Talking newspaper for blind people relaunches after Covid

Gordon Harries lost his sight 26 years ago and is glad to have the talking newspaper back

Blind and partially-sighted people are getting a talking newspaper back after it stopped during the Covid pandemic.

The Ceredigion Talking Newspaper was established in 1970 and led to more being set up around the UK.

It relies on volunteers looking through newspapers, editing pieces for people to listen to and voicing articles.

Gordon Harries lost his sight 26 years ago and said he has only just realised how much he missed the paper.

Mr Harries, from Aberaeron, had been using the talking newspaper for about three years before it stopped in 2020.

His wife usually reads the paper for him but said she only goes over the main headlines.

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He said: "But like everything else, you take it for granted and you don't realise how much it comes to mean to you, until this week when I had my first memory stick through the post and I actually used it yesterday and listened to it.

"The information that was coming out, it made me realise how much I'd missed it."

The Ceredigion Talking Newspaper is back after a three-and-a-half year break

Ceredigion Talking used to provide free bilingual spoken news highlights from the Cambrian News, Y Cymro and Golwg to almost 150 blind and partially sighted people.

It service stopped when Covid-19 closed the paper's home at the Ceredigion council offices.

Now, it is being recorded again at the new home in HAHAV centre in Aberystwyth.

Anne Knowles, one of the service's volunteers, said she started voicing the articles after seeing an advert.

She said: "I thought it was a really good thing to do because it's bringing a community of people who are visually challenged together and its connecting them through local stories as well.

"It's a very enjoyable process, talking to people that you can't see, and of course, I just like to feel that it's a bit of humanity, a little bit of human connection for the people who are listening."

Anne Knowles said she's glad to be back reading the news for the talking newspaper

The team record about an hour of news and articles cut from local newspapers before it is copied on to memory sticks, ready to be delivered to listeners across Ceredigion.

Syd Smith, the service's chairman, is the person responsible for bringing it all back to life.

He lost his eyesight temporarily more than 70 years ago when a car battery blew up in his face.

Mr Smith said the relaunching of the paper brought him joy as he knows "exactly what being blind means".