70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE ROYAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND'S TALKING BOOKS

EDM number 963 in 2005-06, proposed by Annette Brooke on 08/11/2005.

That this House congratulates the Royal National Institute for the Blind's (RNIB) Talking Books service on its 70th anniversary; commends the fact that since 1935 when the first talking books were issued, the RNIB has sent out over 75 million audio books to over two million people with sight problems; notes that the service contains over 10,000 titles, making it one of the largest collection of unabridged books in the world; recognises that talking books were developed in the years after World War I in response to the thousands of soldiers blinded in action; acknowledges that the service has grown and changed in response to the needs of users, and that talking books are now issued on CD and read on players specially designed for ease of use by people with sight and dexterity problems; welcomes the RNIB's new Give the Joy of Reading Appeal to raise funds to expand the Talking Books service; supports its existing Right to Read campaign which highlights the fact that a shocking 96 per cent. of books published in the UK are not made available in audio, large print or Braille formats; and calls on the Government to take responsibility for making more books available, as in other countries.

This motion has been signed by a total of 79 MPs.