August 21, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The Reading Service of the Redwoods, an all-volunteer organization in Eureka, Calif., that uses television to make local newspapers accessible to area residents with vision problems or other disabilities that make reading difficult, has started broadcasting live.
Since 1998, Eureka’s public television station, KEET, has broadcast recordings of the group’s volunteers reading local newspapers, such as the Eureka Times-Standard and the McKinleyville Press.
The organization is capitalizing on the ability of every television channel to have two audio programs. The primary audio program corresponds to the program viewers see on their screen, while the second audio program — which is often used to broadcast Spanish translations — is independent. Listeners gain access by selecting the “second audio program” feature from the menu screen of their television or VCR.
The reading service got its start when Joan Sikkens, now the organization’s executive director, contacted a local support group for people with limited vision to offer her help as a reader. Members of the group said that they had access to national newspapers and magazines on tape, but that they really missed being able to read their local newspapers, recalls Ms. Sikkens.
In the past, volunteers recorded themselves reading the newspapers, and then mailed the tapes to KEET, resulting in a lag of at least several days before the papers were broadcast. This month, though, the Reading Service of the Redwoods began the live broadcasts, thanks to a $17,000 equipment and consulting grant from the Community Technology Foundation of California. So in addition to reading local papers the day they are published, volunteers can also include time-sensitive material, such as meeting announcements, the menu at the local senior center, and even the day’s horoscopes.
The organization serves Humboldt and Del Norte counties, a rural, isolated area about 300 miles north of San Francisco. Ms. Sikkens believes that one of the most important things that the reading service does is make its listeners feel more connected to what’s going on around them.
“It’s a scary thing to lose your sight,” she says. “You tend to not go out as much. The reading service helps people regain that sense of community.”
