Free audiobooks available from Listening Charity

The UK charity Listening Books has improved and relaunched their website and have limited free memberships for those who cannot afford the £20 annual fee. Read thier press release below.

Disability charity enhance their service for children and young adults in education with new look website

The UK charity Listening Books have launched the perfect support for lockdown learning for anyone with a print impairment which affects their access to books. If you qualify for membership* you can now visit their website, fill out a short joining form and begin to stream and download over 1500 educational and fiction titles for children and young adults! Including set texts such as Shakespeare plays and 19^th century prose novels, study guides and titles to support mental health, as well as a wide range of popular fiction titles, the collection will make home schooling that much more enjoyable and accessible.

The new website was needed as the previous version wasn’t fully accessible or mobile friendly and in addition did not have all the fantastic features for members. Members are now able to gain instant access to the service upon joining, can rate and review titles they’ve enjoyed, as well as create lists of favourite titles to share with others. The charity secured funding and found an agency to work with who created them a bespoke site which more fully serves their member’s needs. You can visit the new site and join here: www.listening-books.org.uk

Listening Books currently serve over 111,000 members, comprised of individuals and organisations such as schools, children’s hospitals and hospices. According to the Department of Education, 14.9% of all pupils have a SEN, and Listening Books will use the launch of the new website to reach as many as possible to highlight the overall benefits that access to audiobooks can bring, both for leisure and learning, and particularly as a resource for home schooling.

Claire Bell, Deputy Membership and PR Manager says,

‘It’s fantastic that our site is now live and will make it much easier for members to access all the wonderful audiobooks that we offer. Many of our educational titles have been recorded for our Sound Learning programme and can’t be found elsewhere, such as A Change is Gonna Come by Darren Chetty. It’s been a very difficult time for pupils, teachers and parents, these titles can really bring a subject to life and will ensure that those who are home schooling have an easily accessible resource that they can use to support their teaching.‘

[Listening Books – An audiobook lending charity for those that find their illness, mental health, physical or learning disability affects their ability to read the printed word or hold a book. Annual memberships start at £20 for those who can afford it or are free for those that would find the fee a barrier to membership. Please indicate this by ticking the relevant box on our application form.

*to qualify for membership, you must have an illness, disability, learning or mental health condition that affects reading or holding a book, and be resident in the UK.