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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Saturday, December 13, 2003

EDITORIAL
Talking newspapers should stick around

Newspapers are addictive: If you don't believe us, just watch how agitated your neighbors become when the morning paper is missing from the doorstep.

But being a news junkie is a lot more complicated for the blind and partially sighted. After all, Braille newspapers aren't exactly filling the racks.

Which is why we applaud the reinstatement of Newsline, a national program in which subscribers can use a touch-tone phone to hear audio editions of a variety of newspapers, from the Wall Street Journal and USA Today to The Sacramento Bee and The Honolulu Advertiser.

Essentially, Newsline, the brainchild of the National Federation of the Blind, provides this service by converting digital text into computer speech. Users typically make a toll-free call and punch in their identification number. From a menu, they can pick a paper, and the section and stories they're interested in.

Aware that federal money for Newsline was due to expire in March, the state Legislature this year passed a bill to pay for the Newsline service locally. However, the measure was among some 50 bills vetoed by Gov. Linda Lingle.

Now, thanks to financing from the Trimble Foundation, whose asset manager is state Sen. Gordon Trimble, that blackout is ending. Newsline will resume its Hawai'i service in January, and it should last at least six months.

Hopefully donations will allow it to run beyond that period. It's hardly fair to take it away once users have made it part of their day. Take this quote from a Massachusetts subscriber after Newsline was cut off in his state when federal money ran out:

"Every day I listened to those papers religiously. I devoured that thing. I felt like a human being. I could talk to my colleagues."

That should give a sense of how isolated folks feel when they cannot access the daily newspaper. Let's keep this valuable service going for as long as we can.