Losing the ability to read leaves a huge void in people's lives. RNIB's Talking Book service helps to fill it. Listening to a talking book ...
The Revival of the Audio Book
After 70 years audio books are still going strong. Nowadays it is very easy to download audio books from the Internet, which makes them more popular then ever before.
A short history of the audio book
In 1920 the Royal National Institute for the Blind in England was already doing research on how to create audio books for the blind. At that time there were a lot of ex World War 1 soldiers who had gone blind as a result of the fighting. In 1926 the RNIB started to use LP’s to record audio books which could be played on record players (the kind with the big horn, you had to swing a handle a couple of times before it would play).
In 1936 the “Talking Book Service was launched. The first two books were:’ The murder of Roger Ackroyd’ by Agatha Christie and Joseph Conrad’s ‘Thyphoon’. The records used at the time could hold 25 minutes of spoken text, so they needed about 10 records for an average audio book.
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Free 'talking books' for the visually impairedYellow Advertiser - Mar 18, 2010
Free 'talking books' for the visually impairedSouthend was one of the first places in the UK to use RNIB digital CD talking books. The service, in partnership with the Royal National Institute of BlindGrantham Today - Mar 22, 2010
The players allow people to listen to talking books on disc provided by the RNIB and is recognised as the best system of its kind.