Wall Street Journal Connects Two Residents
By Bill Diekmann, Special to the Ahwatukee Foothills News
Ahwatukee Foothills News
Phoenix, Arizona | Published: February 5, 2009
One reason you're reading this article is the simple fact that you can. For others, it's not that simple.
Take Steve Welker, for example. The Ahwatukee Foothills resident, a once-avid reader, "a news junkie," he says, lost his eyesight in a tragic auto accident 14 years ago.
Aided in his recovery by the Arizona Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired on whose board he now sits, Welker defies the stereotype that characterizes blind people by their limitations. Not only has he written an autobiography, The World at My Fingertips, describing the recovery help he received, he is also a frequent public speaker in the Valley.
One way Welker gets current information to include in his community activities is by listening to Sun Sounds of Arizona, a radio reading and information access service. During his weeks of recuperation, he listened to the Sun Sounds radio broadcast wired into the hospital's sound system. He unexpectedly discovered "someone reading me the newspaper." It was Sun Sounds of Arizona, and he's been a steady listener ever since.
Sun Sounds' mission is to bring the written word to those unable to use printed material due to a physical disability.
To those eligible for the service, Sun Sounds loans a special radio, necessary to receive the sub-carrier signal transmitted (in the Phoenix area) on 91.5 KJZZ-FM. The live broadcast and some archived programs are also streamed online at www.sunsounds.org. And, of course, the signal is available through closed-circuit in many area hospitals and nursing homes.
But Welker's preferred method of access is yet another service from Sun Sounds, Sun Dial, a special telephone service available through any touch-tone phone. Using Sun Dial, he can call in at any time and access the Sun Sounds programs he wants to hear. In fact, he's been known to call Sun Dial while vacationing in San Diego, so that he wouldn't miss The Wall Street Journal, one of his favorite morning programs.
In a recent afternoon sit-down in Barnes & Noble's coffee shop in Ahwatukee Foothills, Sun Sounds connected Welker to another Sun Sounds devotee, Dick Lovins. A retired optometrist and psychologist who's been living in the Valley about 37 years, the last six in Ahwatukee Foothills, Lovins has been volunteering as a Sun Sounds reader for almost 10 years. His program? The Wall Street Journal. He feels this is a good match between his language and communication skills and his desire to be of service to the community.
Welker and Lovins chatted about what it's like to meet someone with whom each has been connected only over the airwaves. Lovins said, "It's great. I've met my first live listener."
Welker wanted Lovins, as well as the other 500 volunteers across Arizona, to know "I'd be lost without you folks."
The two also got to chatting about the Diamondbacks after Welker related a recent incident in which he picked up all the details about Randy Johnson's pending free-agent status from Sun Sounds' morning newspaper broadcast. He was able to weave that information into a joke he used to open a speech later that same day. Naturally, Lovins and Welker had their own advice to offer the D'backs front office - if only they would ask.
Sun Sounds broadcast studios in Tempe, Tucson and Flagstaff use volunteers to read their local newspaper aloud every morning, as well as The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The Yuma Sun and other selected Spanish-language programming is available in Yuma on Time-Warner Cable channel 70 and through the sub-carrier of radio partner KTTI. Like the nearly 100 other such reading services, Sun Sounds of Arizona is a member of the International Association of Audio Information Services (IAAIS).
Welker, through his community involvement, estimates there are as many as 90,000 people in Maricopa County alone who could benefit from this kind of reading service.
In this season of the year Welker and Lovins are particularly grateful to be Ahwatukee Foothills residents and for their special Sun Sounds of Arizona connection over the airwaves.
Bill Diekmann has been an Ahwatukee Foothills resident since 1997. He is a Sun Sounds volunteer reader for the program Diabetes Newsletter.
For more information about how to help someone receive Sun Sounds' services at no charge, or to volunteer as a reader, call Heidi Capriotti at (480) 774-8300 or visit www.sunsounds.org. For information on where other such services might be available for folks in other parts of the country, contact IAAIS at (800) 280-5325 or at www.iaais.org.
Read this same article at the AFN website
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