International business entrepreneur Therese Rein has spoken out in support of the work of volunteers who bring the written word daily to vision and ‘print impaired’ listeners on 2RPH.
The wife of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd personally attended the studios of Radio 2RPH recently to do a ‘guest read’ to a listening audience stretching from the greater Sydney region north to Newcastle.
She was introduced by 2RPH chair, blind law Professor Ron McCallum fresh from his Geneva appointment as chair of the UN committee overseeing the Convention on the Rights of People with a Disability.
ABC TV current affairs presenter Kerry O’Brien interviewed Ms Rein for the 7:30 Report on location at Glebe telling his national audience, “There are hundreds of volunteers who deliver the newspapers daily via the airwaves to those who can’t read for themselves and today Therese Rein has added her name to the mix.”
Ms Rein told him that being at Radio 2RPH was a great opportunity to be able to draw attention to the great work of the volunteers and the radio station caring for the needs of people with disabilities.
Retired physiotherapist Patricia Gleeson, who was blinded in a childhood accident, told the 7:30 Report she relied on 2RPH to deliver daily her in-depth news and currents affairs.
“Well, it’s the detail I think,” she said. “You get more detail in the editorial and also some of the magazines. I like to listen to the Women’s Weekly.”
Prof McCallum told O’Brien that 2RPH’s day-to-day operations were largely financially reliant on federal and state government grants and private benefactors.
There are more than 600,000 people in Sydney who have difficulty seeing, handling, or understanding printed material. They include people with impaired vision or physical disabilities arising from strokes, arthritis, cerebral palsy and other illnesses.
Radio 2RPH provides these people with the opportunity to know what’s in the daily newspapers or in magazines and books – and they can access all this information simply by switching on their radio.
A growing market exists also for teaching written comprehension to students of English as a second language.
The station is currently gearing up for a major business sponsorship drive in 2010 to assist with the expansion of its news reading service into Newcastle and its planned expansion to Wollongong.
Radio 2RPH is broadcasts on FM 100.5 and AM 1224.