  |
 Winners of the Queen's Award 2005 |
REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 273819 |
To Change Background |
Choose a Colour |
|
HOME
ABOUT
CONTACT
HISTORY
COURSES
Download
Web Shop
LINKS
ABOUT THE DTN and Dacorum
Maintenance of our equipment costs between £1,000 and £1,500 each year. We have over 80 volunteers. The service is free, as is the postage to any visually impaired person. The charity is almost entirely dependent on voluntary donations. It has no
permanent sponsorship from any local authority or industry.
The DACORUM TALKING NEWSPAPER is a Registered charity (Number 273819) and is distributed in the Dacorum area.
Donations are always very welcome and we are grateful for any we recieve.
Any individual tax payer making a donation to the DTN could also donate part of his income tax to us. For details click
here
for a gift aid form.
The name 'Dacorum' comes from the "Hundred of Dacorum" one of the ancient administrative units of Hertfordshire.
It is probably a latinised version of the Anglo Saxon word for Danish. In October 1984 the Council was granted borough status and became Dacorum Borough Council.
Dacorum covers 81 square miles of West Hertfordshire where it borders with Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It extends Northwest almost from Watford, along the valleys of the Gade and Bulbourne rivers to the picturesque Chiltern Hills.
Dacorum consists of four main towns - Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and Kings Langley together with many outlying rural villages such as Aldbury, Wigginton and Flamstead. The total population is around 138,000 of which 81,000 people live in Hemel Hempstead, 15,000 in Berkhamsted, 11,000 in Tring and around 6,000 in Kings Langley.
The main lines of communication through the Borough are the A41 trunk road; the Euston to Glasgow (West Coast main line) railway and the Grand Union Canal. The M1 runs down the eastern boundary and the M25 crosses the south-eastern tip of the Borough.
How the DTN Works
On Saturday mornings a plastic pouch drops on to the doormat of visually impaired citizens in Dacorum. The Dacorum Talking Newspaper has arrived, giving an hour of audio news to those unable to read the local paper. From its early days in 1977 it has grown to a much used community resource. It is now produced weekly and has a circulation of about 250.
Additionally, a quarterly magazine is issued, giving listeners more in depth information and articles than is possible on the weekly audio news. New listeners receive an introductory tape which includes the history of the Dacorum Talking Newspaper, and an information tape to be retained for reference. This includes (in alphabetical order) details of the majority of local services and amenities, such as Dial a Ride, Social Services, etc.
Saturday's edition includes news from the current week's local papers, together with an information slot, which has up to date items for the visually impaired, what's on in entertainment, obituary notices and lighting up times.
All this is achieved by the well tried but unrivalled process of teamwork or, in our case, the work of several teams. There are production and editorial teams who work on a five week rota.
On Thursday mornings, three of the production team arrive at the Social Centre for the Blind to deal with the 250 returned newspapers. Pouches are opened and checked to see if any cassettes contain a message from a listener (indicated by an elastic band). After rewinding or tightening up any loose tapes, they are collated into alphabetical order, checked against the register, and stacked in readiness for the Friday morning team.
Thursday evening sees the reading team gather - four newsreaders, a recording technician, and a duty editor. The editor has culled the early editions of local papers and shaped them into an hour-long programme. As the items are read they are recorded on to a master digital copy on a computer. Overnight the digital version of the weekly paper is sent to the DTN web site. On Friday morning, another three volunteers produce 250 copies from the computer master to both cassettes and audio CDs, mark them against the register, put them into labelled pouches and then into a Royal Mail sack for delivery to the local Post Office.
If you would like to receive the Dacorum Talking Newspaper on tape cassette or CD please contact us here .