Programme: Carlow
WHO Theme: Communication and Information
Cost: 1000 – 5000
Status: In Progress
Description
The 2016 Census found that 54,810 people nationally (amounting to 1.2% of the population) had a sight-related disability. The NCBI indicates that there are 595 people with a visual impairment in the County of Carlow, many of these in the older age bracket. As an extra service for these people, Carlow County Council Library Service developed an initiative to bring the local news to their homes through a new podcast in collaboration with The Carlow Nationalist and Carlow Volunteer Centre during the pandemic period. This project is a revival of a volunteer-lead service which ran for many years whereby recordings of stories and articles from The Nationalist were sent on CD or USB to those who had a visual impairment around the county.
Library staff and some of the original volunteers, received training from a podcast professional in Carlow Library in February 2020 with a view to getting the service up and running again in a modern way. However, the COVID-19 restrictions appeared to put a stop to plans until the Library Service and one member of staff in particular were able to progress the project while library buildings remain closed to the public. Senior Library Assistant, Gearóid Grant lead the charge with a near perfect radio voice and dedicated patience, recording all the main articles from the paper each week before uploading them to the various podcast platforms. Pre-launch the podcast had already been downloaded in Minnesota, USA; Victoria, Australia; Israel, and of course here at home in Ireland. The Talking Newspaper was made available on iTunes, Spotify and all major podcasting platforms for the people of County Carlow, their friends and relatives living elsewhere in the country and the Irish diaspora worldwide. Crucially, this made the weekly edition of the Nationalist accessible for people with a visual impairment, particularly older members of our community . The necessary training for this programme was funded from the Dormant Accounts fund through the Department of Rural and Community Development, with matched funding provided by Carlow County Council. The training was delivered by Alan Swan of Swan MCG.
This marvellous initiative, whilst inspired by the past good work of others in the County Carlow community, provided a lifeline for the older community while restrictions were in place during Covid 19. The Talking Newspaper can be listened to and downloaded on all major podcasting platforms.
Aim of Initiative
To bring weekly news/stories/reports to the visually impaired, particularly members of the community in the older age brackets.
Who is it aimed at
• Service users of the local branch of the NCBI
• Library service users identified in-house
• Members and network partners of Carlow Age Friendly Network
• Members and network partners of Carlow Universal Access Movement
• The Carlow diaspora at large
3 Steps critical to success
- Staff resources and funding
- Excellent communication skills
- Appropriate I.T. equipment
3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery
- Setting up of the I.T. Equipment, rolling out of podcasts during a time when Covid 19 restrictions were in place, online meetings, management of publicity
- Raising awareness and promoting the initiative.
- Increasing staff capacity and the technical challenges associated with such modern technology.
3 Outcomes / Benefits
- Continued professional development and increased ICT/media literacy skills of library staff and other participants
- The Talking Newspaper podcast currently has 721 published episodes which have been downloaded 4,886 times since inception. The podcast has been accessed by people in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the USA, Armenia, Israel, and Asia.
- The podcast has been accessed by the target audience but is also freely available for all, locally, nationally, and worldwide.