Iowa Radio Reading

IRIS provides our 24/7 signal, custom radios and Echo Dots to our listeners at NO COST TO THEM. We sent out 224 devices in 2019 and 2020 is on pace to exceed that number. Our shelves are bare and we need to purchase 100 radios.

Your $40 donation sponsors one device to send to a listener. Our custom radios can run from $35 to $175. We purchase refurbished Echo Dots (normally $49) whenever possible. We clean, repair and redeploy returned radios whenever we can.

Your $40 donation covers the device, bubble wrap, tape and boxes to get a new listener connected to the volunteer Voices of IRIS.

Your donation WILL BE MATCHED by one of our volunteer families until we reach our goal of 100Radios4IRIS!

DONATE NOW

IRIS Delivers Access To Information

IRIS is a free radio reading service that reads print information aloud to over 11,000 print-disabled listeners throughout Iowa. In normal times, volunteers in 7 locations sit down in front of an IRIS microphone and read aloud from their local newspapers each day. The readings are heard on custom receivers that are provided to our listeners at no cost to them. When COVID shut the world down, our volunteers started recording the newspapers from their homes.

Because of these beautiful volunteer Voices of IRIS, our listeners didn’t miss a day.

We changed our program schedule to get as many newspaper readings on as many platforms as possible.

Emergency Daily Program Schedule

Due to COVID-19, our schedule has changed in order to provide as much local information to as many people on as many platforms as possible.

7:00 AM Ft. Dodge Messenger

8:00 AM Mason City Globe Gazette

9:00 AM Des Moines Register

12:00 PM Cedar Rapids Gazette

1:00 PM Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

2:00 PM Dubuque Telegraph Herald

3:00 PM Council Bluffs Daily Non Pareil

4:00 PM Sioux City Journal

5:00 PM Ames Tribune

6:00 PM Des Moines Register

1:00 AM Des Moines Register

Listen to IRIS

IRIS is a service provided at no cost to you. Anyone in Iowa living with a visual, cognitive, or physical disability that prevents them from reading print material can become an IRIS listener today for free.