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issue 2 january-february 2005
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Headlines : INTERNATIONAL news
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Device helps blind persons keep up-to-date

The Advertiser; December 2004

Vision-impaired and blind people will be able to hear the news in a new service to be launched in January 2005. Operated by the Royal Society for the Blind (RSB), the new service boasts technology which allows news stories from The Advertiser to be digitally transferred, like an e-mail, to a speaker device in people's homes. Once there, people can listen to the news and navigate their way through stories, deciding what they do and do not want to access.

Called the Audio Navigator, the device's inventor, Tony Blackwood, said it would change the way blind people get their news. "We wanted the experience to be as close to reading the newspaper as possible," he said.

The innovation is a far cry from the current scheme where RSB volunteers dictate articles on to audio tape and deliver them to 1,000 blind people. The service is expected to start next month with 85 participants. Also included in the Adelaide service will be the The Australian and the Sunday Mail. Messenger newspapers will be added in March and all News Limited newspapers in Australia are expected to offer the service by the end of next year. The Audio Navigator system is undergoing trials in the eastern states, Britain and in Europe.

Other World News stories in this issue:
Rock Hall open Ray Charles exhibit
Help for visually impaired jobseekers offered by online mentors
At Perkins School for the Blind, new museum is accessible to all
Gadget to help easy mobility for visually-impaired persons
British disability swimming performance director nominated for the BBC Coach of the Year award

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