Listening Books and Sound Learning
Listening Books was founded in 1959 by Norma Skemp after she injured herself in a car accident and became unable to access books. Being unable to join the RNIB Talking Book Service, as she had not sustained a visual impairment, prompted her to found a charity to supply audiobooks to patients in hospital. Since then Listening Books has grown and now supplies audiobooks to people with the full range of print impairments.
The Listening Books educational initiative, Sound Learning, was launched in September 2002. Its aim is to make educational books available in audio formats, thereby improving access to the curriculum for pupils with special needs. We currently stock over 1600 children and young people’s titles in our library, including set texts for the study of English at KS3, GCSE and A-level. In addition we also offer a huge range of fiction suitable for ages 7-18 and a wide variety of non-fiction texts to support other areas of the curriculum such as Science, History, Music, Religious Studies and PSHE/Citizenship. If you would like to browse our titles please go to the catalogue section.
During the three year pilot phase of the initiative we worked with 100 individuals and 25 schools in the Greater London area who assisted in the evaluation of the project. Following a successful evaluation we are now expanding the initiative and are focusing on recruiting individuals by contacting their schools and SENCOs in all areas of the UK.