‘Alexa, read my RNIB Letter from Santa’. For the first time, more UK children than ever before can receive a message from Father Christmas

For more than 20 years, RNIB has ensured that no child with a vision impairment misses out on the magic of Christmas by creating letters from Santa in accessible formats. These include braille, large print and audio, which comes as a CD.

As a first for this year, a fourth format will now be available through Amazon’s Alexa. Customers just need to say, ‘Alexa, read my RNIB Letter from Santa’ to hear the message in Santa’s voice.

Last year, the elves at RNIB sent 1,465 letters from Santa to blind and partially sighted children living across the UK, helping them experience the same magic as sighted children. Thanks to this new collaboration between RNIB and Alexa, a further 14,500 young children with a vision impairment could benefit from the scheme.

Unlike other formats, which have deadlines for people to submit their request for a letter by, Alexa can ‘deliver’ the voice activated letter every day throughout December.

Andrea Jones, RNIB’s Head of Individual Giving, said: “Our Christmas mission at RNIB is to make sure that every child with a vision impairment is able to experience the same festive magic as their sighted peers. This step by Amazon helps us to achieve this aim and we couldn’t be more grateful to them for working with us to bring some Christmas magic to thousands more children.”

Dennis Stansbury, Alexa UK Country Manager, said: “Every child, and adult, should be able to experience the joys of Christmas. A letter from Santa is such a magical moment for children, so we are delighted to continue our work with the RNIB to offer customers more ways to access content. We hope to bring a smile to children’s faces when they hear their RNIB message from Santa from Alexa.”