Several cases of disturbing sounds, chapters that are missing and a book where the reader falls asleep in the middle of the recording.

Freelance journalist Finn Hellman has collected examples of books with poor quality, something Kulturnyheterna previously reported on.

Talking books are produced with state support by the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media, MTM, and are legally available for children and adults with perception or reading difficulties.

"Taken very seriously"

The agency's director general Magnus Johansson apologizes for the errors.

- It should not happen and something we of course take very seriously.

All cases have been complained to the supplier.

How can it be possible for a reader to fall asleep in the middle of the recording?

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It is a question that is good and impossible for me to answer.

There, the routines have broken down.

We enter into a dialogue with the supplier and all other suppliers about this type of error.

Will review the agreements

Magnus Johansson says that the proofreading is with the suppliers themselves, but that the authority conducts random checks to detect errors in the books.

Will you continue to order readings from these suppliers?

- We have agreements with these subcontractors.

We will look closely at these agreements to see what is ordered and what conditions exist.

After reading and discussing with the suppliers, we will then decide on the next step.

Should contact the readers

MTM was drawn attention to shortcomings in the talking books as early as 2019. At that time, the National Association of the Visually Impaired reported on how a reader included his own critical comments in a book by the psychiatrist and author David Eberhard.

- Then we took hold of all our routines and guidelines and made quite significant changes.

There are still errors but I think they have decreased in scope.

We need to contact our readers and do more in-depth research on quality.

"Should not have paid"

Håkan Thomsson, chairman of the National Association of the Visually Impaired, says that he became desperate when he heard the sleeping reader.

He has now booked a meeting with MTM to discuss the quality of the talking books.

- MTM must address this.

A supplier who has let through such an error should not have paid for his book.

Previously, there was a system with neutral chrome readers and I think that was a better one.