On November 4, 2009 the SONATA was officially launched in the UK. This is the name British Wireless for the Blind fund has given to our webbox in the U.K.

BWBF is a charity that gives radios on permanent free loan to those with a visual impairment that are in need. Many tens of thousands of radios have been distributed in the past 80 years. In keeping with their range of current radios such as Duet and Concerto, their new Internet Audio player has been named Sonata.

BWBF focuses on offering its listeners a broad choice of Internet radio stations and podcasts. A most unusual extra service that BWBF offers is that local newspapers can also be heard via the Sonata. Besides Sweden where it is compulsory to offer this service to those with a reading disability, Great Britain is one of the few countries where volunteers see to it that more than 500 local talking newspapers are distributed via tape cassette or CD each week.

Many local talking newspapers are now taking the step to digitise their content and make it available as an audio file on the Sonata. Thanks to BWBF and the Sonata, local news can be listened to in its entirety, whereas previously a selection had to be made of the local news to fit onto a tape cassette. The local personal news such as births and weddings as well as who won the competition for the most beautiful garden is what interests the local community.

Sonata supports local community involvement. Read more about the day itself in the attached press release made of the event. If you go to BWBF‘s website you can see a video (2:30 min) on the Sonata. Click here for the offical press release.