New resources for community radio volunteers

Young woman wearing headphones in a radio studio — Image shows young Radio Reading volunteer, Emma Ross, in Vision Australia Radio’s Perth studio. Emma has a vision impairment.

Community radio reading services are powered by volunteers, dedicated teams of people who prepare and read publications, and help put programmes to air. New radio readers need support.

Many radio volunteers have a disability – community radio exists for everyone to join in and have a voice. But while there are some great radio producers and other volunteers with disabilities in the community radio sector, there are many more people who could get involved!

We’re proud that our new Radio Reading Resources for volunteers will help new Radio Readers as well as people with disabilities wanting to volunteer at their local stations.

We teamed up with Kim Stewart, founder of the Ability Radio Project and the Community Radio Inclusion Support Project (CRISP), 4ZZZ Station Advocate for disability, radio producer and trainer, to create these volunteer guides.

For prospective Radio Readers, or people with disabilities such as vision impairment, who think radio is something they want to try, but don’t know where to start, the guides include information on:

Pitching your program
Planning and researching a radio reading programs
Presenting skills for Radio Readers
Introduction to the studio
Social media with screen readers

View our VOLUNTEER resources!

You can also access our Station and Video resources, aimed at helping community radio stations start new Radio Reading programs and be more inclusive and accessible for new volunteers.

“Community radio empowers ordinary Australians by giving them a voice and open access to our media.

In turn, our services rely on community support, on the passion of our volunteers, to create quality programs for our audiences.

We hope that our new resources inspire new volunteers, especially people with disabilities, ‘to find their tribe’ on community radio.

Whether as a Radio Reader, or a budding producer of great content, volunteering changes lives!”

Scott Black, RPH Australia Chair.

The resources draw on research, input from our Radio Reading Network and the broader community radio sector, and original materials developed by the Community Media Training Organisation (CMTO).

We developed these community media training resources to support the Regional Development project, which aims to broaden the national reach of Radio Reading services to reach people with a print disability living in regional and remote areas.