RADIO FOR BLIND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 361, 23 May 1928, Page 14

RADIO FOR BLIND

JUBILEE INSTITUTE’S SCHEME Blind people, pathetically dependent on outside help to keep them in touch with the world are being granted the boon ot wireless sets for their homes. Already about 100 radio sets have been provided for the blind in New Zealand, and a number of the sets are working in Auckland. The Jubilee Institute has decided to make grants of £5 out of the Sir Arthur Pearson Memorial' fund to approved applicants, who are expected to add the balance of money themselves if they require more expensive apparatus. In some instances the £5 has been spent on materials and the sets have been made by mechanicallyminded friends of the afflicted. One man, who has had a set installed, said he was thrilled on Saturday with the account of a football match over the air. Previously, he had often gone to matches and had .the game described by a friend, but this was not nearly as good as the radio announcement. Now he could follow the news of the day, without asking someone to read the newspaper aloud, and he could keep in touch with music without leaving his home. Mr. Clutha Mackenzie explained today that the trustees of the fund had agreed that wireless would help the blind to be much more independent. The sets were being obtained at wholesale terms and the institute had been able to arrange with the Government that no licence fee would be charged to the blind who were the heads of households. “There are 650 blind people in New Zealand,” said Mr. Mackenzie, “and of these omy 110 were at the institute. The scheme is to provide as many as possible of the 540 outside with the money for sets.” “We are sure that radio will give them access to a lot of pleasure without troubling other people,” he said.