There Is Increased Chatter Coming from The Woods

Over the last year, there has been gathering momentum around a new sound from Woodland Trust with its Broadleaf Magazine being made accessible in audio to members with a vision impairment.

Woodland Trust, founded in Devon, England in 1972 by retired farmer and agricultural machinery dealer Kenneth Watkins is now the UKs largest conservation charity.

In March 2023, Woodland trust joined forces with All Formats, a not for profit company owned by Queen Alexandra College, itself a national charity for young people with disabilities. The brief was to give Broadleaf, the Woodland Trust members only Magazine a voice.

Lauren Thompson, one of our highly experienced editing and production Team Leaders is closely involved with making the audio version of the magazine and takes us through some areas of developing content of this…Nature…Pun Intended!

“The Broadleaf magazine we produce for Woodland Trust is one of our favourite pieces of recurring work. We learn so much from each issue!

It’s very important that audio users are not missing out on anything that the standard print reader would be accessing. With this in mind, we describe
images/maps/diagrams which are in the original print. For example: The audio version of a map of a particular walk would need to include a transcriber note referring to what we are highlighting and context as to where in the standard print magazine it is. Then, a more detailed description of what each point on the route means, resulting in the listener having the opportunity of either walking with someone or going solo.

More broadly, we ensure the audio magazine is as easy to navigate as possible. This is why we create separate tracks for each article and list them as such in the track list at the start of the audio version.”

Woodland Trust has a clear message: “Woods and trees are essential. For people. For wildlife. For life.”

“That message is an inclusive one.” Says Paul Hopkins, Transcriptions, Sales and Advocacy Officer for All Formats. Paul goes on to say “We’re proud of our partnership with Woodland Trust which is enabling them to offer audio content which forms part of the charities obvious and ongoing commitment to being inclusive by design. We eagerly anticipate continuing the journey of joint awareness raising as the trust invites members requiring information to ask for the preferred format version of the standard print they need.”

WHAT’S NEXT? BECOME A MEMBER: There’s no better way to support Woodland trust than by becoming a member. You’ll be joining a movement of more than 300,000 like-minded people and helping them create healthy habitats for people and wildlife. To find out more visit: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/support-us/join

Would you like to follow in the footsteps of Woodland Trust by reaching out to the 1 in 7 people in the UK who can’t access standard print? At All Formats, the journey starts with a conversation. Talk to us today via our contact details to find out how we can help you connect and communicate with a significant minority community of which we are proud to be a part.

*Woodland Trust – Wikipedia

**Woodland Trust Homepage

***Woodland Trust Membership Page

****Literacy: State Of The Nation, 2012