Volunteer Portrait: Beverley Wilson

Beverley Wilson has been a volunteer for more than 25 years. She calls Audio-Reader her happy place. “Audio-Reader is my little home away from home.” 

Join us: Welcome New Volunteers and Share Your Insights

Stop by via zoom and welcome our new volunteers and share your insights too!  What did you wish you knew when you first began volunteering? 

Plus, what topics are of interest for our slate of Virtual Coffee Bar topics for 2027? 

Virtual Coffee Bar ZOOM LINK 
https://kansas.zoom.us/j/91499262397

Meeting ID: 914 9926 2397
Passcode: 4600

We are excited to introduce our new volunteers! Our September Orientation, Audition and Training garnered a new cohort of skilled volunteers: Kathleen Bowen, Jennie Bowen, Mary Ann Cressler, Michelle Dolan, Emily Fuger, Barbara Hillmer, Dan Karasek, Margie Lawrence, Wally Meyer,  Todd Nixon,  Leigh Spear,  Linnaea Radley, Jonathon Voth, and Elizabeth Wilmarth.  

We are eager for our Audio-Reader community to meet them.  We hope all will join us at the Virtual Coffee Bar on Wednesday, November 18, and if not, here is a little introduction.  

While reading, volunteer broadcasters guide listeners through their show.  This may include visual cues about the layout of the page or the structure of the content.  Transitional phrases support understanding and flow.  Here's a handy list.  What other phrases have you used?  Join us for Virtual Coffee Bar and bring your phrase to share.  

Our latest Annual Report is now available on our website, and we invite you to take a look!

From successful events and exciting community partnerships to the many ways we've continued to serve our listeners, the report highlights our accomplishments and memorable moments from the past year. None of it would be possible without the dedication of our volunteers, donors, and supporters.

Be sure to check it out, and thank you for being part of another wonderful year at Audio-Reader!

It's almost time to celebrate the season together! Mark your calendars for Tuesday, December 8, from 4–6 p.m. 

We look forward to gathering with volunteers, staff, and friends to share some holiday cheer! We will have all the fun of cookie exchange, door decorating contest, sharing a favorite holiday dish, and new this year - we are filling the bookshelves.  If you have a book sitting on your table that you read and loved this year-- bring it, donate it for our book readers to read-- or loan it and we will return it when the read is complete.  

We hope to see you there!

At our October Virtual Coffee Bar, we welcomed a guest speaker from Alphapointe: Cameron Black, Content and Community Relations Specialist. 

 Alphapointe offers services and employment opportunities, life skills training and adaptive sports to name a few of the impactful ways they serve the community. 

For those that missed the chance to meet Cameron and learn about Alphapointe-- here is the video of the event.

Cameron also shared the video below for those that attended and heard about his adventures as a sportscaster  and his role in the Emmy Award winning documentary, via this interview.  

We highlighted the talented work of our Audio Description volunteers, and our services provided via our volunteer broadcasters at the Lied Center Accessibility Open House in October! Guests enjoyed a special audio description demonstration provided by Paw Slawson and featuring a fun performance by Simple Mischief Studio, who generously donated their time and talents. A big thank you to Pam and Shala Stevenson for sharing their evening greeting visitors and to the Lied Center for hosting. It was a great evening highlighting the importance of making the arts accessible to everyone!

For the final part of our Kansas Arts Commission-funded, Art Accessibility Forum, two of our newly trained audio describers scripted audio description of public art. Bird Marathe and Sydney Pursel, who both attended the March 2026 audio description training, created audio description for several works of public art as part of the Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibition run by the City of Lawrence.

The audio description will be posted online to make the new pieces accessible to individuals with visual impairments or other disabilities. The public art works were created in celebration of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with pieces made by local and regional artists. Look for more news on where to find and enjoy audio described public art!  

Six participants of the Audio Description training sit around a table; Joel Snyder, instructor, stands near by and all look at several laptops, which show videos they are working to describe.  Sydney, first on the right; Bird, second on the left. Two advisors (persons with visual impairments) are seated at the heads of the table, providing insights to the group. 

Accessible information highlights our dedication to our mission.  We provided the Election Guide for our listeners!  

Everyday your voices make accessibility possible.  

The Election Guide is  just one more way Audio-Reader is fulfilling our mission of making information accessible and keeping our listeners informed and engaged!

We have several holidays coming up (big news right?). 

Our studios will be closed, and we will be looking for remote readers to help.  

Wednesday, Nov 11

Thursday, Nov 25

Friday Nov 26

Thursday, Dec 24

Friday, Dec 25

Thursday, Dec 31

Friday Jan 1

BE a SUB?  If you are a remote reader and are available over the holidays, visit TeamUp and sign up to help. Our listeners tell us they value the consistency of our service, especially over holidays!  Thank you for including Audio-Reader in your holiday planning. 

NEED a SUB?  If you will be away for the holidays or any other reason, reach out to Trish (tdk@ku.edu) via email and copy Nick (nickcarswell@ku.edu) and Colin (Colin@ku.edu) so that we can be sure to get a sub in place for your time away.  A couple weeks notice is much appreciated!