Newsline in Connecticut

The National Federation of the Blind
of Connecticut
Newsline for the Blind Network

Greetings, friends, and thank you for your interest in the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut. We in the Federation are dedicated to making the prospects of security, equality and opportunity nothing short of reality for all blind people in Connecticut and across the nation. One of the largest hurdles blind people have had to contend with has been the acquisition of information readily available to those with sight. Among sources that have been difficult or impossible to access are newspapers. While it is true that radio reading services have attempted to address this problem, they have never been able to offer the listener the exact information that the listener wanted at the exact time that the listener wanted it. A blind person would have to listen to what was being read by the radio reader, and if one wanted to hear some-thing else from the newspaper, all he or she could do would be to tune in at a different time. All in all, blind people had very little control over what they heard, and essentially they could not access newspaper information that they wanted on demand and in a timely fashion.

It is our pleasure to tell you that, thanks to the National Federation of the Blind, these days are at an end. Newsline is now available in the Greater Hartford and Stamford calling area as a local call. Outside these calling areas Newsline is available at normal long distance charges. Our long term goal is to provide the service throughout Connecticut as a local call.

What Is Newsline?

Newsline is an on-demand newspaper service which allows blind people to hear the text of newspaper articles over the telephone. It is a nationwide newspaper service for the blind and uses telephone lines and digitized voice synthesizer systems to provide blind and visually impaired people daily access to a variety of newspapers. Such timely access to the daily newspaper has never before been available to the blind. Papers currently on-line in Hartford include The Hartford Courant, USA Today, The New York Times and The Washington Post. The Stamford area Newsline offers USA Today, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and The Stamford Advocate should soon be available. The service will be accessible 24 hours a day, and blind people can able to listen to whatever articles they wish in any order at any time. We are now able to choose articles for ourselves based on our own particular interests and needs, the same way that any person with sight uses a printed newspaper.

Newsline enables blind individuals throughout the state to gain access to information in newspapers in the same time frame as their fully sighted colleagues, friends and family members - everything from stock quotes, business trends and syndicated columns to human interest stories, sports information and much more.

Because the speech is generated from the electronic files used to publish the newspapers, the service can be made available at 6:30 each morning. Initially, The Hartford Courant will be available later in the day. For the same reason, the entire paper (rather than selected articles) will be used.

How You Can Get Signed Up For Newsline

Call our community outreach office in East Hartford at 289-1971 to obtain a simple application form. After you complete the form and return it to our office you will be assigned an identification number and a security code. Then you’ll be able to call the Newsline number and enjoy the daily paper.

Newsline Application

List of Donors

The Connecticut Local Service Centers for Newsline have been made available through generous grants from:

Times Mirror Foundation
National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut
Angelina McGillivray
The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Elders Council
The Greater Hartford Jaycees
The Eugene G. & Margaret M. Blackford Memorial Fund
The John A. Coccomo, Sr. Foundation
United Technologies Corporation
Newman's Own
IBM Credit Corporation
Kaman Corporation
Greater Waterbury Area Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut
Telephone Pioneers of America
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Greater Hartford Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut
Stamford Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut
Connecticut Institute for the Blind
South Windsor Lions Club
Southington Lions Club
Danbury Area Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut
Canton Lions Club
Computer Works, Inc.
Avon Lions Club
Watertown Lions Club
and, by many contributions from the public.

And, a special thanks goes to the United Way in Stamford for housing our Newsline equipment for that area.

A Little More Detail

Each morning people everywhere pick up a newspaper and read it over a cup of coffee. They do so unless they are among the approximately 61,000 blind and visually impaired people in Connecticut. The National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut, a nonprofit organization composed primarily of blind people, has ended this exclusion.

On September 1, 1994, a pilot project was initiated in the Baltimore/Washington area to test this concept. Using software we have developed, the full text of USA Today was converted into a readable form for synthetic speech. Response to the project has been overwhelming.

We of the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut are blind people working to help ourselves. We have procured funding to make Newsline available in the Greater Hartford and Stamford calling areas as a local call. Outside these calling areas, Newsline is available at normal long distance charges. Currently, we are seeking funds to bring Newsline to our entire state with no telephone charges. The inability to read a newspaper has been the cause of frustration and isolation for blind people until now. You can help bring newspapers to blind people in Connecticut. We look forward to your financial and moral support. Thank you for your interest in our web site and learning more about Newsline.