Valley Voice assists visually-impaired persons

Many persons in the vision-impaired population in the Shenandoah Valley can thank Valley Voice for having access to local news.

About 20 years ago, vision-impaired persons were expressing wishes to read and stay abreast of local news. Since, however, most news was in the print form, Valley Voice was formed to remedy that need.

Located in Anthony-Seeger Hall at James Madison University, they broadcast daily news, reading news sources live. Other items that are read are magazines, which are recorded by volunteers and later broadcast over the radio.

"If people who would like to use our service have cable, all they have to do it tune into a particular city span channel, channel 3," said Rob Munro, director of fundraising. There is a radio down at city hall that picks up the frequency broadcast by Valley Voice and broadcasts the signal over cable television.

This help from city hall makes the service available to a far larger population than if Valley Voice used strictly radio. "There aren't that many frequencies in the valley," said Munro.

"It is also very expensive to own and operate a radio station, and frankly, we just don't have the money to do that."

Valley Voice operates with the assistance of exciting station WMRA. "We wouldn't be here without support from JMU and WMRA," said Munro. "They provide everything: rent, lights, power: we're a small part of our radio station." The money provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia goes towards the salaries of the two paid employees of Valley Voice, Munro and Terry Ward, program director. Grants and donations pay for production costs.

Listeners who don't have access to cable have to be given a custom-made radio tuned to a specific frequency. These radios cost about $75 apiece and they have to be placed in the listener's house, thereby limiting the numbers of listeners. Munro estimated that there are about 12,500 persons in the valley who could use the service, but that only 7,500 are being served, (estimating by the recent census and the average number of visually impaired persons in the general population).

These estimated 7,500 persons are being served by the cable network. However, Valley Voice isn't entirely sure about exactly how many people they are reaching and if their service may be improved in any way. "That's the one drawback about cable broadcasting," said Munro. "We can't prove how many people are listening or find out how we're doing. It costs the same amount for us to broadcast over cable to one or 1000 people. That's why we want to know."

"We wish that we could find out what effect we're having on people's lives," said Munro. "More testimonials are always better. That way the donors can know what they're donating to."

Persons interested in volunteering can contact Valley Voice by e-mailing valleyvoice@jmu.edu. "We can explore options," said Munro. More information can be found at www.valleyvoice.org.