-The story so far…
It was while on a study visit
to a public library at Västerås in Sweden in 1968 that senior librarian Ronald Sturt first came across Talking Newspapers. Bearing in mind the 1964 Public Libraries Act in England and Wales, which had promised all readers equality in opportunity and access, he was particularly interested in the Swedish initiative, which was designed “not only for the blind but also mentally retarded children and adults who would never be able to read”. In 1962 the Västerås library, with the local association for the blind, had started a talking newspaper, Arosbandet. Copies recorded weekly, on an open-spool system, were sent to 130 “readers” on a three-day loan basis. By Swedish law those who needed them were entitled to talking book machines. By precept the rehabilitation of such people in the community was assisted by co-ordination of state and local agencies, with almost every county producing its own talking paper and assimilating activities for visually handicapped persons into library programmes.
A seed immediately planted itself
in the mind of Ronald Sturt and on his return to Aberystwyth, where he was on the staff of the College of Librarianship Wales, he talked about what he had seen to anyone who cared to listen. This audience included several members of the local Round Table who took considerable interest in the idea and offered to meet the costs of investigation and experimentation. It was this generous gesture that may have influenced the route Talking Newspapers (as they became) were to take.
The proceeds of the Round Table’s Donkey Derby in August 1969 were the only firm foundation when a group met, on 1 September, to weigh up the evidence. A second influence arose from the membership of the Board as the group called itself. The concept instantly commanded the support of people of business or professional standing, who readily volunteered their experience and expertise to realise the project. They were a consultant ophthalmologist, a newspaper proprietor, a recording engineer, a broadcasting journalist, a bank officer with engineering training, the Round Table chairman (an insurance manager), the National Librarian, a blind “reader” who managed a newspaper depot, and Ronald Sturt. They gave themselves four months to launch the scheme. A budget was set for a recording and high-speed copying studio. Using expert advice and precise costs from the Director of the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) Talking Book service in London they drafted a constitution in close consultation with the Charity Commission. They gained recognition by the Head Postmaster in order to use the first-class freepost facilities of the Articles for the Blind convention and engaged, albeit warily, the support of the Social Services manager who wrote to those blind people he thought would respond to the local news on tape.
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