audio readers
Roy Zuvers
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Cindy, Mary Otten wrote me on this same subject so I'll try to deal with
both messages with this one. I can see where the audio reader system
could do some good in a nursing home. That is what I was getting at by
asking questions. I am not advocating that audio readers go away but what I
do see happening is that they will get cut by the budget ax if we don't
do something. All we need to do is to go on with other things and audio
readers will go away quietly and as in your example, no one will call to ask.
Roy Zuvers
* DeLuxe 1.12 #6289 Do not disturb. Already disturbed.
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Mary Otten
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Hi, roy. Your message, reply to Cindy, got me to thinking about the
problem of advocating for those who either will not or cannot advocate
for themselves. It is a real problem. You know, I suppose the reason why
the older blind aren't more adequately represented by the 2 organized
consumer groups is part of the problem. And, certainly we all have read
the statistics about how people on wellfare, and poor people in general
do not vote by and large. A similar situation is liable to obrtain with
the possible paratransit cuts. If superblink reprsents the blind and
goes to the committees and says that blind people don't need the
service, he'll help himself and a few others like him. But the majority
of the blind, who didn't know, didn't know how or where to speak up etc,
will be screwed. It is really hard to strike a balance between wise use
of resources, as in your original question about the advisability of
continuing audio reader in hard budget times, and the problem of
ignorring or giving short shrift to a lot of people.
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Roy Zuvers
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Adam, it sounds like that there in Indianapolis you have all of the
disadvantages of an audio reader director who is going no where plus
nothing to fill in. The items you mention about timing are also true here.
That is why they don't have an active audience. If you have tried to work
with them and they won't cooperate, get a group together and approach your
local daily paper. Tell them about the Star service I mentioned or other
telephone reading services. If they can prove that this works in other
metro areas, maybe they will try it there. We have another telephone
service here which is run by a company called Audio Services. They are
based in Dallas Texas and they might be interested in getting something
started. The index of their codes is in the yellow pages but they are now
working with us to put an index recorded on the system itself. There
are hundreds of such codes providing all kinds of information. The deaf
have also taken an interest in this and the company is working with them
to make the system tty accessable.
Roy Zuvers
* DeLuxe 1.12 #6289 Is it live, Memorex, or Milli Vanilli?
Roy Zuvers
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Grant, what is happening to you is what I believe is happening all over
the country or will happen shortly. The budget ax will get you. It will
probably happen in these big university systems first as they prioritize
the audio reader right out of business. That is why I brought this subject
up. If you as a director, wanting comments, don't get many, think of
what will happen if the director don't much care what happens and in
addition, no one speaks up. So what I see is audio readers going away
and I wondered if we should try to do something about it and if we did,
what would be some suggestions for improved or more wide spread programming.
Roy Zuvers
* DeLuxe 1.12 #6289 I thought Frisbee was a good name in hard disks?
Grant Downey
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Roy, you ask a tough question. My choice in joining In-Touch really
came out of an old idea for regular broadcasters on both the F.M. and
F.M. bands who have gone to so much satellite communications. I had a
long talk with the director of RTB The Radio Talkingbooko on this sort
of subject. He indicated that his system, though state run, had
suffered budget cuts but not as sugnificant as others. His feeling
seemed to be that more Radio Reading Services will be drawing
information via satellite from larger or at least more lucrative
operations in order to survive.
My plan at the present time is to search for a grant to allow our
service to purchase a new satellite system which will allow us to choose
from several available networks rather than relying on In=Touch.
In-Touch's quality is so poor so much of the time that I really want to
start picking up RTB for the bulk of programming except for Spanish news
which has to come from In-Touch. We will continue with the Spanish and
English Newspapers from here, Grocery adds, T.V. listings daily, the
local calendar of events, information on technology, information from
the Texas Comision, ETC. In our area we make an effort to provide these
things in both Spanish and English. That is what my listeners have
indicated they want and under budget constraints that is all we can do.
Grant
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Roy Zuvers
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
I am answering your message as I was the one who brought up the audio
reader question here. Audio readers in the U.S. are mostly independent
operations within a community. Many of them use national hook ups for
part of their programming. In large metro areas, other services are being
started which can be used by the blind as well as others. Budget problems
also plegg audio readers. In the area where I live, the large daily
newspaper has a telephone service which anyone can call and get news,
weather, sports, business news and community calendars. This same
newspaper is starting an online service where anyone could call the news
paper's computer and download whatever they would like to read.
It appears that if these service continue to develop well and audio readers
continue to have problems with budget problems and listener interest, the
audio reader concept as it now exists will not survive.
Roy Zuvers
* DeLuxe 1.12 #6289 Do you really wish to read this? (Y/N)
Marshall Flax
In article <18...@handicap.news> Mary....@p0.f1055.n261.z1.fidonet.org writes:
>Index Number: 18561
>Hi, roy. Your message, reply to Cindy, got me to thinking about the
>problem of advocating for those who either will not or cannot advocate
>for themselves. It is a real problem. You know, I suppose the reason why
>the older blind aren't more adequately represented by the 2 organized
>consumer groups is part of the problem. And, certainly we all have read
>the statistics about how people on wellfare, and poor people in general
>do not vote by and large. A similar situation is liable to obrtain with
>the possible paratransit cuts. If superblink reprsents the blind and
>goes to the committees and says that blind people don't need the
>service, he'll help himself and a few others like him. But the majority
>of the blind, who didn't know, didn't know how or where to speak up etc,
>will be screwed. It is really hard to strike a balance between wise use
>of resources, as in your original question about the advisability of
>continuing audio reader in hard budget times, and the problem of
>ignorring or giving short shrift to a lot of people.
This may be a real problem, but there is a real solution. You
should organize the 'older blind'. If they don't know where or
when to speak up, tell them. If they don't know that they have a
right and obligation to speak up, then you should teach them that
they should. If they shouldn't be intimidated by those who you
refer to as 'superblinks' then you should teach them that they
shouldn't be intimidated. If you don't want them to be ignored,
then go to them and teach them how to make themselves unable to be
ignored.
In other words, if you feel that the '2 organized consumer groups'
do not adequately represent these people, then start your own. I
agree with you that 'a balance must be struck.' But it is not the
responsibility of the successful blind to shoulder that decision
themselves. It takes two to balance, so organize this 'majority of
the blind' to represent themselves.
Good luck.
marshall
--
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