By William Moncrieff, Communications Apprentice
On World Radio Day (13th February) SDS celebrates the essential service that radio stations provide globally, particularly to the blind and partially sighted community.
One of these fantastic radio stations is The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) and their station Connect radio (RNIB Connect). They explain that: “RNIB Connect started in 2003 and we have just finished celebrating our 20th anniversary, with an aim to provide an entertaining range of essential information in an easily accessible format to our listeners.”
RNIB Connect is broadcast, “to an audience of blind and partially sighted people across the UK, on Freeview 730”.
The Connect radio team believe that their services are relevant and accurate by providing insight from first hand knowledge and experience: “Our presenters are blind or partially sighted” and they talk, “to dozens of people from the sight loss community each week, ensuring our content is informed by lived experience”.
In a fast-paced, digital world, radio remains relevant and plays a significant role in society.
“Connect Radio provides an important and entertaining service to a community which can be hard to reach, is potentially isolated and is traditionally under serviced with information and opportunities”.
The Team at Connect Radio believe that they offer a supportive service to members of their targeted community: “People who have sight loss, particularly those who have recently lost some or all of their sight, often have considerable problems accessing important information both about their condition and in life more generally. In addition, the stereotypes that exist in society about what people with sight loss can do and more acutely the assumptions of what they can’t”.
They continued to say, “It’s impossible to overstate the significance of hearing from other people who are going through similar experiences and to know, you are not alone”.
In being inclusive, “RNIB Connect Radio provides blind and partially sighted people with a platform to share their stories, where they can talk about their challenges but also share their general experiences, aspirations and life hacks with other listeners”.
“RNIB Connect Radio is a crucial tool in the RNIB’s armoury of supporting blind and partially sighted people and offers an easily accessible window into all types of information, services, opportunities and support”, they said.
Tune in to the RNIB Connect Radio at 730 Freeview or via their website for international listening.