use a computer, nor the money to
purchase the expensive equipment or software that would enable them to use
the computer.  There are others who are in hospitals or other facilities
where they don't have access to their computers or accessible Internet
services who can listen to radio reading services to help them to keep
informed and pass the time.  As for myself, I do use the internet and NFB
Newsline in order to obtain a lot of information, but I find that many
times, these methods are no substitute for switching on a radio and
listening to human voices reading to me information that I wouldn't know how
to find elsewhere.  Though it is great, there times when I feel that if I
have to listen to robotic synthetic speech for one more minute, I will go
crazy.  It would be a real hardship to me if my radio reading service would
go away, and I am sure that there are many others who would agree with me.

ACB has been an effective advocacy organization for many years and I'm sure
that we could solve this problem.    We CANNOT allow radio reading services
to disappear.  To many people depend on them.  My question to you is what
can ACB do to solve this problem before it is too late?  I would welcome any
suggestions.

With best wishes,
Carla Hayes