Don Brown, IET Connect Representative on Coventry and Warwickshire Committee has been a full member of the IEE/IET since 1974 and before that a student member. In addition to being a Trustee of IET Connect (the Benevolent Fund of the IET), he is the Chairman of the Local Representative Assembly (LRA).  However, alongside volunteering for the IET, Don also gives up his valuable time to volunteer for the RNIB.  Here is his story:


Many years ago Don saw an advert in a technical magazine.  It was asking for volunteers to help maintain Talking Book machines for the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). The machines were massive 8-track tape players that used tapes that had recordings by well-known people reading from popular books.  The reliability was not that great and volunteers were needed to clean the heads, align them and sometimes replace drive belts that had broken.


Fast forward 40 years and the technology used by blind and partially sighted people has changed immeasurably.  From gadgets to measure how much liquid there is in a cup, to smart phones that talk to the user so that they can navigate apps and menus or voice recognition that allows emails to be sent without touching a keyboard.  Volunteers are still needed because phones need setting up, as do DVD players, TV's and other electrical devices in the home.  People with IT knowledge are needed to investigate hardware and software problems on desktop PCs, laptops, tablets or smartphones.  Screen readers and magnification software enable blind and partially sighted people to use computers.

 

Having been an IT and a Technology Volunteer for some years now, Don believes that it is the most rewarding thing he does.  Whatever your technical knowledge, you could make a contribution.  There is a central technology team that can help you and also information is available on line to provide the knowledge to resolve problems.


In the past year Don has set up many PCs, updated software and replaced faulty hardware.  He has sorted out a faulty door bell, set the language of a multi- language DVD to English, helped a lady 101 years young to operate a Daisy talking book machine, installed a DVD player and set it so that audio description works and a few other things as well.


The RNIB is short of volunteers in a number of areas and with the roll out of new activities to support blind and partially sighted people more will be needed.  If you think you could help please contact the RNIB on 0303 123 9999 or email