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Colchester &
District Talking NewspaperColchester &
District Talking NewspaperContents:
The Colchester and District Talking Newspaper is an audio recording of local news, produced each week. The News is available on cassette tape to all visually impaired people who request it; it is also available on the internet accessed from the web site of the TN. The cassette service is delivered by post free to anyone with a disability or infirmity which prevents them from reading the printed word. There is no restriction for anybody wanting to access the web site.
Colchester and District Talking Newspaper started in 1973 with 40 listeners, by 1993 the circulation had risen to over 300. In addition to the weekly Talking Newspaper, a monthly Talking Magazine and The Courier, a quarterly newspaper from the Colchester Borough Council are also produced.
The Talking Newspaper has its own web site which can be accessed here.
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Visually impaired people need Talking Newspapers for the same reason sighted people read the local newspaper - to keep in touch with the local community. The recipients represent a wide cross section of the community although several are elderly people who have lived locally all their lives and have friends and relatives in the area. The Talking Newspaper helps keep them in contact, sustains an active interest in life, aids conversation, helps people to be interested and interesting to talk to. Talking Newspapers can provide an intimate sense of belonging, with familiar and friendly voices in the home each week.
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Local news items are gathered from the Daily Gazette newspaper during the preceding week. On Thursday evenings a team readers and a technician meet in the studio at the University of Essex. The news is read and a master tape recorded with 90 minutes of local news, interspersed with a variety of pre-recorded items - such as a What's On column; Births, Marriages and Deaths; a Sports Column, Correspondence Column and so on.
After the recording is completed, high-speed multiple copiers are used to produce the cassette copies. The cassette is also digitised and downloaded to the TN’s web site. On Friday morning a dispatch team put the cassettes into special yellow plastic posting wallets, inserting the reversible address cards ready for collection by Royal Mail. The Royal Mail collects the sacks of wallets from the University and should deliver them to recipients on Saturday morning. The tapes are sent first class post free of postage charge under the "Articles for the Blind" regulations.
Recipients are provided with a free cassette tape recorder if they need one. When the tape is finished with it is then posted back to the TN again free of postal charges. The cassettes are unpacked and cleaned by a team of volunteers on Wednesdays, and are then ready for the next weekly cycle.
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The Talking Newspaper is an independent, registered charity based at the University of Essex. It is run by volunteers who come from both the University and from the surrounding area. Many people are involved and jobs are organised on a rota-basis with each helper doing a small part of the work.
There is a Board of Trustees, two Co-Directors who head a management Committee.
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The Colchester and District Talking Newspaper has a fully equipped recording studio based at the University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ. You can contact us by letter at this address or by telephone on Colchester (01206) 872275. Please note that the studio is not manned full-time. The telephone has an answering machine and a message can be left. Any message left will be dealt with as soon as possible.
A message can also be left on the email address, cdtn@essex.ac.uk.
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TNAUK is a registered charity providing national newspapers and magazines in a variety of different medium.
They are situated at Heathfield, East Sussex and for a annual subscription there is an unlimited choice of over 200 publications to its subscribers.[return to the top of the page]
If you have a relative, friend or neighbour who has failing eyesight, please put them in touch with us. We may be able to offer a service which helps them. If they do not live in Colchester, we can put you in touch with their local talking newspaper group.
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This website is maintained by Keith Brooke and was last updated on 22 October 2009.
Web pages hosted by the University of Essex.