For five decades, a dedicated team of volunteers has made sure that losing your sight never means losing touch with your community. This week, the Barking and Dagenham Talking Newspaper (BDTN) celebrated its 50th anniversary – a golden milestone for a service that has kept blind and partially sighted residents connected to local life since 1976.
The service was founded in 1976 by Annemarie Bishop, a lecturer at Barking College, with a simple but powerful idea: record the week’s local news onto audio so that people who cannot read the printed page could still keep up with what is happening on their doorstep. Half a century later, that mission is unchanged. Led by president Iris Jameson and chairperson John Blake, volunteers continue to record weekly audio editions of the Barking & Dagenham Post alongside a monthly audio magazine.
The golden anniversary is also a reminder of how much community organisations like BDTN rely on people power. Behind every edition are readers, editors and producers who turn up week after week, unpaid, to make sure no one is left out of the conversation. As the service looks ahead to its next fifty years, its message to the borough is simple: there is always room for one more voice.
The anniversary was marked with a special celebration at Dagenham Library on Wednesday, October 14, where volunteers past and present gathered to reflect on five decades of service. Among the guests was the Mayor of Barking and Dagenham, Councillor Manzoor Hussain, who praised the volunteers’ dedication, saying it had ensured that generations of residents could continue to access local news and feel connected to their community.
Certificates of achievement were presented to volunteers during the event, honouring the voices that have kept the service running year after year. One of the day’s most touching moments came when Diane, from the VIPERS social group, presented a framed plaque made from Scrabble tiles – a fitting tribute to an organisation built on the power of words.
For its listeners, the talking newspaper is about far more than headlines. For many visually impaired residents, particularly those who live alone, the weekly recordings are a familiar voice and a vital link to the borough’s daily life. Each edition brings them the stories that matter locally – from new community projects and school achievements to local businesses winning national recognition, such as the Dagenham takeaway crowned the country’s best at the curry awards, and borough-wide celebrations like the first-ever London Cycling Festival rolling into Barking town centre.
The service covers the length and breadth of the borough, and week after week its volunteers give their time to read, record and produce the audio editions that are distributed to listeners. The technology may have changed over five decades, but the heart of the service has stayed the same: neighbours reading the news for neighbours.
Like many community organisations, BDTN depends on the goodwill of volunteers and the generosity of donors to keep going. Recording equipment, production and distribution all cost money, and the service is always keen to welcome new readers and supporters to help carry the work into its next chapter.
Organisers say anyone interested in volunteering – whether behind the microphone or in a supporting role – is warmly encouraged to get in touch. The service can be contacted by email at bdtn@hotmail.co.uk, and donations from the local community are always gratefully received.
Talking newspapers have long been a lifeline for visually impaired people across the country, offering independence, information and companionship to those who might otherwise feel cut off from the world around them. As the Barking and Dagenham service enters its sixth decade, its volunteers show no sign of slowing down – and its listeners, tuning in week after week, would not have it any other way.
