In Touch - 15/12/2009

The Intel Reader is a new high-tech device to help visually-impaired people access printed material. It is a portable machine, about the size of a paperback book, weighing roughly a pound. A small camera takes an image of the item to be read and electronically turns this into digital form. The text is then displayed on a small television-like monitor or read to the user by way of synthetic speech. Lee Kumutat travels to Coventry to meet Karina Gregory, the third job-seeker who volunteered to share their experiences with the In Touch audience. Karina has just landed a job and talked to Lee about the difficulties she faced beforehand. The main problem was that, as a blind person, she was unable to get work experience to put her on the first rung of the employment ladder. Lee says that in Australia they have a scheme which is similar to work experience and allows disabled people to do paid work in order to give them experience of work before they apply to a job. Mani Djazmi also updates us on three key stories: the Action for Blind People Centre in Carlisle, the RNC new principal Geoff Draper agrees to appear on the programme in the new year, and, since it trialled being a 'silent' station, Birmingham New Street has reintroduced announcements for departing trains.