Making an Impact: Listening Books
Listening Books is a UK based charity supplying audiobooks and accessible newspapers and magazines to people of all ages across the UK who find that an illness, disability, learning difficulty or mental health condition affects their ability to read or hold a book.
Listening Books have been helping people access literature and stories since 1959. We now reach over 100,000 people in the UK through our work with schools, hospitals, hospices and charities. Our extensive collection encompasses diverse content, aiming to enrich the lives of people from all backgrounds through the joy of audio. As well as our large collection for adults, we also support children and young people with a range of fiction and educational titles that aren’t available in audio anywhere else.
Members have expressed that audiobooks provide companionship, offer a means of mental escape and alleviate feelings of pain and loneliness. Additionally, audiobooks play a significant role in providing entertainment and supporting mental well-being by addressing feelings of isolation and anxiety.
Listening Books has a dedicated support team that provides one-on-one assistance to members in using their online services, thereby improving digital inclusion. Audiobooks are generally more expensive than printed books, which creates a financial barrier for many people with print impairments, especially those on a low income. Whilst Listening Books charges a heavily subsidised annual membership fee of £20, if an individual member feels that the fee would prevent them from joining, they can access the service entirely free of charge.
Feedback from members:
“They bring me interest, escapism, comfort, connection and quality of life. I could not imagine surviving my very restrictive life without them. The fact that your library has such a wide variety of genres and both modern and classic books and more added all the time brings dignity, as we can choose the way others can choose in a library, and the excitement when a book I have been anxious to read comes up is special!”- Susan
“I just want to express how grateful I am. I recently lost all my disability-related benefits and am not very able to work and can’t even afford my most basic monthly expenses, let alone afford luxuries like audiobooks, which I was upset to lose because I’d come to rely on them. I find them really soothing, and so helpful for my mental health when I struggle to sit still and focus on a physical book.” Anon
“I really like reading and books help me learn language as I have a learning disability.
Listening books is great as I can gain support through the audio voice reading the story to me if I'm tired or don't know the word. This helps me to know how to say the word too and it helps me understand the meanings of words, sentences in the story. I don't always want to ask for help. I can also switch this off and have a go at reading afterwards, this gives me lots of confidence and I get better each time. This makes me very happy. There's a really wide choice of books and I like how it will help me get my DoE awards. I can use it at home and at school and on my IPad so that I can make the text bigger to see it better. This is important as I struggle to see the text in books even with my glasses on. Thank you so much Listening Books and to those who help to fund the site and app.” Anon, aged 15
“Listening books has been a complete game changer for me. Due to health issues my eyesight deteriorated, and I struggled to read normal print books, and impossible to read at bedtime due to the light. Listening Books has been brilliant. I can usually listen to the majority of our book club books on there and a lot more. The regular recommendation emails are great too. It’s saved me money, completely easy to use the Libby App and I really enjoy escaping into an audio book, it’s so much easier for me than trying to read.” Deborah
Become a member of Listening Books here: https://www.listening-books.org.uk/join
Join our Book Club here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/243439039535497
Listen to all our free podcasts here: https://www.listening-books.org.uk/extra/the-listening-books-podcast
