 |
August 1999
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
August 1999
|
| |
|
|
|
|
From Neville Millican of QLD computer user's group.
Bob brings a touch of happiness to the blind
For eight years, blind people throughout Australia have been happily keeping up with the news by reading the papers - thanks to the efforts of Bob Howarth and Queensland Newspapers.
One of the best kept secrets of the newspaper world, The Braille Mail is believed to be the only Braille print newspaper in the southern hemisphere.
The free paper was created and financed by QNP and is edited by editorial technology manager Bob Howarth (an 'honorary blind person" member of the Queensland Blind Association Computer User Group) in his own time. Every month Bob selects the best reading from The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail, and emails it to his friend, blind lawyer and computer expert Bob Nelson, who formats the text file into Braille and 'proof reads' it. The Braille file is then emailed on to the Hong Kong Society for the Blind - which runs one of the most advanced Braille printing operations in the world.
HKSB prints 40 copies of the paper and airlifts them back to Australia free of charge on Ansett International. Once landed they are sent to The Braille House, which distributes the newspapers. Bob estimates each copy gets read by at least three people, but says it is difficult to pinpoint a distribution figure. Once everyone has finished with the papers in Australia they are sent to India, where there is a lack of reading materials for the blind.
The Braille Mail is also sent to blind readers via Internet e-mail. They can access the information using voice synthesizers or download it onto Braille printers, and they also often pass it on to their friends online. Finally the taped readings of the newspaper can be borrowed from Queensland State libraries. Bob would like eventually to expand The Braille Mail to a weekly or daily publication and thinks it would be possible using the Internet, which is being accessed by an increasing number of blind people. Like any editor, he gets regular feedback and e-mails from his readers requesting particular stories to be included in the next edition. "I have to make it topical, while providing a good overview of past events," he says. "But, by now, I have developed a pretty good news sense when it come to our readers. He even has a regular blind punter, Brian Murphy, who he e-mails regularly with weights for the major race meetings.
"I hear he's pretty successful on the track too," Bob laughs. "Producing The Braille Mail is very satisfying. The rewards come when you see the reactions of the people who read it." The idea for the paper originated a decade ago in Hong Kong when Bob and QNP managing director John Cowley were both working on the South China Morning Post. "I was editorial technology manager at the South China Morning Post and also in charge of cadet training," Bob explains. "One of my cadets, Lynda Chung, had done her social science degree thesis on the needs of the blind in Hong Kong and one of the biggest things they wanted was news in a print form.
"She introduced me to Fred Leung, a computer genius who runs the Braille printing centre there, but just then I did not have enough time to clean up and reformat all the stories we were using to have them translated into Braille.
"But, on June 4,1989, the Tiananmen Square massacre shocked the world and the demand for information on China soared. 'We had to write a lot of programs to enable us to send our copy all round the world and Lynda said 'why can't we do this with Braille?' I spoke to Fred, who helped write the programs, and John Cowley said: 'Go for it!' "We started producing the world's first daily Braille paper. And it's still the only real daily. "Because the printing facility in Hong Kong is so sophisticated, we could get The Braille Post out on the streets by lunchtime every day. "When I came back to Brisbane early in 1992, John was already here and he was eager to start a Braille edition of The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail, but it wasn't feasible to produce it daily, so we launched a monthly edition."
Bob says the paper is printed in Hong Kong because of the speed of its turnaround. The lead time from Braille printing facilities in Australia is too long and far too expensive. As well as being relished by its readers, The Braille Mail has also been recognized by the community, winning the International Newspaper Marketing Association's Community Promotions Gold Award for QNP in 1994. Bob says producing a paper for the blind has its lighter side.
"Once, on a long flight from America back to Hong Kong, I saw a blind guy on the plane. I happened to have a copy of Hong Kong's Braille Post with me and said to the stewardess; 'Go and ask that blind guy if he wants something to read'. He thought I was crazy, and he asked me what I meant, so I said, 'I've got the world's only Braille newspaper, would he like to read it?' I sent it up to him, along with my business card...He was pretty impressed."
Bob Howarth - Tel: 07 366 6011
Email: Howarth@qnp.newsItd.com.auSTOP PRESS: The Braille Mail now has its first South American reader. Andrew Hart, a math student from the University of Queensland and the first blind person to gain a PhD in math last year; has now moved to Chile and has asked Bob to keep him in touch with the news from home via the Braille Mail.
 Home |
 Newsletter |
 Calendar |
 Previous |
 Index |
 Next |
 Contact |