While many of us may take so much for granted, for the blind and partially sighted some simple things, such as leafing through a newspaper, can be impossible. But, thanks to the dedication of one volunteer, the visually impaired can now enjoy the pleasures of 'reading' about current events in our Island community.

David Powell has always one of those well-modulated, pleasant-to-listen-to voices that might be described as “BBC with charm”. Many years ago, it got him a part in the ‘Crunch and Des' television series, and later a job at ZBM. Today, it is the voice of Talking Newspapers, a free monthly service which allows the sight-impaired to catch up on interesting articles culled from the print media via tape.

Although, some years ago, Mr. Powell was one of a group of readers helping to tape the monthly editions, today he is not only the sole voice but also runs the entire operation himself - thanks to a chance meeting with the then-organiser, Mrs. Jean Kelly. Due to her husband's ill-health, she found the responsibilities too onerous to carry on and asked Mr. Powell if he knew anyone who could take over.

“I don't know what made me say ‘yes' but I did, and I took it over lock, stock and barrel,” he says.

Not many people realise just what work goes into making Talking Newspapers a success, and whereas the service formerly ran with the help of various pairs of hands, Mr. Powell is unfazed that all of the responsibility now rests in his hands. In fact, he prefers it that way.

“There is a secret weapon to all of this,” he says. “Jean passed on to me the most wonderful machine. There is no short cut to sitting down and recording a 90-minute tape, which can take the better part of a day, but once you have the master tape, without this machine you would have to make 100 copies one at a time. This machine, however, makes three at a time in six minutes. It takes me a day to make the tape, and another day to make the copies.”

Even so, despite the smoothness of today's operation, Mr. Powell admits that, when he first began recording two and a half years ago, it was “an awful battle”.

“I would save a month's worth of newspapers and sit down with this great stack in front of me and waste a lot of time,” he says. “Now I have a great weapon: my wife Penelope. She reads the paper from cover to cover every day, so she is commissioned to select articles. We have been doing this for several months now and she is extremely good at it. She circles what I am supposed to read and deletes what I am not. It is an absolutely enormous help.”

Faced with more material than time to fit it onto a tape, and bearing in mind the great diversity of listeners, Mr. Powell has to be selective, so he has a general formula by which items are chosen, bearing in mind, too, that the content is up to a month old when recorded.

“I try to avoid direct news, politics, sport - things that listeners are going to get plenty of on radio and TV,” he says. “I go heavily for human interest, environment, letters to the editor...and I always try to be upbeat. I don't like listening to other people's complaints, and I don't pass them on to my little group. I try to keep it personal, and maintain continuity.”

And speaking of continuity, every tape has three constants: 1. A description of the weather as he records. 2. Progress reports on a neighbour's ongoing construction project. 3. News (and barks) of the Powell's two border collies, Mac and Becks, both of whom are in attendance as he records.

“Becks was rescued from the SPCA and is a real gem, an absolute beauty, and Mac is incredibly smart,” Mr. Powell says. “I used to erase any sounds they made, but now I leave them in.”

So, in a sense, the doggy duo have become pets of Talking Newspaper subscribers too, who look forward to snippets of their pampered existence.

Although the number of actual listeners is unknown because the tapes are not only despatched to individuals but also to seniors' residences, nursing homes, the KEMH Extended Care unit, as well as the National Library, Mr. Powell mails out 100 tapes every month. Again thanks to Mrs. Kelly's efficiency, special resealable pouches with address “windows”, are imported from Talking Newspapers in Britain, and these allow the tapes to be mailed safely. A two-sided card with the recipient's address on one side and Talking Newspapers' address on the other facilitates two-way mailing in the same pouch - at least in theory.

Incredibly, despite there being no charge for the service, there are recipients who don't return the tapes to Mr. Powell for re-use, despite requests to do so, and even though there is no postage required.

“It is the institutions I am surprised at sometimes,” Mr. Powell says. “They are not good at returning things. I send tapes to seniors' residences, usually to a head nurse, who I like to think will be responsible for returning the tapes, but sometimes they need a reminder.”

While he admits that he “likes things returned” as a matter of form, the reality is that Mr. Powell runs the entire Talking Newspapers operation at his own expense, and that includes the purchase of tapes. Only the postage is waived, thanks to the generosity of the Postmaster General. He therefore keeps track of “the bad guys” and does amend his mailing list when warranted.

Meanwhile, the voice behind the articles continues to enjoy bringing a sampling of local “doings” into the residences of the visually impaired.

“It is something that I get a lot of satisfaction out of,” Mr. Powell says. “It's not an ego thing, but just something that triggered this response in me that I can't identify when Jean Kelly was looking for someone to take over. I love it, and I have never regretted it. It's my ‘baby' and I get quite a kick out of it. I've been around to the seniors' homes to meet some of my listeners, and I also get the occasional note stuck in with the returned tape saying ‘Thank you very much. We did enjoy your tapes', which is quite an achievement for the visually impaired person even to write a note.”

•For further information or to join the mailing list write to: Talking Newspapers, P.O. Box SN 696, Southampton SN02 or ( 238-8761.