Talking Newspaper

National Talking Newspapers and Magazines was set up in 1974, serving the needs of the rapidly-growing network of local talking newspapers throughout Great Britain with the primary purpose of serving as national newsagent for blind and partially sighted people and others for whom print is not an accessible medium.Later it was instrumental in providing national newspapers and magazines in audio on tape, CD and by MP3 download, and in digital full-text format by e-mail, download and CD-ROM for visually impaired and print disabled people who find reading a strain.

It is only now that it started a new potential for advertisements, a very costly method at present.

NEW DELHI | MUMBAI:Date 21st Sepember 2010 :Volkswagen’s advertisement for its Vento sedan has become the talk of the town, literally and figuratively. On Tuesday, readers of The Times of India in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai woke up to the surprise of their newspaper ‘speaking’ to them about the Vento, the first ever advertising campaign of this type in the world.

The device was a cheap vacu formed plastic box with a photo-transistor and a speaker.
A single chip MP3 player with two button-call batteries, played the sound clip.
The open plastic box containing the embedded electronics
was closed and cemented to the newspaper with a double-sided adhesive foam sheet.

Since the idea of a talking newspaper catering to the blind and handicapped is over 35 years old and the new technology is available now, I suggest the original idea is transformed into a practical reality to help the blind and handicapped in India to be knowledgable without even the other handicapp of the language barrier.