Mission

Gatewave is a not-for-profit around-the-clock audio service for listeners who are blind, visually impaired or reading disabled.

Gatewave gives voice to the written word, enables those who cannot see or read to achieve independence, allows them to maintain their dignity and provides the information they need to enrich their lives.

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Audience

Visually impaired individuals are not the only potential audience for Gatewave’s programming. Candidates also include persons suffering from any disability that leaves them unable to read and handle printed matter. These can include individuals with physical motor impairment or learning disabilities such as dyslexia.

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Programming

Our primary source for program content is the nation’s well-recognized print media. Articles about local, national, and worldwide news, health education, and programs based on arts and leisure are among those transmitted. Best-selling novels or other publications relevant to health, culture, and other topics of interest are also transmitted.

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How Does it work?

For eligible listeners, we are heard on special radios in the New York City area (purchased or borrowed from Gatewave), on the internet, on smartphone apps, or on a telephone dial-in system.

We play verbatim readings from magazines, newspapers and the web, spoken by skilled human voices, never computers. We also find and create special content specifically to help listeners live a full life with vision loss.

A gentleman reads the newspaper with a view of the city in the background

A pair of headphones rests on three books

A person holds a newspaper

old books sitting on a shelf

A stack of newspapaers

A globe on a desk

A young woman smiles as she records a book in a studio

Live

Listen to our live radio broadcast to hear the latest is science, technology, and business from anywhere in the world! 

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Podcasts

Our wide selection of quality podcasts on-demand are carefully curated and professionally read for your enjoyment.

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WHO WE ARE

Gatewave is a not-for-profit around-the-clock audio service for listeners who are blind, visually impaired or reading disabled. We are one of more than fifty such services nationwide, but the only one in New York City. We are also a 501 (c) (3) registered charity with offices at Helen Keller Services in Brooklyn, NY.

 

WHO WE Help

To be eligible to receive Gatewave, you need to apply for service, either online or by printing out the application on our website. You must be certified as legally blind; or have only partial vision, requiring the use of visual aids other than ordinary eyeglasses in order to read conventional print comfortably; or have a reading disability or physical disability that prevents normal reading.

Our Location

We distribute our programming to individual listeners in the New York City tri-state area and beyond from our location in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the patient bedside of more than 60 hospitals and skilled nursing facilities, in assisted living facilities and to listeners in 28 states through more than 50 affiliated stations.

213 Sheldon Blvd SE # 3, Grand Rapids, MI 49503

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