Published at 12:08, Saturday, 20 September 2008

A GROUP of Rotarians have become electronic newshounds in a project to continue a talking newspaper for the blind.

OUR MAN IN FRANCE: Furness Rotary Club’s Geoff James working on the Talking Newspaper for Barrow and District Blind Society, while on holiday in the south of France submitted picture

Furness Rotary Club, under the leadership of Peter Garwood, set up a team to produce the weekly script for the team of readers that create the Talking Newspaper for Barrow and District Blind Society.

Rotary spokesman Graham Postlethwaite said the Evening Mail’s website had made their job a lot easier, with members even able to do their shift while on holiday in the south of France. Before Furness Rotary took over, the material was produced by cutting articles from the Evening Mail and pasting them on to a script.

Furness Rotary decided to do it electronically instead.

A team of six share the task of culling stories from the local papers to create it, and even holidays do not interfere with its production.

Mr Postlethwaite said: “Geoff James has to collate stories from the North West Evening Mail’s Monday night editions for our weekly script. Recently, while taking a holiday in the south of France, he took his commitment with him and was able to do his work from there using the newspaper website.”

He added: “Laborious cutting and pasting has been replaced by a slick new method – the internet.

“Taking the place of the scissors and glue means it can be done anywhere in the world and emailed in.

Each week the script is closed by the club’s Community Service chairman Peter Garwood on Sunday night.

He checks it for errors and omissions and makes any necessary corrections before emailing on to the Blind Society for printing on Monday morning.

Mr Postlethwaite said: “Thank goodness the Evening Mail have done the hard bit and produced an excellent web version which we can access even from the south of France, enabling us to continue with our commitment, even when on holiday.”

The talking newspaper is used by around 500 people with visual impairments.

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk