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New Oxtalk phone number

For all our listeners, please note that the new telephone number for comments about Oxtalk is 07496 062280. Please leave your name and number so we can return your call. Many thanks.

Information about postal deliveries

Information about postal deliveries
Between the beginning of November and the 2nd December there will be many postal strike days.
During the next 4 weeks there are 3 days in each week identified for strike action. For the week 28th November to 2nd December there will be 4 days of strike action.
I am letting you know this so that you are prepared for delays in Oxtalk being delivered to you.
The Oxtalk volunteers will be recording Oxtalk each week as per usual and the wallets taken to the post office, as per usual, but we then have no control as to when Oxtalk will be delivered to you.
When you have listened to Oxtalk during the next few weeks please return your wallet as per usual so we can continue the service to you.
We are sorry you are going to have a very interrupted service.
For listeners who are looking at the website you can listen to Oxtalk via the website and or using Alexa. Alexa instructions are included in every Oxtalk recording.
Good wishes to all Oxtalk listeners.
Margaret

Oxtalk’s Annual General Meeting October 2021

Oxtalk’s AGM, held on Saturday 16th October 2021, was a very well attended Zoom meeting. An audio recording of the AGM is available on request. The meeting was followed by a very interesting talk from Martin Harris, local Oxford Historian. The Chair’s Annual Report is also included as a pdf Oxtalk Chair’s 2021 Report. Many thanks to all!
Margaret A Simpson
Chair

International Volunteers Day

To help promote Volunteering Day, OCVA have generously included a feature about Oxtalk on their website. You can access the article directly using the following link:

https://ocva.org.uk/international-volunteering-day-read-local-volunteers-experiences-of-volunteering/

40 Years Recognition!

Oxtalk Autumn Meeting and AGM 2018

The Oxtalk Autumn Meeting and AGM was held on Saturday 13th October. The Chair’s report is included as a pdf file here.

We were delighted to welcome Nathan Tree, Advice Worker at OAB, who gave a most enjoyable talk to our members. Nathan was accompanied by his guide dog Maisie and his mum.

Afternoon tea was prepared by members of the Committee, and the photographs below were taken by Pete West. Many thanks to all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks to Cala Homes, Chiltern, for their generous donation.

Oxtalk has been selected to receive a donation from Cala Homes, Chiltern. With this generous donation of £1550.00 Oxtalk plans to buy a new Duplicator/Copier. Very many grateful thanks to Cala Homes, Chiltern – thank you.

OCVA Awards Tuesday 5 June 2018 in Oxford Town Hall

Oxtalk was shortlisted for the ‘Working Together Award’, as we were last year. Imagine my amazement and immediate pride and joy when it was announced that Oxtalk working with OAB had been selected as the overall winner of the ‘Working Together Award 2018’. Thank you to all Oxtalk volunteers for supporting and helping Oxtalk gain this recognition. Many thanks.
Margaret, Chair of Oxtalk

Oxtalk awareness

On Thursday 30th November at the North Oxford Community Centre in Summertown, Oxtalk’s Anne Ambler gave a talk about the work of the Oxford & District Talking News to the Macular Society’s Oxford Support Group. Many thanks to all those who attended. Any organisation wishing to arrange a similar talk, in return for a small donation to our funds, please email us at mail@oxtalk.org.uk.

Oxtalk Autumn Meeting and AGM 2017

The Oxtalk Autumn Meeting and AGM was held on Saturday 2 October. The Treasurer’s Report was agreed and accepted and the Committee were re-elected. The Chair’s report is included here.

Following the AGM Ana Navakovic, assisted by Guy Lawfull, gave a very interesting talk about her work as an Audio Describer, mainly in live theatre and usually at Oxford Playhouse. The Autumn Meeting concluded with a very enjoyable afternoon tea prepared by Committee members.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A generous donation from Oxford Round Table

Oxford Round Table Chairman, Stuart Langston and members presented Oxtalk with  a cheque for £1250 on Tuesday 11 July, 2017.

 

Margaret Simpson, Oxtalk Chair said, “This very generous donation will make such a difference as it will enable us to buy some new audio players for future listeners. Oxford Round Table support means a lot to us and we are very grateful for this support and thank them very much. Thank you never sounds enough!”

 

After the presentation, which took place at Oxfordshire Association for the Blind, the Oxford Round Tablers stayed to sit in on the weekly Oxtalk recording.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radio Oxford publicity for Oxtalk!

A bit of local publicity for Oxtalk, thanks to Radio Oxford! Sheila Gregory, an Oxtalk listener and Margaret Simpson, Chair of Oxtalk were interviewed by Al Ryan for the Radio Oxford Volunteer slot on the Sunday 10 September early morning programme. If you missed the radio broadcast you can listen to the interview online via this direct link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05dlp0p#playt=02h26m50s

ASDA fundraising thank-yous!

On Friday 1 September 2017 9 Oxtalk volunteers spent the day at ASDA, Wheatley, collecting from the generous ASDA shoppers as well as making them aware of Oxtalk by chatting to them and handing out Oxtalk leaflets. Thank you to ASDA for allocating Oxtalk this opportunity, thanks to the Oxtalk volunteers and a big thank you to ASDA shoppers who contributed to the £316.30 donated. Margaret

Oxtalk’s new theme tune

Oxtalk has a new theme tune! FAT PIG TANGO was composed by Chad Clark, who also sings the song and plays the harmonica. Chad is very generously allowing Oxtalk to use this track as its theme tune, and sections of the music will be played at the start and end of the weekly Oxtalk recording from 25th October onwards. Chad has been a Technical Officer for Oxtalk for over 5 years now, helping to produce the weekly Oxtalk Talking Newspaper for listeners who are visually impaired. We hope you enjoy the new music and will soon find your feet tapping!

More of Chad’s music can be heard on his own website: www.misterchad.com/harp.htm

Oxtalk on That’s Oxfordshire tv!

Many thanks to Craig Punfield from That’s Oxfordshire (Freeview TV channel 7) who recently paid Oxtalk a visit to find out more about the Talking News service and to film some of our hard-working volunteers in action. Below is the resulting 3 minute long video report which was first aired on That’s Oxfordshire at the beginning of August.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dft0cLdca9c

Re-launch update

We have worked through the first 16 weeks of recording since the re-launch of Oxtalk on Tuesday 12 May 2015 at OAB. Overall it has been a successful 4 months which is thanks to you and OAB.

Because we are now recording and copying on the same night, this meant changes for quite a few people and I thank those who made the changes.

Technical Officers – the TOs are the people who have had to make the new equipment work and there have been ‘hiccups’ but these have not stopped there being a weekly recording. Thank you TOs for working so hard and producing such good quality recordings.

Readers – a replacement Reader has been found when necessary and there have always been 3 Readers on every Tuesday night. Copiers have appreciated the help given by the Readers in filling the pouches.

Copiers – we started with just 1 Copier per Tuesday night but as the listener numbers increased, plus having to produce address cards for the new listeners on a Tuesday night, it was agreed that there needed to be 2 Copiers every Tuesday. There will be 2 Copiers for every Tuesday night in the next Rota. Thank you to everyone for doing extra nights.

News Editors – there have been new combinations during the last 4 months and there are new News Editors in the next 16 weeks.

I am hopeful the next 16 weeks ‘productions’ up to Christmas will be well received by the listeners. Listeners are so pleased to be receiving Oxtalk again and we do hear from various listeners from time to time.

So once again my thanks to everyone. I will not be seeing you as frequently in the future.

Very many thanks. Here’s to the next 16 weeks – and then it will be Christmas!!!

Margaret A Simpson
Chair

31 August 2015

Oxtalk Chair’s Annual Report 2015

Please click the link to download a copy of the Chair’s Report for 2015 . This was presented by Margaret Simpson at the Autumn meeting, which took place on Saturday 17th October. The complete text of the report is included below:

Chair’s Report to the Annual General Meeting 2015

Welcome to the 2015 Oxtalk Autumn Meeting.

I am pleased so many listeners are attending and ‘thank you’ to the volunteer drivers for being their ‘chauffeurs’.

This has been an interesting year to say the least and one which I hope will never be repeated – certainly not whilst I am involved with Oxtalk.

I am not one to dwell in the past but I appreciate I have to report the year’s events for this official report.

I mentioned at last year’s AGM the possibility that Radio Cherwell and Oxtalk would have leave the Churchill Hospital site – OUHT wanted the land for a development opportunity. Thank you to those of you who, following the meeting, gave me the contacts for possible alternative organisations which had recording equipment and/or recording studios. All these were followed up.

OUHT did give Radio Cherwell notice to quit by the end of February 2015 and Neil Stockton gave Oxtalk notice to quit by 21 January 2015 , which we did – thank you to all the people who helped to clear out Oxtalk’s accumulated property, some of which is still being held in various peoples’ homes, rent free!

The last recording at Radio Cherwell was on 20 January and the last copying session on 21 January. Oxtalk was then silent until the relaunch on Tuesday 12 May. In the short time available the Committee checked out possible alternative sites and the discussions with Oxfordshire for the Blind [OAB] were proving to be the most promising. So in the intervening 4 months a decision was made to accept OAB’s Trustees offer for Oxtalk to be based at Bradbury Lodge, one night a week. To comply with OAB’s Insurer’s requirements their staff and Trustees had to agree to either a member of staff or a Trustee being on duty each week. This they very generously agreed to.

As you will appreciate many things were going on in parallel:-

• the Technical Officers [TOs] visited DAWN for advice on the best recording equipment to buy; Oxtalk had no recording equipment having been able to use Radio Cherwell’s; we had copying equipment, pouches and memory sticks
• in future the reading/recording and copying would be taking place on a Tuesday night so we had to find out whether all the volunteers would be available on a Tuesday; this was not convenient for some volunteers and sadly we had to say thank you and good – bye to 5 people; fortunately articles in the Oxford Mail attracted the interest of a few new volunteers
• Bridget Doole offered to be the Listeners’ Co-ordinator and we took this opportunity to re-organise the listener lists; the pouches needed re-addressing and new address cards were needed – Irene Read one of the Listener Representatives on the Committee asked for an address card of contrasting colours, as this would help listeners with partial sight know which side of the card was the return address side – green is now the return address side; thank you to Bridget, Irene and the volunteers who re-named the 300 address cards and pouches
• the new recording equipment was purchased and the TOs set about learning how to use it; it is similar but different from the equipment they had been using previously and it took a few weeks for all of them to learn how to use it; the quality of the recordings is because of the extra time given by the TOs; we are very fortunate to have a dedicated group of TOs
• Ray Anson offered to be the Volunteer Co-ordinator, she oversees the rotas, contacting new volunteers and the help she has given along with the help given by Bridget has meant there has been a shared work load and I have much appreciated their help
• all volunteers needed to visit Bradbury Lodge and be inducted into the new systems, using the new equipment and along with Colin Cure, Director of OAB, a few induction nights were held at OAB

Oxtalk restarted with a number of new listeners and has now been back in production for 6 months. I know listeners appreciate receiving the weekly news again as they let me know from time to time. In these 6 months the number of listeners has fluctuated as some no longer receive Oxtalk.

I have been told that Oxtalk should have stayed with Radio Cherwell as they are still in the old building but we had no choice. Many volunteers have told me they really appreciate being at OAB, being in a warm comfortable building, being made to feel welcome and just this last week Caroline Ludden of OAB told me that she had received a similar message on OAB’s facebook page and this pleased OAB. It pleases me too that 1 of Oxtalk’s volunteers sent this unsolicited positive message to Colin and his staff, a message that will no doubt be passed on to the Trustees.

Oxtalk are making a small contribution towards the utilities that are used on a Tuesday night.

Those of you who attend other groups and clubs could suggest they ask Anne Ambler to give a talk about Oxtalk. You know about Oxtalk but perhaps not everyone at your club does.

I am very confident that Oxtalk’s future is secure with the new partnership now established with OAB. Both organisations have a common purpose. We have a strong, reliable and supportive group of volunteers producing a weekly talking newspaper enjoyed by the listeners who receive it.

During these last few months I have been supported by an excellent group of Committee members and I appreciate the support given to me. My thanks to you.

I close by wishing Oxtalk a very positive, successful and calm 12 months.

Margaret A Simpson

Chair – Oxtalk

16 October 2015

Oxtalk 2015: Letter from the Chair

2015 OXTALK’s Future Arrangements

[This information has been sent out to all OXTALK volunteers.]

Dear OXTALK Volunteer,

In my last email I told you that the last recording of OXTALK Talking Newspaper from the Radio Cherwell recording studio will be on Tuesday 20 January 2015 and the last copying session will be on Wednesday 21 January 2015. After which we will remove all OXTALK’s equipment and bid farewell to OXTALK’s very supportive partner of over 30 years, Neil Stockton – Chairman of Radio Cherwell and Radio Cherwell’s volunteers.

I will inform the listeners of the ‘break in service’ as part of Tuesday night’s recording on 20 JANUARY 2015.

I am very pleased to be able to tell you that just this week at the Oxfordshire Association for the Blind Trustees’ Meeting, the Trustees agreed to offer OXTALK the use of OAB’s premises one night a week – a Tuesday night. Both the OXTALK Committee and the OAB Trustees and staff look forward to developing this new partnership to the benefit of our client group and service users. Colin Cure, Director of OAB, has been very supportive throughout all the discussions. The final details have to be agreed but I can inform you that OAB Trustees are allowing OXTALK to use the premises rent free. OXTALK will make a contribution to the evening’s heating and lighting costs.

We are immensely appreciative of this generous offer. It does mean we can now start the preparations to organise the re-launch of OXTALK.

In future recording and copying will be on the same night – a Tuesday night. This will obviously be okay for the Editors, TOs and Readers. I appreciate this may a pose a problem for some of the Copiers, so I am attaching a questionnaire which I ask everyone to complete and return the questionnaire to me as soon as possible and no later than Saturday 7 February 2015.

Oxfordshire Association for the Blind [OAB] is located at the end of Abingdon Road- on the old Rivermeade Hospital site and opposite the Park & Ride. The address is:-

Bradbury Lodge, Gordon Woodward Way, Oxford OX1 4XL
Tel. 01865 725595

Website:- www.oxeyes.org.uk

If you visit the website you may find you recognise the building in the photographs.

There is plenty of private and on-road car parking. There is a bus stop on the Abingdon Road just a short walk from OAB.

CURRENT SITUATION

• We have 5 Technical Officers [TO] and a Reserve TO
• We have 3 Editor/Newsgatherer Teams – we do need at least 1 more team. Do 2 of you, possibly friends or neighbours think this is something you would like to consider a commitment once a month. If so please contact Anne Ambler to find out more – 01865 872628.
• Depending on your replies to the questionnaire I hope we will have enough Readers but we may need 2 or 3 more Copiers.

 What needs to be done before we can re-launch.

• Purchase the RECORDING equipment. The TOs will be involved with this task.
• For you to return your completed questionnaire by 7 February at the latest please.
• When we have received your replies we will organise the Editing/Newsgatherer Teams; Reading and Copying Teams and produce new rotas which will be sent out to you by Ray Anson, Volunteers’ Co-ordinator. The TOs have indicated they are willing to continue.
• As we approach re-launch time we plan to have a couple of ‘dry run’ nights at OAB so that we can all familiarise ourselves with the new location and the new recording and copying sessions. I will give you plenty of notice of when these will be.

We are hoping to have OXTALK back in production by Easter at the very latest. Earlier if everything goes smoothly!

I look forward to your continued support for OXTALK.

Good wishes.

Margaret A Simpson
Chair of OXTALK

16 January 2015

OAB November newsletter

We are pleased to share with you the latest OAB newsletter which is now available online at:

http://www.oxeyes.org.uk/website/newsletter/

OXTALK Chair’s annual report 2014

Please click to download a copy of the OXTALK Chair’s Report 2014 . This was presented by Margaret Simpson at the Autumn meeting, which took place on Saturday 25th October. The complete text of the report is included below:

OXTALK AUTUMN MEETING – 25 OCTOBER 2014

CHAIR’S REPORT TO THE AGM

Good afternoon and welcome to this Saturday afternoon Autumn Meeting.

We, the Committee, thought we would hold this year’s meeting at this time in the hope that it was a more attractive time for listeners and volunteers. We are delighted 13 listeners have been able to attend, many more than have attended previous meetings for very many years. So thank you to everyone who is here. We will be very pleased to hear your comments about the afternoon.

The procedures for the referral of new listeners has remained the same with the Oxfordshire County Council’s Visual Impairment Team referring the majority of new listeners regularly through-out the year. This is followed by the small team of OXTALK trainers making home visits. At the home visit the trainer takes one of the BOOMBOX Plus players, this is both a radio and digital player and has been very well received by all who are now using it. Before deciding which player to buy this year we asked Margaret Brinkhurst and Irene Read for their opinions. Margaret and Irene are themselves visually impaired and Committee members. It was on their recommendations that the BoomBox Plus was purchased. Thanks to them for this advice and thank you to the trainers. Many of the younger people referred decide to listen on-line or use whatever digital player they have already. We post out on average 90 memory sticks a week and despite receiving Google Analytics Reports we are not able to find out how many people do listen on-line.

There was another Ashmolean touch tour during the year. Thank you to the volunteer drivers who drove listeners to and from the Ashmolean and thank you to the volunteers who have driven some of the listeners to this meeting – and hopefully they will drive you home again!!

During 2014 Anne and Geoff Ambler spent many a jolly hour completing grant application forms and organising fund raising events. Their hard work has been successful and as you heard from Geoff OXTALK is financially sound for the next year. Thank you to Anne and Geoff.

As many of you will be aware OUHT have decided, that the building RC has used for many years as the home for Oxford Hospital Radio Station, has to close. This has also been the recording and copying base for OXTALK too. [If NS is present ask if he wishes to say anything.] RC have been in negotiations with OUHT for most of the year, the building was going to be taken out of use by OUHT first at the end of June and then the end of September and as of today I cannot let you know when OUHT may close the building. RC has now been offered an alternative building – The Old Gatehouse on the Churchill site. This building is a quarter the size of the current building, is in a very dilapidated state and needs £75,000 spending on it to make it fit for purpose. RC has to find this money and so are desperately fund raising as the money has to be raised as quickly as possible – not an easy task. Because of the reduction in size there will be only 1 recording studio which RC anticipate they will be using every night. It is therefore very probable that OXTALK will have to find a new recording and copying base. A change of venue is going to affect all OXTALK volunteers and I will be liaising with the volunteers in the very near future. If and when OXTALK has to move to new premises then there very probably will be a period of time when we will not be able to produce OXTALK. Hopefully we will have time to let listeners know that OXTALK is going ‘off air’ and for approximately how long. Please be assured we will keep it as short a time as is possible.

At this time of the year I ask all the volunteers if they are available for the next year – 2015. At the end of 2014 5 Copiers are leaving and 6 Readers. I have been able to replace 5 Readers but as yet none of the Copiers. But we have until the end of this year to find replacements and I say we because I am asking you to speak to your friends and family to ask if anyone is interested in joining us. In the Summer Larry Sider joined as a TO, so there are 5 TOs and 1 Reserve TO. Without TOs there would be no OXTALK. Of the 11 volunteers we are saying “thank you and good bye to” some have been connected with OXTALK for many years, Carol Aistrop, Sue and Tamsin Morris and Margaret Croucher. Carol Aistrop in particular is some whose name will be known to you.

At the beginning of September Muriel Wittrick died and for those listeners and volunteers who were involved over 30 years ago you will know that Muriel and Keith Wittrick were the founder members and the driving force in establishing OXTALK. With the anticipated changes to the Recording Studio for RC and therefore the resulting changes for OXTALK, 2015 is going to be the start of a new phase for OXTALK.

Not only do we say “thank you” to the people who are leaving I say “thank you” to all the volunteers who support OXTALK, because without their continuing support there would be no OXTALK. So much goes on unseen and at the AGM I can publically thank the Committee members for their willingness to give the extra that is required. Thank you.

You will be able to say “thank you” yourselves as some of the Committee Members have taken part in the OXTALK bake-off to produce the refreshments we will shortly be enjoying!

Thank you for coming. Please be patient with any ‘break in service’ that might occur in 2015 and remember to change your clocks and watches when you go home tonight – we gain an extra hour tomorrow!

Margaret A Simpson
Chair

25 October 2014

OXTALK needs volunteers – can you help?

DO YOU WONDER WHAT TO DO WITH THOSE FEW SPARE HOURS?

You could use some each month to help produce

THE OXFORD AND DISTRICT TALKING NEWSPAPER

which is distributed to people with a visual impairment. Many of our blind

listeners cannot read any of the local newspaper and rely on OXTALK to

keep them informed of what is happening in their local Oxford and District

area.

OXTALK NEEDS:

• PEOPLE TO SELECT THE NEWS ITEMS –EDITORS

• PEOPLE TO READ THE NEWS ITEMS – READERS

• PEOPLE TO HELP COPY THE DIGITAL RECORDING – COPIERS

To find out more contact mail@oxtalk.org.uk

OXTALK HAS BEEN PROVIDING THIS SERVICE FOR OVER 34 YEARS AND
WANTS TO CONTINUE PROVIDING THIS MUCH NEEDED SERVICE TO
VISUALLY IMPAIRED AND BLIND PEOPLE IN THE OXFORD AREA.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Promoting awareness of Oxtalk

On Wednesday 26th March Oxtalk’s Vice Chair, Anne Ambler, gave a talk about the work of Oxtalk to the Headington Wives Club at the Coach House in Headington Quarry, Oxford. There were about 25 members present. A donation towards the running costs of Oxtalk was gratefully received.

Any organisation wishing to arrange a similar talk can contact Anne on 01865 872628 or email mail@oxtalk.org.uk.

 

 

OAB February newsletter

We are pleased to share with you the latest OAB newsletter which is now available online at:

http://www.oxeyes.org.uk/website/newsletter/

OXTALK is looking for volunteers. Can you help?

Technical Officers

OXTALK volunteer technical officers record an hour long digital talking newspaper on a Tuesday evening.

The weekly recording takes place at the Radio Cherwell Recording Studios, based on the Churchill Hospital site, Headington, from 6.30pm.

A technical officer’s commitment of 2 to 3 hours is on one Tuesday evening every 5 to 6 weeks.

It is not essential to be experienced in audio technology, but it will help if you have an interest. Training is given by other experienced Technical Officers, with the trainee Technical Officer receiving support until confident to ‘go solo’!

Contact Margaret Simpson at mail@oxtalk.org.uk to arrange a visit to the recording studio to see what is involved, talk to the Technical Officer on duty and find out more.

Readers

On Tuesday evenings the selected news items are read and recorded to produce the weekly Talking Newspaper – Oxtalk. Readers work in teams of three, recording once every 8 weeks in the studios of Radio Cherwell, on the Churchill Hospital site. Readers arrive for 6.45pm and the recording finishes at approximately 8.30pm.

Contact Margaret Simpson at mail@oxtalk.org.uk to arrange a convenient time to visit.

MAS February 2014

Timely Gannett grants bring Christmas cheer

We are delighted to be able to share with you the following article which was printed in the Oxford Mail on 23rd December 2013. The article can also be accessed online at http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10894369.Timely_Gannett_grants_bring_Christmas_cheer/

THREE charities are celebrating after picking up a major Christmas cash injection from the Oxford Mail’s parent company, the Gannett Foundation.

And the news will mean that more blind and partially-sighted people like Jean Cambray will be given a precious view of the world in 2014 as a result.

Mrs Cambray, 84, from Wheatley, is one of 90 visually impaired people who receives a weekly so-called talking newspaper from the charity Oxtalk – one of three great causes to share a £22,000 windfall in the 2013 Gannett Foundation Awards.

The widowed great-grandmother, who is able to listen to readings from the paper as a result, said she was delighted the organisation will receive £3,000.

Oxford’s Helen and Douglas House and autism charity Children in Touch have both been awarded more than £9,000 each.

“I have macular degeneration and while I can still see a little, sadly I can no longer read,” she said.

“While my family and carers keep me in touch with the news in Wheatley, having the Oxtalk memory sticks sent to me each week means I can just plug them into the little machine they sent me and listen as stories from around the county are read aloud to me.

“It is a wonderful service which makes me feel part of things, and it is lovely to hear they have received this money so that more people like me will have their sense of isolation lifted in 2014.”

Oxtalk was set up in 1979 and operates from the base of Radio Cherwell at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford.

The charity’s vice-chairwoman, Anne Ambler, 70, from Wheatley, said: “Losing your sight can leave you feeling cut off from the world, but the people we help tell us that receiving our memory sticks keeps them in touch. The news we are to receive £3,000 from the Gannett Foundation is extremely welcome and we are very grateful.

“It will enable us to buy new orbs, the listening devices which our listeners use to play their memory sticks, and also to reach out to even more people who we know would benefit from what we offer.”

Each year, the Gannett Foundation, the charitable arm of Gannett, which owns Newsquest and the Oxford Mail, invites good causes to apply for a share of around £20,000 in funding.

This year, 62 good causes applied to the foundation for a grant from across the county. All are worthy and do outstanding work.

But Oxtalk, Oxford’s Helen and Douglas House and autism charity Children in Touch were chosen to receive money by the foundation trustees.

Group editor Simon O’Neill said: “The competition for Gannett grants nationally is tougher than ever, so we are delighted to have secured a total of £22,000 for these three fantastic local causes.

“I only wish we could have obtained grants for everyone who applied. I would urge those who were unsuccessful to try again in the next round of grants.”

OXTALK - AWARDED £3,000

In 1979, Ralph Brain, retired news editor of the Oxford Mail, became the first editor of Oxtalk.

The following year the first tape of the Oxford and District Talking News was produced on C90 cassette, with 35 copies sent out to blind and visually impaired people across the county.

Almost 35 years later, Oxtalk now produces the news in digital mp3 format, and sends out between 150 and 200 USB flash drives per week to its listeners in Oxford and surrounding areas.

And this is all possible thanks to the work of around 60 volunteers who support the organisation in a variety of ways: from editing the Oxford Mail and Times for suitable articles, to fundraising and recording news items, to copying the flash drives, sending them out to listeners and also getting involved in the planning of Oxtalk’s activities.

Vice-chairwoman of Oxtalk, Anne Ambler, said: “A survey of our work a few years ago revealed just how much our recordings are appreciated. Many of the people we send USB sticks to cannot leave the house and without us would have little way of knowing what is happening locally.

“Like many people of my age, I love to read and sitting down to read the Oxford Mail or Times is something very simple but something I enjoy. To be unable to do that would be a great loss.

“The news we are to receive £3,000 from the Gannett Foundation is extremely welcome and we are very grateful.’’ For more information on getting involved with Oxtalk or fundraising, visit https://www.oxtalk.org.uk

CHILDREN IN TOUCH - AWARDED £9,000

Children in Touch was founded in 1978 and based at Worminghall in Buckinghamshire.

It supports the study, development and well-being of children and adults with autistic spectrum conditions (ASC) and their families.

The charity is using its Gannett Foundation grant to complete the building of a garden at St Nicholas School in Marston, Oxford.

Trustee Dr John Richer said: “Children with autism are particularly vulnerable to being stressed by noise, excessive intrusiveness and crowds, and visual clutter.

“But children with autism are also calmed by natural flora and other natural shapes and textures and benefit more than most from having a safe enclosure in which to interact with others.

“The garden at St Nicholas School will support these benefits and so we were absolutely overjoyed when we learned we had been given such a sizeable amount of money towards it from the Gannett Foundation.” The garden will allow the children to get away, offering them refuge, somewhere to sit and think, relax and read.

And it will also be open to the younger children in the mainstream school too.

Children in Touch supports the work of centres for children with ASC in mainstream school (including the site at St Nicholas School).

Children in Touch fundraiser Dr Sue Fairchild’s daughter, Alexandra Rosenwasser, nine, is autistic and attends the St Nicholas School base.

Dr Fairchild said: “I believe the sensory side of autism is key to opening up learning channels in the children and the garden will take them out of the distorted sounds and noise of the classroom, and into a calming environment.”

Her daughter Alexandra said: “I think it is going to be a nice garden with nice smells and pretty flowers. It will have a little bridge and all my friends will like it, too. It will be a nice quiet place for me.”

For more information, see http://childrenintouch.org

HELEN AND DOUGLAS HOUSE HOSPICE - AWARDED £9,662

Few people in the county have not yet heard of the inspiring work being done to help children and young people with serious illnesses at Helen and Douglas House.

But despite a dedicated team of staff, fundraisers and donors, the hospice’s future relies heavily on its continued ability to buy the day-to-day equipment it needs to operate properly.

Liz Leigh, deputy director of clinical services at Helen and Douglas House, said: “Grants like this from the Gannett Foundation are vital to our work. It costs £5 million per year to run both hospice houses. But we receive less than 15 per cent of this from sources other than voluntary donations.”

The charity will be using its Gannett Foundation grant to update equipment, most of which is used by patients every day.

Mrs Leigh said: “Being able to buy new equipment not only keeps our service up-to-date – it also boosts morale.

“And this is bread and butter equipment – things like syringe drivers, which are small portable devices that enable our clients to continue to do normal things like going to work, playgroup and school.”

Other equipment will also be bought.

She said: “Infection control and its monitoring are also vital to us as many of our patients are extremely vulnerable to infection.

“So our new infection control resource, purchased with the Gannett grant, will prove our cleaning is excellent.

“And while they may seem like a simple piece of equipment, hoists cost £2,000 each and are very important for our clients, many of whom use wheelchairs.

“I believe this is the first time we have applied for a Gannett Foundation grant and we are absolutely delighted to have been chosen. It’s a wonderful boost.”

• The Gannett Foundation has given grants totalling more than £185,000 in the last 10 years to organisations in Oxfordshire. It has awarded £4m in grants in total in the UK alone.

OAB November newsletter

We are pleased to inform you that the latest OAB newsletter is now available online at:

http://www.oxeyes.org.uk/website/newsletter/

Ashmolean artefact handling Wed 13th Nov

Jude Barrett, Ashmolean Museum, is organising a handling session for people with a visual impairment at the Ashmolean Museum on Wednesday 13 November, 10.30am – 12 noon. You will handle a variety of objects from all over the world and hear the stories attached to them.

To book a place please ring 01865 288078 or fax 01865 278018 or email jude.barrett@ashmus.ox.ac.uk

We have only received this information today, hence the reason it was not included in this week’s OXTALK Talking News.

 

 

 

OXTALK Chair’s annual report 2013

Please click the link to download the OXTALK 2013 Annual Report. This was presented by Margaret Simpson at the Oxtalk Autumn meeting, which took place at Barton Community Centre on Thursday 24th October 2013. The complete text of the report is also included below:

OXTALK AUTUMN MEETING – 24 OCTOBER 2013

CHAIR’S REPORT TO THE AGM

Good evening and welcome to you all. Is it just me or has this been a ‘short’ year as it does not seem that long ago since we last met in this room??!!!

This last year has on balance been a steady year with a few highs and no challenging lows. There have been the usual new referrals to OXTALK, in the main from the County Council’s Visual Impairment Team. The VI Team have one of the Sound Orbs/USB players which they demonstrate to their clients, so by the time the potential new listener is referred to OXTALK they have had time to consider whether this is a service they wish to receive, so now very few people say ‘no’ when one of OXTALK’s trainers visits them. Thank you to the small band of trainers who make these home visits.

As happens each year some listeners have stopped receiving the weekly talking news for various reasons – mainly age related rather than ‘no longer interested’.

One of the highs during the year was a visit to the Ashmolean Museum for 12 listeners and 3 volunteers who had a touch tour, led by Jude Bartlett following on from last year’s Autumn Meeting when Jude was the Guest Speaker. 2 of the listeners who were members of the group are here this evening and they have said how much they enjoyed the visit to the Egyptian section, handling artefacts made some 3000 years or more ago and the tea and cakes provided afterwards!!! Amongst the audience tonight are the volunteer drivers who drove some of the listeners to and from the Ashmolean, once again a big ‘thank you’ to you. I have been asked by the some of the listeners to organise another visit, so I will be in touch with the listeners and OXTALK’s volunteers in the near future.

The Oxford Playhouse’s touch tours and audio-described performances are advertised by Anne Ambler during her editing week and from time to time I see some of our listeners at them.

Anne also ‘spreads the word’ by giving talks to local groups about OXTALK. Thank you Anne. If you know of a group just waiting to hear about OXTALK please put them in touch with Anne.

At the beginning of this month we had a stall at the UK Older People’s Day held in the Town Hall which helped to bring OXTALK to people’s attention. Thank you to those volunteers who attended on the day.

It is the time of year when I ask people to let me know their intentions for next year. We will be saying ‘good-bye and thank you’ to 3 Technical Officers; 1 Committee Member and 4 Readers/RRs. There is a new Technical Officer being trained and there have been new Readers joining during the year so there will be complete Reading Teams for next year as well as Reserve Readers. Part way through the year one of the Copying teams lost 2 of its members but because Copying now only needs 2 people to work each session I was able to fill the vacancy from within the current Teams. The rotas for 2014 will be sent out during November following the meeting with Mandy and Margaret C. Thank you. We are always pleased to hear from new volunteers.

As I reach the end of this year’s report I wish to express my thanks on behalf of OXTALK to Neil Stockton, Chair of Radio Cherwell, for agreeing to the continuing use of the recording studio on a Tuesday night, the main room on a Wednesday evening for the coping session and for joining us tonight. Thank you Neil, as usual Radio Cherwell’s support is very much appreciated.

Finally my thanks to Lesley for organising this evening’s meeting and for being the excellent Secretary she is through-out the year. To Geoff for making sure OXTALK remains in balance and to both Anne and Geoff for the time they spend applying for funds – if you go into ASDA at Wheatley you will see Anne smiling at you as she received a cheque on behalf of OXTALK! My thanks to the OXTALK Committee Members and to you for attending this meeting this evening.

Thank you.

Margaret A Simpson – CHAIR

22 October 2013.

 

 

OAB Baking Day 10th December

We have recently run a couple of baking days at OAB and due to their popularity and success we will be holding another one on Tuesday 10th December from 10am – 1pm.

We are thinking of making a seasonal recipe and as it will be almost Christmas we thought of perhaps making mince pies.

The sessions are both informal and a bit of fun! We choose recipes that are not too complicated and Sarah and I supervise the session throughout.

If you know of anyone who would like to attend or if there are any questions please call Sarah Milrose on 01865 725 595.

Thank you

Angela Howard
Client Advice Worker
Oxfordshire Association for the Blind
Bradbury Lodge
Gordon Woodward Way
Abingdon Road
Oxford
OX1 4XL

Tel: 01865 725595
Fax: 01865 725596

14th November is World Diabetes Day

Staff from the Oxford University Hospitals Trust including the Diabetes Research Network will be hosting events to mark the day.

There will be a Diabetes Information stand at Templars Square Shopping Centre, Cowley on 14 November 2013 from 8.30-1.30pm.

Diabetes Research Nurse Claire Umney and Alison Monk, Communications and Public Involvement Officer, from the Thames Valley Diabetes Research Network will be at the stand. They will be speaking to local people about diabetes, the treatment of diabetes and on-going research studies running locally that are focussed on preventing diabetes, improving diabetes care and services.

The Thames Valley Diabetes Research Network is hosted by the Oxford University Hospital. It supports research studies in Oxford and the wider Thames Valley region. It is part of the NHS, and the National Institute for Health Research, funded by the Department of Health.

Can’t come on the day, but like to find out more? Please call Alison Monk on 01865 857149 or email alison.monk@ouh.nhs.uk

 

Oxford CAB benefit service: help for the over 60s

Did you know more than £5 billion of benefits go unclaimed by older people each year? Oxford CAB has been helping Oxford residents over 60 to get extra financial support to which they are entitled,  making all the difference to their ability to meet rising living costs and keep active socially. In the first year additional income of around £250,000 in total was secured for just over 100 clients.

Mrs C  who is in her early 80s, was put in touch with the project by Age UK. A check by a CAB volunteer established that she would be entitled to Attendance Allowance which has now been awarded. This successful outcome will increase her income by just over £4,000 a year.

The additional money has helped others to take the occasional taxi to get to a local lunch club, pay for help with house and garden maintenance, keep running a car to make it easier to get to medical appointments, and generally relieved the anxiety of not knowing where money would come from to meet ongoing bills.

Update Sept 2018: Please note that the Oxford CAB Older People’s project has now finished, but for general advice or queries CAB can be contacted on 03444 111 444.

RNIB products audio promotion

Product promotion information from the RNIB:

Please use the link below to access October’s pre-recorded audio
relating to our latest launches. The free audio recordings give details
of some of our most popular products as well as newly added items,
features and information. The latest audio recordings are relevant until
Friday 13 December and include:

*       Exclusive RNIB Christmas cards
*       Two new Large print puzzle books
*       New DAISY audio books

To access the audio files when you are on our web page, select the track
you want and “save target as”.

www.rnib.org.uk/tndownload

As always, we would welcome your constructive feedback, comments and
suggestions.

We look forward to hearing from you

With best wishes

Tim Butcher
Product Sales and Marketing Co-ordinator,
RNIB Retail,
Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, Peterborough, PE2 6XU

t: 01733 375493
e: timothy.butcher@rnib.org.uk
w: www.rnib.org.uk

Would you like to become an OXTALK volunteer?

 TECHNICAL OFFICER

OXTALK volunteer TECHNICAL OFFICERS record an hour long digital TALKING NEWSPAPER on a TUESDAY evening.

The weekly recording takes place at the Radio Cherwell Recording Studios, based on the Churchill Hospital site, Headington, from 6.30pm.

  A TECHNICAL OFFICER’s commitment of 2 to 3 hours is on one Tuesday evening every 5 to 6 weeks.

It is not essential to be experienced in audio technology, but it will help to have an interest. Training is given by other experienced Technical Officers, with the trainee Technical Officer receiving support until confident to ‘go solo’.

If you think helping to produce a weekly Talking Newspaper for people who have a visual impairment would interest you then please visit the OXTALK website to find out more www.oxtalk.org.uk

Contact Margaret Simpson at mail@oxtalk.org.uk to arrange a visit to the recording studio to see what is involved, talk to the Technical Officer on duty and find out more.

 COPIER

On Wednesday evenings the weekly Talking Newspaper is COPIED onto memory sticks which are then posted out to the listeners. The COPYING process takes approximately 1 hour; there are 6 COPYING Teams, so a volunteer COPIER’S commitment is 1 hour every 6 weeks.

To find out more visit the OXTALK website www.oxtalk.org.uk  – you can attend a COPYING session before deciding you wish to join OXTALK.

Contact Margaret Simpson at mail@oxtalk.org.uk to arrange a convenient time to visit.

Listen to OXTALK’s weekly Talking Newspaper on the website.

 MAS July 2013

Oxtalk keeps up with technology

The following article appeared in the Memory Lane section of the Oxford Mail on December 24th 2012. The full text of the newspaper article is included below the image.

“From clumsy metal discs through to C90 tape cassettes and later C60’s,  OXTALK, Oxford’s talking newspaper for the visually impaired, has survived all the technological changes to arrive at memory sticks on which to send out the local news.

The first tapes were sent out in 1979. Back in the 80’s all the operations needed to produce the cassette tapes took a long time.  Indeed it was quite a social occasion with refreshments halfway.  Sadly in some ways we have sacrificed this camaraderie as the process is so much faster now and the time needed is only half what it was.  After using various locations across the city OXTALK now records in the studios of Radio Cherwell at the Churchill hospital.

Volunteers help with gathering the news, recording, copying and technical operations.  Several have given their time since the early days and have seen the many changes in working practices.

For nearly 2 years listeners have been receiving weekly memory sticks to play on a sound orb provided by OXTALK which they find clearer and of better quality than tapes.

OXTALK is a  free service to the listeners and as a charity receives no regular funding.  Raising funds is done by the volunteers when new or replacement equipment is needed.  We are always pleased to welcome new volunteers.  We can be contacted  via the website  at  www. oxtalk.org.uk.”

Oxtalk Accounts 2012

Oxtalk’s accounts for the year ending 31st July 2012 are now available. Please click the following link to view/download Oxtalk_Accounts_2012 .

Oxtalk Chair’s annual report 2012

Please click the link to download the The Chair’s report 2012. This was presented by Margaret Simpson at the Oxtalk Autumn meeting, which took place at Barton Community Centre on Thursday 25th October 2011. The complete text of the report is also included below:

Welcome to everyone and thank you for attending this Autumn Meeting for 2012. I am very pleased to welcome Colin Cure, Director of OAB; Neil Stockton, Chairman of Radio Cherwell and our guest speaker Jude Barrett, Education Officer for Adults and Young People at the Ashmolean Museum.

Reading through last year’s report – checking that I wasn’t going to be writing exactly the same as I wrote last year!!! I noted that I had mentioned we had designed a new information leaflet but as they had not arrived in time for last year’s meeting I had not been able to show them to you, well a year later I can show you the new leaflet!!

I also concluded my report with the following ‘this coming year should be one of fewer changes and more a case of settling into the new regime’. How wrong one can be!

Towards the end of last year I was contacted by Mike Box from the Estates Dept of OUHT/NHS concerning the copying room in the Housekeeping building on the Churchill Hospital site. He said it was very possible we would have to move but he would look for possible alternative sites. In January of this year we were given notice to quit the room by the end of March and no alternative facility was offered but Mike Box did suggest we copied each week in our own homes, which was neither feasible nor realistic! When Neil Stockton learnt of our dilemma he offered OXTALK the use of Radio Cherwell’s lounge space for the copying process and some storage for essential equipment. So preparations began to dispose of some of the equipment and clear the room. During March the copying room was cleared and what usable equipment could be rehomed was, some to volunteers; the cassette copying machines and 100s of tapes went to Oxfordshire Association for the Blind; 2 radio/cassette players are now in Nigeria. The remaining equipment we could not find a home for went into the Churchill skips! My thanks to Anne, Ray, Carol, Colin and Hazel for helping me to clear out the old copying room. My very grateful thanks to Neil and his Committee for offering OXTALK yet more space in Radio Cherwell. All the volunteers find this a much pleasanter environment Neil, thank you.

In March 2012, following a request from a Technical Officer the start time for the reading teams on Tuesday nights was changed; the weekly reading and recording session now start at 7pm. This does seem to be working well.

In May I received the very unexpected and distressing news that Trevor Miles had had a sudden and severe stroke which resulted in his death 2 days later. Trevor had been the lead Technical Officer, a Committee member, copier and OXTALK’s IT problem solver. As requested we provided his family with many photographs showing Trevor as an OXTALK volunteer, as well as audio items. Trevor’s family were understandably devastated by his sudden and unexpected death but never-the-less they asked for donations to be made to OXTALK in memory of Trevor and OXTALK have very gratefully received to date, in excess £1000.00. Of this we have spent £200.00 on the 2 banners which are on display for the first time tonight and will be used mainly by Anne when she gives her OXTALK talks. They will also publicise OXTALK’s presence at future events. We are saving the remainder of the donation as a contingency fund for possible use when we move, hopefully with Radio Cherwell, as and when OUHT/NHS decides it is time for Radio Cherwell to move to a new home! I thank the Technical Officers for their support in covering the inevitable recording gaps and for taking over the extra training required for potential new Technical Officers. No one Technical Officer has taken over Trevor’s IT role but there has been shared IT responsibility. Trevor’s influence on the digital development for OXTALK is his legacy and he will be remembered with gratitude, respect and much pleasure as a fellow volunteer.

OXTALK participated in the Disability Fair held at Oxford Town Hall in May.

Throughout the year there have been new referrals from the Sensory Impairment Team, as well as self-referrals, all of whom require a home visit or sometimes two! I thank the small group of volunteer trainers for following up these referrals, Lesley, Mandy, Ray, Anne, Christine and Colin. For various reasons some listeners have stopped receiving the weekly memory stick. We do not know how many people listen to the news via the website.

I am now preparing the teams and rotas for 2013 and for the first time in a very long time a number of volunteers are resigning, with the reasons given as ‘driving is becoming difficult’ or ‘the car has been sold’; ‘after so many years it is time to retire’; ‘a change of volunteering’. These volunteers have given, collectively, around 100 years of service to OXTALK and for this support we are very grateful and thank them for being OXTALK volunteers. So I am looking to replace 5 readers, 3 Technical Officers, a copier and a news gather, OXTALK has had 13 volunteers resign in total during the year. I will advertise for new volunteers eventually but I hope initially to be able to fill some of the gaps from the current group of reserves, but we will need more volunteers, so if you have a friend or two who you think may be interested in having a new interest please suggest they visit the website and then ring me – [website details on banners]!!! Anne and Leslie Durham, who are retiring, have been volunteers since February 1980. Anne started as a reader when recordings were in the caravan and Leslie designed the first OXTALK logo as well as being a reader from time to time. I met them when I joined Anne’s reading team many years ago and when she stopped reading she collected the weekly news items for me. So I personally am looking for a new newsgatherer who lives in the Headington area!!!  Colin Taylor is retiring to follow a new interest, thank you for your support for OXTALK Colin. I will be sending our thanks to all the retiring volunteers and Anne and Leslie in particular for their many years of service. We will continue to produce the weekly OXTALK recording but I give notice now that I may need to ask for just a little more of everyone’s time whilst new recruits are found. Mandy, Margaret and I will be collating the 2013 rotas shortly and these will be sent out to all volunteers during November.

This has been a more in-depth report than usual and I thank you for your patience but I thought you would wish to be informed of the year’s happenings.

I will finish by thanking the very supportive OXTALK Committee members. Having supportive colleagues is a great asset and is very much appreciated. Thank you to them and thank you to you for your attention!

Margaret A Simpson

Chair of OXTALK

25 October 2012

Oxtalk – recent events

Last Thursday Anne Ambler gave a talk to a group of about 35 people at Abingdon Baptist church. Many thanks to all who attended and for the donation to Oxtalk funds. Any organisation wanting  a visiting speaker from Oxtalk can contact Anne directly on 01865 872628.

Photos from Oxtalk’s 30th anniversary celebrations

Back in July 2009 we celebrated our 30th Anniversary at the Oxsrad Sports & Leisure Centre. The photographs from that day are now available to view online at  http://photobucket.com/oxtalk_30years?albumview=slideshow

A thank you to the Kidlington Ladies Guild

On Wednesday 25th April Anne Ambler gave a talk about the history and operation of Oxtalk to a group of about 50 ladies of the Kidlington Ladies Guild. In return we thank them very much for their welcome donation to our funds. Any organisation wanting  a visiting speaker from Oxtalk can contact Anne on 01865 872628.

Do you have a few hours a month to spare?

Oxford Talking Newspaper for the Blind would like to hear from people who have an interest in or wish to learn how to produce digital recordings.

The digital recordings are made at the recording studios of Radio Cherwell, the Oxford hospitals’ radio station, based on the Churchill Hospital site.

For further details and information about this and how to receive the OXTALK weekly newspaper recording for people with a visual impairment please send an email to mail@oxtalk.org.uk.

Oxtalk events

On Friday 18th November Anne Ambler of Oxtalk gave a talk to the St. James Church Welcome Break group  in Cowley. Then on Tuesday 22nd Anne gave a presentation to a small group at the Wesley Memorial Methodist Church Fellowship in Oxford. Many thanks to all who attended. Any organisations wanting a visiting speaker can contact Anne on 01865 872628. A small donation is welcome to help our funds.

Visual Impairment Team – Oxfordshire

On 27th October 2011 Meg Jones of Oxfordshire County Council’s Sensory Impairment Team gave an enjoyable and extremely informative presentation at the OXTALK AGM. Please click here to download a Word document summary of Meg’s presentation. The text of the summary document is also included below:

PRESENTATION BY MEG JONES, SENSORY IMPAIRMENT TEAM, OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL, TO OXTALK AT THEIR AGM HELD ON 27 OCTOBER 2011

Meg explained that the Visual Impairment Team is part of the Sensory Impairment Team which covers hearing impairment and dual sensory impairment. They work under the National Assistance Act 1948, NHS and Community Care Act 1990, Children’s Act 1989 and 2005, Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 and Disability Discrimination Act 1995. They deal with rehabilitation – they don’t provide care.

Referrals come in from anywhere, either by letter, form or telephone. The client must be aware of the referral before it can be taken and with each referral they try to make telephone contact to establish the client’s difficulties so that they can prioritise need and place them on their waiting list. They work in conjunction with OAB (the Oxfordshire Association for the Blind) and will do Home Safety Checks on clients, which is a quick safety visit whilst they are on the waiting list. The team is very small and operates county-wide for clients “from cradle to grave”.There are six Rehabilitation Officers, with one support worker. Once a client is allocated to an individual worker, that worker will arrange an appointment in the home and carry out a thorough and detailed assessment under the categories listed and will work with the client until all presenting difficulties have been attended to. They will also issue appropriate equipment under Fair Access to Care Services Policy and Eligibility for Adult Care Services.

They provide support, rehabilitation and enablement: they are not care providers; they promote independence. The list of assessment includes:

Living:  cooking, food preparation, pouring, cooker controls, telling the time, using the telephone, contrast, finding things in cupboards.

Reading: Braille, large print, Moon (the team do not teach this but can assist and signpost). There are some electronic reading devices and sometimes funding is available: it may be possible for clients to borrow equipment from OAB. In Oxford City clients can have volunteers come out to help with such things as reading. Then there are talking books and newspapers, with free ones supplied by Calibre, the library and other suppliers. Kindles are becoming useful.

Mobility: Meg stressed that no-one has to have a white stick: the team talk through various options with clients. The team assess how fit clients are to do whatever they want to do: manage kerbs/pavements; cope with traffic, travel on buses and trains, negotiate speed and distance of vehicles, avoid street furniture such as lampposts, etc.

The Hearing Impairment side of the team are trained social workers and use British Sign Language. They have a new member of the team who works with people with dual sensory loss.

Other help:  The team can help people fill in forms, apply for benefits, make appeals, etc. A Disability Living Allowance is available for those under 65 who have profound visual impairment; for those over 65 the relevant benefit is the Attendance Allowance – one rate for those who need support during the day and a higher rate for those needing a lot of support at night (for example with special equipment, for turning, etc). Anyone registered as visually impaired qualifies for disability parking.

The team cannot influence housing applications but can write supporting letters; each Council has its own system.

Anyone can be referred to the Visual Impairment Team who has a visual impairment that glasses will not fix: most referrals come from the Eye Hospital, though GPs and some other professionals also refer patients. The duty desk is manned every morning. The current waiting list is six weeks for non-urgent matters, but visits are made within a week to people with sudden loss of sight.

Questions

Following her very full presentation, Meg invited questions from the audience. These included one about the integration of visually impaired children in schools, where considerable help is available.

Another asked if the team could act as a pressure group to help people with difficulties in using key pads in supermarkets: the answer is that they cannot act as a pressure group but they can educate. (In this situation, for instance, banks can set up a “chip and sign” system.) A lot of education work had been carried out in Oxford to ensure that shops etc. did not discriminate against or be difficult with people with a disability, but in case of problems visually impaired people were encouraged to go to Customer Services and ask for a member of staff to escort them around the store and help them at the checkout, etc.

Meg was able to report that injections of a new drug, Lucentis, although not curing macular degeneration, could slow it down. Lots of research was going on in the area of retinitis pigmentosa and diabetic retinopathy.

Contact details

The telephone number for the Visual Impairment Team is 0845 050 7666: the Hearing Impairment Team is on the same number. Website address is: access@oxfordshire.gov.uk/accessteam

 

A talk for the Welcome Break Group

On Thursday 3rd November Committee member Anne Ambler gave a presentation about the work of OXTALK to the Welcome Break Group at Didcot Baptist Church. There were about 30 people in attendance at the meeting. Any organisations wanting a visiting speaker can contact Anne on 01865 872628. Most offer a small donation to help our funds.

Oxtalk Chair’s annual report 2011

Please click the link to download the Chair’s Annual Report 2011. This was presented by Margaret Simpson at the Oxtalk Autumn meeting, which took place at Barton Community Centre on Thursday 27th October 2011. The complete text of the report is also included below:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

It is pleasing to see many OXTALK listeners, volunteers, and friends attending this meeting. I am pleased to welcome Patrick and Dione Lawrence, Patrick as many of you know is a past Chairman. Neil Stockton, the Chairman of Radio Cherwell has joined us. I will take this opportunity to say thank you yet again Neil for the generous use you allow OXTALK to make of the Radio Cherwell Studios. Richard Leader has joined us this evening from the Witney TN and Barry Reeves and Kay Sentance from ARTWASH. Barry will be updating the meeting about the progress ARTWASH has made during the year.

PROGRESS is THE word I attach to OXTALK for this past year. On Tuesday 7 June OXTALK went totally digital. A momentous event which had been planned and prepared for, for many, many months. A group of OXTALK volunteers became digital trainers, Anne Ambler, Mandy Wood, Lesley Court, Rosemary Shurgold, Christine Hockley, Ray Anson Colin Taylor, Trevor Miles and myself. This group of volunteers visited all the listeners and continue to visit the new referrals, so that every listener became the owner of a Sound Orb player and knew how to use the machine with the flash drives that they now receive on a weekly basis. My thanks to every one of these volunteers who spent on average an hour a visit with each listener. The positive outcome of this change, from cassettes to digital news recordings, is as listeners tell us ‘a much improved weekly news recording with high quality sound and clarity.’ Hearing this helps make all the time spent and the frustrations of the TOs, who couldn’t wait for the changeover to take place, fade into oblivion. Will flash drives be the preferred way of recording the talking news for the next 30 plus years?

To accompany the change in service delivery it was necessary to produce a new OXTALK leaflet which informs the public about how OXTALK now produces the talking newspaper service, with information and contact details for applying to receive the weekly talking news or to be a volunteer. I am very grateful to Trevor Miles, who has a son, who lives next to a publisher, David Baker, of  Magenta Marketing Services, who generously offered to sponsor and support OXTALK by printing them for us. This generosity is very much appreciated. I also appreciate the time given by Ray, Mandy and Colin in producing the new layout and text for the leaflet and Hilary Beaton who was OXTALK’s ‘official’ photographer. I had hoped to be launching this new leaflet this evening but that pleasure will have to wait to a later date.

OXTALK did not need to fundraise during this year as we had sufficient funds in the accounts to pay for the Sound Orbs and the flash drives. Some listeners did make a donation towards the cost of their Sound Orb.

New listeners are referred to OXTALK, in the main, from the Sensory Impairment Team. Listeners do refer new listeners and people can read about OXTALK on the website, which is managed for us by Hilary Beaton.

OXTALK has maintained its links with the other County TN through the bi-yearly meetings, which have proved to be useful.

During the year OXTALK was approached by the Church of England’s Editor of their talking newspaper ‘DOOR’ for advice on setting up an Oxford TN services for their members. Oxfordshire Association for the Blind have asked us to consider extending OXTALK’s service to visually impaired people living in Thame. The Committee consider this to be feasible and so this could be a future development. By promoting OXTALK the service is being used more and more by statutory and voluntary organisations to inform the listeners of changes in legislation and service provision. The Oxford GPs involved in the NHS changes in health provision for the future are interested in using the talking newspaper as a means of informing their visual impaired patients, who may not know of the changes if they do not attend the public meetings.

Tomorrow Mandy, Margaret and I will be meeting to organise next year’s rotas. I am pleased to say there will be only a few changes in 2012. One name which will not appear on next year’s lists will be that of Adeline Stunnell. Adeline has been a Copier for exactly 20 years and so we say a very grateful ‘thank you to Adeline’ for all her years of very reliable service. Dave Holmes, a listener representative on the Committee is resigning from the Committee, thank you Dave for your support through-out the year.

Through-out the year I have received much appreciated support from Committee Members, especially when I was out of action when Anne Ambler and Lesley Court stepped in and did the work I otherwise should have done. Thank you to both of you and all the members of the Committee.

This coming year should be one of fewer changes and more a case of settling into the new regime. I wish OXTALK another successful year.   Thank you.

Margaret A Simpson CHAIR of OXTALK                       27October 2011

Letter to all OXTALK volunteers

Dear OXTALK volunteer

It is the time of year when I ask you to think ahead to the next year. To help us plan the rotas, which result in the weekly talking newspaper, I have sent you all the ‘Availibilty Sheet for 2012’, which I ask you you to complete and return.

2011 has been a memorable year with the permanent transfer, at the beginning of June, from cassette to flash drive. Listeners confirm that there is a big improvement in quality which is rewarding.

Listeners appreciate the clear, steady delivery of the news items,especially those listeners who have a hearing impairment as well as a visual impairment – reading neither too fast nor too slow.

It is inevitable, there are some volunteers retiring, mainly from the copying teams, but the stability of all teams through-out this year has been pleasing. The retiring copiers will be missed but because the copying process is now much quicker the copying teams will function with 3 members in future.

The Autumn Meeting which includes the AGM, will be held on Thursday 27 October 2011 at 7pm. The venue is Barton Community Centre where there is plenty of free car parking. I am pleased to be able to tell you that following the AGM and refreshments Meg Jones, Senior Social Worker with the Oxfordshire Sensory Impairment Team will be our guest speaker. Following Meg’s presentation there will be a listener led discussion about the sevices for people with a visual impairment – are we, are the Sensory Team, offering a service which meets the needs of the users?

I do hope you will be attending the Autumn Meeting, please let me know. If you are, will you be able to offer a listener a lift to and from the meeting, if the need arises?

2011 has been a satisfying and positive year for OXTALK – I do hope you agree.

Thank you for your continuing support of OXTALK.

Good wishes.

Margaret
CHAIR – OXTALK

Promoting awareness

In March one of our committee members spoke about Oxtalk to around 50 members of Cheney Old Scholars. Further such talks are scheduled for November.

Anyone wanting a visiting speaker should contact Anne on 01865 872628.

Most organisations give a small donation, which helps our funds.

In June two of us teamed up with Oxfordshire Association for the Blind at Thame Library to talk to the public and to promote both their and our services.

Update May 2011

As OXTALK approaches the next phase in its life I thought you might like to receive the news about the future.

On 31 May 2011 the last cassette recording will be made, then copied and posted out. From Tuesday 7 June 2011 the weekly OXTALK news will have become a digital production ONLY. You can hear the Technical Officers sighing with relief!! They have been working hard producing both the cassettes and the flash drives for very many months. A big THANK YOU to all the TOs for despite much hair pulling they have not walked away, it has not been an easy time for them.

For approximately the last 6 months a small group of volunteers have been contacting and visiting the listeners to give them a Sound Orb [the instrument OXTALK has given to every listener so they can listen to the news on the flash drives in the future]. OXTALK had sufficient funds to do this. The volunteer trainers spent time showing the listener, sometimes with a family member or friend, how to use the Sound Orb and we are now confident that all listeners are ready for the change-over. Again a big THANK YOU to this group of volunteers. In the future new referrals to OXTALK will be given a Sound Orb if they have no other means of listening to the news. Some listeners listen to the weekly news on the OXTALK website – something you can do yourself if you wish to, www.oxtalk.org.uk , some listeners have other means of listening to the news.

Recording will be different for the Readers because there will be no side one and side two in future and Copiers copying will be so much quicker.

This change means we have cassette Copying Machines we no longer require and if you know of another Talking News group who have not yet changed to digital and would be interested in buying these machines please ask them to contact me.

Anne Ambler visits many and various groups within the Oxford area giving talks about OXTALK. Perhaps a group you are involved with would be interested in hearing Anne’s talk? To give some variety to her talk Anne wonders whether you have an anecdote or two which you will be willing for her to share with the audience – something funny or something that occurred whilst the recording was being made which could have meant disaster or resulted in the recording not being as professional as it usually is; or did something happen whilst you were copying? For either booking Anne or letting her have your anecdote please email her via mail@oxtalk.org.uk

Neil Stockton, Chair of Radio Cherwell, is looking for hospital ward visitors. To find out more please visit   www.radiocherwell.com/wardvisitor and then follow the links. Neil will be very pleased to hear from you.

A new OXTALK leaflet is being produced as the old one is now out of date!!! Will it be another 32 years before OXTALK has to make changes to the format of the weekly news and type of equipment used or is the IT world now moving on very much faster than this? What will be next?

If you have any suggestions as to how we can improve the OXTALK service please contact me.

Thank you for your continued support of OXTALK, without you the OXTALK Talking News would not be the well received and appreciated organisation it is.

My good wishes to you.

Margaret A Simpson

CHAIR – OXTALK    May 2011

mail@oxtalk.org.uk

Oxtalk’s annual Autumn meeting welcomes guest presenters

At our annual Autumn meeting, held this year on the evening of Thursday 28th October at Barton Comunity Centre, we were delighted to introduce guest presenters from three organisations:

First of all Barry Reeves and Kay Sentance from Artwash outlined the history of their group of artists, who like to paint a picture, but not necessarily in the accepted sense, that they consider reflects the work of a group. Following visits to Oxtalk and to one of the listeners, Brenda Fenner, they had produced the first version of a visual and audio representation of the work of Oxtalk, which they then showed to the meeting. This was met with great interest and produced a request from listeners to visit Oxtalk’s facilities to see what happens there and how recordings are made and produced.

Then Ms Hilary Wheelton, Senior Librarian, Communities & Learning Team, gave a presentation entitled, “What next for libraries?”. Hilary reported on a review she had recently undertaken of library services to the visually impaired, part of which had been a consultation with visually impaired people on how they access information and their leisure reading, and their preferred ways of doing it. A copy of the result of the review is attached to the Minute Book.

In response to a question from Neil Stockton about sighted people using the library’s audio service free of charge, Mike Lewington, who is Chair of the UK Copyright Authority, said that this was the single biggest issue for discussion. The Publishers Association had raised it but there was a long way to go.

Brenda Fenner, a listener, mentioned that she did not like textbooks with synthetic speech but that if it became necessary to do so she would learn how to download them. She mentioned that the RNIB’s Daisy player was a very good machine and that if the reader was too slow it was possible to increase the speed without affecting the voice in any way.

Hilary mentioned that there was presently no charge for the library service but that this situation would be subject to further review.

Lastly, Mr Mike Lewington, Director of Calibre Audio Library, gave a most interesting presentation entitled “Calibre Audiio Library – how we deliver the freedom to read”. Calibre’s mission is to improve the quality of life for people with sight problems or other disabilities who cannot read print by bringing them the pleasure of reading through a free, nationwide postal service of audio books.

Although many people were still using cassettes these would soon cease to be available. Calibre went over to CDs 3-4 years ago, and the industry generally was centred on MP3 technology. USB memory sticks provided one long-term sustainable format and one type of memory stick had been accepted worldwide about two years ago. Streaming through the internet was a viable long-term option and should be available within a year. However, this was not appropriate for everyone and alternative options would always be sought.

Effective from 1 May 2010 there had been a new Copyright Licensing Agency Print Disability Licence which recognises visual impairment as a print disability. Calibre had a licence for all BBC audiobooks but this excluded downloads

Mike mentioned that Guide Dogs for the Blind were investigating a national training standard for volunteers, one aspect of which would be to train volunteers to take a visually impaired person to the library.

Oxtalk Chair’s annual report 2010

Click the link to download the  Chair’s Annual Report. This was presented by Margaret Simpson at the Oxtalk Autumn meeting, which took place at Barton Community Centre on Thursday 28th October 2010.

Oxtalk collaborates with BWBF

We are delighted to announce that the weekly Oxtalk recordings will now also be made available nationwide to users of the Sonata internet radio device provided by the British Wireless for the Blind Fund. For more information about these devices please visit http://www.blind.org.uk/radios_sonata.html.

Screen Reader Training Day for the Visually Impaired

The Oxford Visual Impairment Team are organising a Screen Reader Training Day.

Date:-    25 May 2010

Dance donation for Oxtalk

Pippa Dawson-Goodey, a long-time supporter of Oxtalk, has boosted the charity’s funds by raising money at a Christmas folk dance.  Donations for Oxtalk were collected totalling £72.00 at the dance, and have been used to purchase new digital equipment for listeners.

Margaret Simpson, Chair of Oxtalk, says: “This was a great effort from Pippa and we are very grateful to both her and the dancers for their generous donations.”

Thank you Waitrose shoppers!

A big thank you to all the Waitrose shoppers who are supporters of OXTALK. As a result of being chosen as one of the Headington branch’s charities for December, OXTALK has been allocated the grand sum of £400.

Margaret Simpson, Chair of OXTALK, comments: “We are delighted with the generosity of the shoppers, especially at what can be an expensive time of year, and would also like to thank Waitrose for giving us the opportunity to appear as one of their featured charities. Everyone’s support is much appreciated and the funds have enabled OXTALK to purchase much-needed digital equipment for our listeners.”

Collect tokens for Oxtalk at Waitrose, Headington

During the month of December, Oxtalk has been selected as one of the charities to be featured at Waitrose in Headington. So every time you, your friends and family visit Waitrose during December, please put the token in the Oxtalk box. These tokens are collected at the tills. 

This is such a marvellous opportunity for Oxtalk to receive much needed funds for the purchase of the digital equipment that will be required for Oxtalk listeners.

Good wishes,

Margaret Simpson 

Chair of Oxtalk

OXTALK fundraising at Oxford Castle

Oxtalk party images

For those who did not see the images from last month’s 30th anniversary celebratory party for Oxtalk, here is a selection to give a flavour of the event.

OXTALK AGM

This year’s OXTALK AGM will be held on Thursday 15 October at 7pm at Barton Community Centre. Guests include the Lord Mayor of Oxford, Cllr Mary Clarkson, and Rebecca Turner, Matron of Oxford Eye Hospital.

OXTALK’s Celebratory Party

 On Saturday 18 July 2009, OXTALK celebrated 30 years of service to listeners with a visual impairment living in Oxford City and the local districts.

Muriel Whitrick and Rita Allen, two of the founder members, joined around 80 guests to celebrate this event at OXSRAD Sports Centre in Marston.

Cllr Bob Price, Leader of Oxford City Council, thanked all the past volunteers and Radio Cherwell for the use of their premises, praised the long term support of a much appreciated service and toasted the future of OXTALK.

The OXSRAD Choir, conducted by Olivera Rainbird, entertained the guests with a cheerful and lively programme. The audience were invited to join in singing some of the songs.

Margaret Simpson, the Chairman, says: “ From start to finish it was a happy event. It was so good to have so many of our listeners and volunteers meeting, for many for the first time. The celebration was prepared, and organised on the day, by very supportive members of the OXTALK Committee, and we owe them a very big ‘thank you’. My thanks also to you, the listener, for attending, and to the volunteers, past and present, who support OXTALK – good wishes to the next 30 years!!”

 

 

Countdown to 30-year anniversary celebrations

 

Preparations are continuing for Oxtalk’s 30-year celebration at the OXSRAD Sports Centre in Marston on the afternoon of 18th July 2009 – 30 years to the day of the first meeting to explore the idea of producing an Oxford talking newspaper.
 
Chair of the organisation, Margaret Simpson, is keen to hear from listeners, volunteers and those who has been invloved with Oxtalk over the years who would like to attend the event, at which the Lord Mayor of Oxford will be present and where music will be provided by the OXSRAD choir.
 
Transport could be available for those requiring assistance travelling to and from the venue. Please email mail@oxtalk.org or call 01865 453403 if you would like more details before 25 June 2009.

Oxtalk celebrates 30 years

Margaret Simpson, Chair of Oxtalk, comments: “This is a wonderful landmark celebration in Oxtalk’s history and we are really looking forward to celebrating the achievements of Oxtalk past, present and future. The world has changed signficantly in 30 years but, in many ways, our role for our listeners has changed very little in all that time. Technology may move forward at a pace but we remain with one goal – to keep our members informed of the news in their local area.”

 

Street success

Volunteers took to the streets of Oxford on 27^th September to fundraise for Oxtalk – and the people of Oxford did not disappoint. A total of £410 was collected at a selection of venues around the city: Headington, Summertown and Templars Square, Cowley.

Comments Margaret Simpson, Chair of Oxtalk: “We are extremely grateful for the generous donations received as a result of the recent street collections. To those who contributed – and, of course, to our committed team of volunteers – I would like to extend my warm thanks on behalf of Oxtalk.”

Diamond listeners

Two generous Oxtalk listeners celebrated their Diamond Wedding in August and requested that, instead of gifts, they should receive donations for three charities close to their hearts – one of which is Oxtalk. The anniversary couple, Bill and Jessie Eeley of Witney, have donated £70 to Oxtalk as a result. The donation was accepted by Chair of Oxtalk, Margaret Simpson, on behalf of the organisation.

30th September 2008

audio:20080930.mp3

Oxtalk members’ event

Oxtalk will be holding an event on Sunday 27th April to get together all members involved in bringing the local news to the blind and visually impaired of Oxford. As well as a chance for volunteers to share thoughts and ideas on Oxtalk over some light refreshments, the event will allow members to learn more about the Oxtalk website. There will also be information available on the digital recording process for those interested in learning more. Invitations have now been sent out but if you require further details, please email mail@oxtalk.org.uk.

New leaflets out now!

Oxtalk committee members have been busy distributing new leaflets to alert members of the public to the weekly talking newspaper on offer for the blind and visually impaired of Oxford. By targeting locations such as doctor’s surgeries, opticians and community centres around Oxford, Oxtalk hopes to bring its services to even more people in the local area. If you have a location in mind where people might benefit from having these leaflets available, please email mail@oxtalk.org.uk and we will do our best to supply a batch for you. To view the leaflet, please click on the following link.

Oxtalk new leaflet

New Chairman

Margaret Simpson, a longstanding contributor and supporter of talking news in Oxfordshire, has been elected Chairman of Oxtalk by members attending the charity’s AGM in Oxford on 19th October; she takes the baton from Graham Piercy, who has held the position for the last year.

Margaret comments: “Graham and the Oxtalk team have worked incredibly hard over the last year to propel Oxtalk into the 21st century. I intend to carry on that good work and am looking forward to the challenges that the role of Chairman will bring. We have a strong team and, through good communication and a shared desire to deliver the best quality audio product possible to our listeners, we hope to continue to have a very positive impact on the lives of those with visual impairments in our community.”

New committee members who were also elected at the latest AGM include Ray Anson, Una Dean and Christine Moir.

Fundraising success

Many thanks to members collecting on behalf of Oxtalk who turned out once again onto the streets of Oxford on Saturday 22 September. Generous donations were collected from residents of the city centre as well as the Summertown and Headington areas. The total figure raised was £354 – many thanks to all our supporters!

Swinford Toll Bridge Collection

Swinford Toll Bridge Collection

A number of hardy committee members and volunteers braved inclement weather to man the Swinford Toll Bridge at Eynsham on Bank Holiday Monday, 7th May. The bridge owners allow charities such as Oxtalk to take over the bridge on bank holidays and this year we got lucky and were picked from amongst the many applications the bridge receives. We put up huge signs on the bridge approaches telling everyone it was a charity collection day and who we were, and also festooned the bridge with balloons to give the day a festive air.

Our strategy seemed to work, with most people digging out their loose change and giving us well over the obligatory 5p they have to pay. Our bright orange buckets filled very quickly with cash and we had to keep hurrying back to the toll house office to empty them when they became too heavy!! By the time we all left the bridge at around 7pm we had truly collected bucket loads of money and so that night the task of counting it all started. Four days later we had a final tally – £1,625!!!! None of us could believe it, but it will be put to very good use as we start to build our technology-change warchest in anticipation of some significant expenditure to come.

Finally another big thank you from me to all of those who came along to help out on the day.

Graham Piercy

Chairman

Chairman’s newsletter

Spring 2007 letter from the Chairman

Dear volunteers

It is a great pleasure to write to you all with news from both the Oxtalk Committee and myself in this ‘Spring newsletter’. Let me start by reiterating my words from the AGM last October: our organisation is very healthy and remains very good at what it does best; delivering local talking news to the blind and visually impaired of Oxford and its environs. For this I must thank you all for the key roles you play in our delivery ‘system’. As a part of the overall Oxtalk team, and also part of one of our specialist sub-teams, you all play a vital role in getting the news from the printed page, onto the tapes, and then into the hands of our listeners. Week in and week out. And we know from the questionnaires we sent out last year just how much our weekly deliveries are appreciated. So thank you again on behalf both of the committee and our listeners. We do, however, have some challenges ahead that will test us. The main one is to respond to the new digital revolution and to prepare ourselves in 2007 for the eventual move from old-fashioned audiotapes to new digital media. With this in mind the committee is working hard to identify what new media are being used by other talking newspapers and talking books (CDs, MP3 files, thumb-drives etc etc) and to draw up a technology transfer strategy for the future for Oxtalk. Wish us luck!! Meantime, however, we are taking the brave new step of putting Oxtalk on the internet in the form of an Oxtalk website. This will provide information and news on Oxtalk and has been designed to be easy to use for both sighted people and visually impaired people and blind people (via screen readers). We are currently populating it with information and pictures prior to its public ‘launch’, but if you would like to watch it grow, then do log onto www.oxtalk.org.uk. Ultimately we intend to use the website as one of our talking-news delivery channels by putting our weekly digital news recording file on the site and allowing people to click on it and hear the news. This is a little way off yet, however, and will be part of our overall digital delivery plan for Oxtalk.

Our shift to digital technology for delivering our news will come at a cost, however, and one of our objectives for 2007 is to build our finances to make sure that we can fund the move when it eventually happens. We are applying for grants as and when we are able to and sometimes we are lucky and sometimes not. However one tried and tested fund-raising route for us over the years has been street-collections and this year we have three collections booked as follows:

7th May, 7am-9pm – Swinford Toll Bridge, Eynsham

16th June, 9am-5pm, Westgate Centre (outside Sainsburys)

22nd September, 9am-5pm, city-wide street collection (usually town-centre, Summertown, Headington)

We are always short of people to rattle tins (or collect 5ps in the case of the toll bridge) so please, if you are available for an hour or two on any one of these days, please contact me and I’ll put you on our rota at a time to suit you. Please do look in your diaries for May 7th (Bank-holiday Monday) in particular as we really do need as many people as we can collecting on the bridge that day, and fully expect to enjoy ourselves as we do so.

Finally I hope you have noticed our new-look logo at the top of the page. The committee decided that as we are developing a website to publicise our work, our old and rather dated logo could also do with a fresh treatment. I hope you like it and agree that it reflects simply what we do; transforming lines of text on the page into sound waves for the visually impaired. That’s all I have for the moment, I will be back in touch later in the year. Meantime do let me know if you can help on the 7th May, or indeed on one of our other collection dates. Most important of all though, a big thankyou once again from the committee for the dedication and support that you already provide, and for being an ‘Oxtalk volunteer’. Kind regards Graham Piercy Chairman, Oxtalk

Street Collections

Collections 2007

This year we have three collections booked as follows:

7th May, 7am-9pm – Swinford Toll Bridge, Eynsham – please see our web news archive for an update on the success of this collection!

16th June, 9am-5pm, Westgate Centre (outside Sainsburys)

22nd September, 9am-5pm, city-wide street collection (usually town-centre, Summertown, Headington)

Volunteers who are available for an hour or two on any of these days, please contact Chairman Graham Piercy (01865 401336), who will add you to the rota.

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