Welcome to Southampton Area Talking Echo

Southampton Area Talking Echo has been providing local News and Information on cassette for blind and visually impaired people since 1975. We have about 350 listeners who receive two cassettes every two weeks. One cassette contains local news articles which have appeared in the Daily Echo, and the other cassette is a Magazine Supplement that includes items on local history, cooking, gardening, poetry, humorous articles and a general knowledge quiz. We also produce a News tape for our Eastleigh listeners, and audio versions of City View, and various other publications for the Southampton Society for the Blind and Guide Dogs for the Blind. We are a registered charity and have about 70 volunteers who either donate their time as readers, editors, sound engineers or tape copiers. If YOU know someone who is unable to read newsprint, or you are blind or visually impaired yourself and would like to receive our cassettes, please let us know. Our tapes are distributed by the Royal Mail at no charge and our service is completely free. If your organisation produces printed information that you would like converted to audio, please contact us using the email form. If you would like to become a volunteer and support our efforts, please contact us using the email form. "Volunteering at the Southampton Area Talking Echo is very rewarding and combines contributing to a worthwhile cause with having fun. Everyone is very friendly and even our Chairman (shown below) gets stuck into the everyday tasks." - Lynne Dillon (volunteer).