British Charity Seeks to Establish National Radio Service For The Blind

One of the United Kingdom’s charities for the visually impaired hopes to set up what it says would be Britain’s first national radio service dedicated to the blind and partially sighted listeners. In the U.S., such groups have radio reading services that use FM subcarriers and especially dedicated receivers. Britain’s St. Dunstan’s charity group is asking for interested parties to help form a steering group to explore the feasibility of using an audio channel dedicated to the blind on BskyB, a U.K. satellite digital TV service.
BBC Radio devotes 20 minutes a week to such a service, according to St. Dunstan’s.
The charity said in a statement talks have begun with Britain’s radio authority and BskyB to clear regulatory hurdles in setting up the service. St. Dunstan’s is looking for financial backers for the service and also plans to explore other avenues of potential funding such as grants or selling ads.