The Hull and District Talking Magazine is a registered charity that was formed in 1978 with the object of providing recordings of local and general interest for those members of the community who, because of some disability, find reading to be a strain or impossible.

The Talking Magazine produces a fortnightly talking newspaper/magazine of news and feature articles, taken mainly from the local papers in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire. Anyone who is unable to read a newspaper due to sight problems or other disability can receive the Talking Magazine. We currently send out, free of charge, each edition to over 200 people.

As from April 2009, we started recording on to USB flash drives (memory sticks) for 40 of our listeners. This pilot exercise was a great success, so from December 2009, this method of recording was extended to all our listeners. Special USB Players are issued to those listeners who need them.

Registered Blind and Partially-sighted people qualify immediately, and can enrol with little formality. Other partially-sighted people qualify if they have N12 vision or worse, and a certificate is given to this effect by a doctor, optician or other qualified person. This certificate is needed to comply with Post Office regulations to enable the 'FREE POST - Articles for the Blind' facility to be extended to the person wishing to receive the Talking Magazine.

We have about 20 volunteers who all give their time freely to produce the magazine. We work from our own studio at 25 Portland Street, Hull, HU2 8JX.

We rely totally on donations, as we are a small charity and receive no formal funding, every contribution helps towards us providing our service for local visually impaired people. Please visit our JustGiving page to make a donation.

If you know of anyone, regardless of where they live in the UK, who may benefit from our service, or if you are local to the Hull area and would like to be a volunteer, please print out the appropriate application form, fill it in, then send it back to us:

Check out this video created by one of our volunteers: