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Audio books are great value in so many different situations and life circumstances. They can indeed be an absolute godsend to people who have various kinds of disabilities that make it difficult, or even impossible, for them to freely read for themselves - or for that matter, participate in countless other activities.

We had a little girl who was profoundly disabled with cerebral palsy. She loved to listen to children's stories on CD. She had some compilations of popular story books for 4-8 year olds, girls' chapter books about ponies, cats and fairies and such universal classics as "The Wind in The Willows", "The Wizard of Oz", "A Christmas Carol", stories about Winnie the Pooh - and Aussie classic favourites including "The Adventures of Blinky Bill", "The Magic Pudding", "Seven Little Australians" and Colin Thiele's "Storm Boy". The range of audio books one can find for all ages these days really is wonderful.

Certainly audio books were one avenue through which our severely limited little girl could be entertained and experience all kinds of wonderful adventures in the realm of her imagination. Obviously they would also be especially good for those who are vision impaired and I expect there are many people who just think of them as being made to meet the needs of those who cannot read due to blindness.

No doubt they would provide a great means of those with hearing impairments listening to stories too. They would be able to block out distracting noises that interfere with them listening easily to other things such as the TV and just concentrate on listening to clearly narrated stories via personal earphones. I know when my mother developed hearing problems as she aged, she often expressed frustration over the difficulties background noises presented when she was trying to listen to someone speaking.

Of course it's a sad fact that there is a significant percentage of our population who are illiterate for no obvious reason too. Many have simply been left behind in their first years at school and never had anybody to help them catch up. They may have managed to struggle through almost an entire lifetime without being able to read. So audio books open up the wonderful world of literature to them - for their own personal enrichment - and even for the joy of sharing the experience of books with their children and grandchildren.

Those with all kinds of developmental disabilities can also be greatly enriched by audio books. The doors of the magical world of literary

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