the news and information service for those in the UK who live with sight loss

There are several ways that we offer our various news and information services about living with sight loss:

How to Listen to Audio on this Web Site.

There are three types of links on this site for playing or downloading audio content:

Play Audio
Left click (or use the keyboard equivalent) on any 'play' link. The audio should start to play almost immediately (any delay depends on the speed of your internet connection and the processing power of your computer).

Download Audio
Left click (or use the keyboard equivalent) on any 'download' link. You should be offered the following options:
Open: select this option and, after a short pause, the audio should start playing.
Save: select this option and then choose the location within your computer where you want the file to be saved. Select 'Save' within this window to start the download to your chosen location in your computer.
Alternatively - especially if your media player starts playing the audio automatically - right click (or use the keyboard equivalent) on the 'download' link and then select 'save target as' (in Explorer) or 'save link as' (in Firefox).
Cancel: select this option to neither play nor download the audio.

Play/download Audio
This behaves identically to a 'download' link, offering you the option to either 'open' (play straight away) or 'save' (download and save into your computer).

• Infosound Select.
  Individual items can be played straight away or downloaded into your computer. Once downloaded, items can be transferred to any mp3 audio player.
  Items are available on this web site at:
  www.infosound.org.uk/select
  and on the Sonata Internet audio player and in our podcast (feed URL:
  http://www.infosound.org.uk/podcast.xml)
  just as soon as they have been produced.
   
• Infosound Briefing.
  The latest weekly Briefing feature can be played straight away or downloaded into your computer. Once downloaded, it can be transferred to any mp3 audio player.
  The audio feature is available on this web site at:
  www.infosound.org.uk/briefing.
  It can also be accessed via a generic 'permalink', which is:
  www.infosound.org.uk/infosound_briefing.mp3.
   
• Infosound Despatch.
  The free monthly, non-returnable, standard audio CD can be played on most CD, DVD, talking book and mp3 disc players.
  CDs are posted direct to individual blind and partially-sighted people who request the service.
  The CD audio can also be played and downloaded on this web site at:
  www.infosound.org.uk/despatch.

Other outlets for Infosound audio material:

• Talking Newspapers/Magazines and Radio Stations. There are over 500 local talking newspaper and magazine groups across the UK and a fair number of them carry our audio features as part of their mix of local news and information. Details of your nearest talking newspaper/magazine group are available from the Talking News Federation.
  Some local, community and hospital radio stations also broadcast our information in audio to their listeners, as does RNIB's Insight Radio, Europe's first radio station for blind and partially-sighted people.
   
• Internet Radio and Audio Services. British Wireless for the Blind Fund runs its own Internet audio service, specifically for blind and partially-sighted people, opening up access to thousands of different sources of news, information and entertainment. All our current individual Select audio items can be heard in this way just as soon as they have been produced. The equipment needed to pick up all available Internet radio services (which does not involve using a computer) is available to buy from British Wireless for the Blind Fund and, in some cases, it can be provided on free permanent loan.
   
• Mobile Phone. The easiest way to to listen to everything we produce on a mobile phone is to access our podcast on your phone's Internet browser. The URL of our podcast is http://www.infosound.org.uk/podcast.xml, which can be saved in your 'bookmarks' or 'favorites' for easy access. When viewing our podcast in your browser, it should list all our current audio features, which can be heard by selecting the embedded audio with each individual item. Impartial advice about suitable software for making mobile phones accessible with text-to-speech or magnification software is available from RNIB's High Tech Sales and Support team at ict@rnib.org.uk.

We also like to keep those who are interested up-to-date with what we're doing by posting short text messages on Twitter. It's an informal way to let you know what we're doing and to highlight interesting information that we've come across. Our messages can be read by accessing the following link: http://twitter.com/Infosound.

And we've produced a short audio trail to promote what we offer on YouTube to promote how we spread news and information for vision-impaired people, their families, friends and carers.