A partnership between Jewish Care and the Royal National Institute of Blind People will give free access to 400 talking books of Jewish interest.

With the ongoing support of the KC Shasha Charitable Foundation, Jewish Care has been providing access to talking books, newspapers and magazines of Jewish interest for more than 40 years.

In late 2015, RNIB announced that its talking books service would be available free of charge to the blind and partially sighted.

This prompted Jewish Care to review the books aspect of its talking news and books service. The result was a decision to cease the production and distribution of talking books, in favour of a partnership with RNIB.

Jewish Care’s talking books have been transferred into RNIB’s library, adding to existing Jewish-related inclusions.

The tie-up has allowed Jewish Care to free up the resources previously allocated to book production and distribution to developing a wider range of Jewish news, culture and current affairs content.

Its service currently includes abridged audio versions of the JC and a monthly audio magazine, Jewish Extra.

With the backing of the KC Shasha Foundation, the service has been relaunched as Jewish Care Connect.

The partnership with RNIB was described as “win-win” by Sandi Wassmer, Jewish Care’s digital services development manager. “Print impaired Jewish people will now have access to a far wider range of audio content,” she said. “RNIB offers a far more comprehensive talking books service than we ever could.”

www.rnib.org.uk/talkingbooks