RPH Australia is the national peak representative organisaion for a unique Australian network of radio reading service designed to meet the daily information needs of people who, for any reason, are unable to access normal printed material. It is (conservatively) estimated that 18.4% of the Australian population has a print disability - over 3.8 million Australians
Historiacally RPH stood for "Radio for the Print Handicapped" and they began in Australia in 1975 on Melbourne's 3ZZ.
On 23 July 1978 the Minister for Post and Telecommunications announced: "The establishment of a special radio communications service for the blind and other people with reading difficulties."
The federal government began its direct funding of the service with a $250,000 grant in the 1981/82 budget.
Initially using marine band (today's extended AM broadcast band) frequencies, stations in Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney began operating. 7RPH Hobart went to air in June 1982. 3RPH Melbourne was officially opened in December the same year.
By 1984/85 RPH services were also operating in Brisbane and Canberra. After another review, the specialised stations of the service transferred to normal broadcast band frequencies in 1990 and 1991.
Material from the network is heard on a small number of non-network community stations in Australia and on the Radio Reading Service of New Zealand.
Famous quotes containing the words radio, print, handicapped and/or network:
“England has the most sordid literary scene I’ve ever seen. They all meet in the same pub. This guy’s writing a foreword for this person. They all have to give radio programs, they have to do all this just in order to scrape by. They’re all scratching each other’s backs.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“It will be the mistake of your life if you go into print in your own defence [sic]. Your denial will reach a new set of people and start them to talking, while the ones who read the original charges will never see the refutation of them.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“The living language is like a cowpath: it is the creation of the cows themselves, who, having created it, follow it or depart from it according to their whims or their needs. From daily use, the path undergoes change. A cow is under no obligation to stay in the narrow path she helped make, following the contour of the land, but she often profits by staying with it and she would be handicapped if she didn’t know where it was or where it led to.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)
“Parents need all the help they can get. The strongest as well as the most fragile family requires a vital network of social supports.”
—Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)