Over in my audiofic thread , Schnuffichen mentioned that she brought my recording in to a language learning program in order to discuss pronounciation.

It got me thinking. As you may recall , I've been looking for something productive to do with my time. I've got a lot of limitations these days.

It occurs to me, though, that recording my voice is someting I can do. Not professionally. All the usual problems would apply there (unpredictable schedule, unreliability, etc). But there are probably a fair number of people out there who don't want, need, or expect to afford professional recordings but who would still appreciate having audio clips to work with.

I've got the basic tools (again, not professional quality, but "good enough" for those who don't really need that level). Given a flexible schedule, I've got the time.

What I don't have (yet) is knowledge and contacts. I don't know who would need something like that. I get the feeling they're out there. People trying to learn English. People with impaired vision. People who learn better from hearing than from reading. People who want to listen to stuff without having to print it out or take their eyes off something else (like the road). Other people with needs I'm not even thinking of yet.

But I don't know who they are, exactly. I don't know how to find them. I don't know how to help them find me. I also have no idea how much (if anything) I could really charge for my services. Or if there's a company or foundation or something I could work through within the scope of my limits.

At this point, it's all just a wild idea with no actual backing. But at least it seems possible, and that's better than I've found in years.

Any of you nice FoLCs out there have anything to share? Suggestions, advice, thoughts, information, etc. Whatever you've got is probably more than I have right now.

Paul

How about checking through your local phone directories for charities for the blind? I'm sure they'd be able to help you find a niche.

What do you call those btw? We have Yellow Pages and Thomsons Local. For local services, companies etc. Is the US equivalent...White Pages? Just curious, now that I've mentioned it.


LabRat

Ohhh good idea Paul.

Tagging on to what Labby said, in the UK talking newspapers ( http://www.tnf.org.uk/ ) are always looking for volunteers to record audio versions of newspapers and magazines.

I'm sure there must be similar organisations in the US, but it is late, and I'm too tired to find out more, your google-fu is probably as good as mine

The other thing I thought about was audio for Wikipedia and Wikitionary [url=http://en.wiktionary.org/wik...onary.org/wiki/Help:Audio_pronunciations [/url] and/or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia

I'm sure I could think of more things, but it's late, but that might give you some ideas...

Helga

Interesting thought, Lab. Thanks.

We have Yellow Pages and White Pages, named for their respective (color-coded) portions of the phone book (which sometimes also has blue or green pages with government listings and other information). The yellow pages are business listings, sorted by category. The white pages (sometimes separated into business and residental, sometimes grouped together, depending on the publisher, the size of the book, etc) are sorted by name.

Paul

I'll totally put in a plug for Lab's blind idea. I spent 4 years working with the blind. Our college radio station catered to the blind by reading things out like...the newspaper headlines, deals in town...none of them were professionals, just volunteers.

I personally worked at our regional school for the deaf and blind. I don't know what kind of help they'd need outside of what I did (babysitting), but they usually have contacts...

*steps off the volunteer soapbox hehe*

Good luck! I hope you find something enjoyable!
Jen

Paul, if you absolutely must venture away from fanfic reading (our loss! ), there's LibriVox , which is sort of like Project Gutenberg for spoken word projects. Volunteers record themselves reading stories, essays and books in the public domain (either reading the whole thing or volunteering to do a chapter here and there) and upload to LibriVox, and readers can download and listen. I stumbled across this site a few weeks ago. So far I've listened to "A Modest Proposal" and a chapter of "The Little Princess," but some Mark Twain is about to be queued up. There's a call for volunteers on the home page.

Another site that may be of interest to you is Transom.org , which is intended more for people interested in producing audio for radio, but it has lots of info on tools and techniques, and there's a message board. (I heard about this site while listening to "This American Life.")

Hope that helps! I think it's great what you're doing.

-- Lauren

Ooo. Thanks for the links, Lauren. You're the best. I'll check 'em both out.

I've also got a tab open to Lighthouse International . They're probably in a better position to direct me on behalf of the vision impaired, since I'll be working through the comp rather than actually going over to local places.

Thanks again for the responses, guys.

Pual