Minds Eye Information Service expands service area
JERSEYVILLE - Jersey County residents now have the ability to hear their newspapers.

Minds Eye Information Service is a nonprofit organization that provides special radios so that people who are blind, visually impaired or unable to turn the pages of a newspaper can hear the news from local and national newspapers, magazines, books and even retail store ads.

The service is entirely free to listeners.

To obtain an application, call 618-394-6221 or log onto www.mindseyeradio.org and click on the application for service link. One the application has been submitted, listeners receive a radio within two weeks. There is no charge to listen to Minds Eye Information Service.

“Minds Eye helps me to be independent, and helps people who are blind with every day living,” said Ethel, a Minds Eye Information Service listener.

“Minds Eye keeps me informed on what is going on in the community,” says Sharon, another Minds Eye Information Service listener.

Minds Eye recently was able to expand the service area to reach 75 miles around St. Louis. Minds Eye’s new service area includes Herman, Missouri as the Western border, Louisiana, Missouri as the Northern border, Centralia, Illinois as the Eastern border and Murphysboro, Illinois as the Southern border.

By expanding the service area, Minds Eye Information Service hopes to help many more individuals, like Ethel and Sharon, stay informed and independent through their mission to provide enrichment, empowerment and enlightenment to support the self-reliance of persons who are visually impaired for print disabled through broadcasts of the printed word and other special programs.

Minds Eye Information Service is a nonprofit radio reading service located on the grounds of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The closed circuit radio station lens radios free of charge to people who are blind, have low vision, or are print disabled so they can listen to broadcasts of volunteers reading newspapers.

The service reaches nearly 1,000 people in their own homes and the residents of more than 90 nursing homes, retirement centers and hospitals in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

For more information or to obtain a listener application, call 314-241-3400 ext. 6221 or 618-394-6221; e-mail mindseye@oblatesusa.org or go to www.mindseyeradio.org.