It’s an important subject – and I hope stations take advantage of October as World Blindness Awareness month. (aside: I listen to a show for visually-impaired people on BBC Radio 4 over here – and they did a survey and found out they had a large number of sighted listeners – like me – because the experiences of blind people are interesting!) Now here’s my problem as a listener - it did not get or hold my attention. The carefully read and written copy, the professionally collected and edited interviews are moving past me like the usual wallpaper. Sorry the listener has been harsh. Now the producer (not a journalist exactly, but a producer) will push that listener aside and attempt to offer some constructive (I hope) reasoning. What’s the essential point? People’s attitudes towards blindness? They’re not getting jobs – even though they’re qualified? You decide. But rather than sprinkle the points all over the place, its better to begin the piece with piece of actuality (or copy, but it has to get my attention) that communicates what it must on every level (the way it sounds as well as what it says). Draw us in. You need to organize all those speakers so I can hold in my ear who they are. Then take us on an arc we can follow. It’s not about turning the news into show business. (We don’t need more of that, do we?) It’s about understanding how people listen, and forming, shaping, and sharpening the arrow of your own truth so that it hits it’s mark.