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In the beginning The Swindon and
District Talking Newspaper Association was formed in 1981 as a result of a
local blind person, Gerry England, hearing a similar tape produced by a group
of people in Scotland. Gerry felt that a
town the size of Swindon should have its own talking newspaper to cater for
the growing number of visually impaired and disabled people in the local
community. He approached various charitable organisations and the Rotary Club
agreed to buy the basic equipment. The first edition
of the tape, known as STAN, which is a corruption of its abbreviated title,
was produced in April 1982 on reel-to-reel tape equipment and taken to
listeners together with the large tape deck! The Association
initially had no premises of its own, and the recordings were originally made
at the Swindon Viewpoint studios, before moving to the home of STAN founder
Shirley Ludford. In October 1983 the upper floor of
the local blind association's headquarters became vacant and a room, which
had previously been the caretaker's lounge was converted into a recording
studio and control room. By now STAN was delivered on compact cassettes. STAN has been at
Craven House in Victoria Road, Swindon, ever since. Stepping forward A milestone in the
history of STAN was the Committee's decision to change from fortnightly to
weekly production in 1987. In the five years since the first edition of STAN
the circulation had risen from 70 to around 180. Since 2010, the
talking newspaper has been produced on a USB memory stick, which listeners
play on a 'boom box', which is provided free of charge. The memory stick can
also be played on a computer or any device capable of reading mp3 files from
a USB stick. The recordings have now returned to being fortnightly. · About us Swindon & District Talking Newspaper Association |
