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Team talk always up with the news

Helen Johnson
27/ 9/2008

THE Rochdale Talking Newspaper has been making the Observer accessible to blind and visually impaired people for almost 30 years.

The service is provided by a team of volunteers who make 90-minute-long recordings of selected news stories from the Saturday edition of the Observer every Friday night at the Blind Welfare Centre in High Barn Close.

The tapes are then distributed from the Royal Mail sorting office in Ainsworth Street in special mailing wallets with reversible address labels, which enable users to return them in time for the next week’s recording.

At RTN’s peak, tapes were sent to more than 900 users, but in recent years numbers have fallen and there are now about 100 people, who are either blind, visually impaired or who can’t read the traditional paper due to the effects of arthritis or after a stroke, who use the service every week.

The volunteers who run the charity, which is dependent on donations and funding grants, are hoping to attract new users to the service, as it approaches its 30th birthday next year.

Volunteer Barbara Skiba said: "As well as people who live in Rochdale, we also send tapes to people who have left , to help keep them in touch with what’s going on. We send tapes to places including Scotland, Yorkshire and Somerset.

"We are very fortunate and grateful the Blind Welfare Centre allows us to use their premises free to do the recordings.

"When the papers are delivered, we go through them and try to provide a balanced mix of the more light-hearted stories and the more serious news, as well as the district news and sport."

Mrs Dorothy Cooper from Guide Dogs for the Blind was a pioneer of the RTN and later became chairwoman of the service. Former Observer photographer Jim Rowbotham and editorial staff Alan Tweedale, Derek Nicholls and Brett Harris were also heavily involved in getting the project off the ground.

From there the service grew and grew with the help of supporters, including Kathleen Hartley, the founder of a walking and talking group for visually impared people, the police, Salvation Army, Rotary Club and the Rochdale Round Table, who have been one of RTN’s most prominent fund-raisers.

In the late 1990s the addition of several new high-speed copiers, purchased from donations, helped RTN become even more efficient. It has 30 volunteer readers split into seven teams working on a rota basis, including teams from St Aidan‘s Church and the Round Table.

At one time, several Observer staff members also volunteered at RTN.

Volunteer Eddie Stafford, who has helped out alongside wife Jean, said: "Alan Tweedale used to arrive an hour before the papers turned up. He liked to work on his own and he’d go through the paper and edit everything he was going to read. He was a brilliant bloke."

Earlier this year, changes to the postal service meant the talking paper could no longer be delivered on Saturday morning, now users receive it on a Monday instead.

The introduction of the Data Protection Act also caused problems, as eye specialists were no longer allowed to pass on the details of visually impaired patients so they could be offered the service.

Now RTN is keen to raise its profile and would like to hear from anyone who would like to receive a talking newspaper.

Mrs Skiba added: "We want to hear from anyone who may not know about us.

"Being blind or unable to read is very isolating. The talking newspaper helps people to keep in touch and get involved in what is going on in the town."

Do you know someone who would benefit from receiving a free of charge talking newspaper? Call Helen Johnson on 354321 ext 320 for more information.