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Amy Houck
WHRO Public Media
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WHRO Voice to Read Local Newspapers to Visually Impaired During Pandemic

NORFOLK - For nearly 30 years, The WHRO Voice has provided audio reading services for individuals who are blind, have low vision or difficulty reading standard printed material due to disability. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WHRO Voice was suspended but has now returned.  More than a dozen WHRO Voice volunteers with home recording capability are now producing a daily midweek program reading local highlights from area newspapers including The Virginian Pilot, The Daily Press, The Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg) and the Eastern Shore Post. The program, called The WHRO Voice Local Newsstand, is broadcast on The WHRO Voice Monday through Friday beginning at 1:00 p.m. and can be heard on specially modified radios provided to listeners as well as on smart speakers such as Amazon Echo.  The new program is also available each day “on demand” for 24 hours at whro.org/voice. 

“We hope the addition of this special program will reconnect vision impaired and print-handicapped listeners in eastern Virginia with important local news from their community newspapers,” said Bert Schmidt, president and CEO of WHRO Public Media.  

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About WHRO Public Media

Owned by 21 Eastern Virginia school divisions, WHRO Public Media also delivers online educational and new media services to 286,000 students and 25,000 educators per month. WHRO’s digital course offerings and resources including eMediaVA are available free to all:  https://digitallearning.whro.org/.  Since its founding in 1961 to support education, WHRO Public Media has employed creativity and technology to serve the residents of Eastern Virginia in its mission to educate, inform and entertain viewers and listeners of WHRO’s four public television and six public radio stations. “VA TV Classroom” can be viewed on WHRO World which broadcasts to all homes in Eastern Virginia and is available over-the-air at Channel 15.2. It is also available on Cox 107 and Verizon FiOS 360. More information, visit whro.org.