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Alternative Reading Formats
The following are reading resources for persons
with blindness, visual impairment, dyslexia, and learning disabilities.
Most are free services for people who can show a documented disability.
To learn about all types of assistive technology resources for persons
with blindness or visual impairment, be sure to check out Infinitec's
Total Resource Guide for BVI at: http://www.infinitec.org/totalresource/visual/index.html
Recording For the Blind
and Dyslexic (RFB&D)
RFB&D's library contains more than 93,000 titles in a broad
variety of subjects, from literature and history to math and the
sciences, at all academic levels, from kindergarten through post-graduate
and professional. Anyone with a documented disability-including
a visual impairment, learning disability or other physical disability
which makes reading standard print difficult or impossible-is eligible
to use RFB&D's audio textbooks. For details go to http://www.rfbd.org/catalog.htm,
or call the reference librarian at 1(650) 520-8031.
Choice Magazine Listening
(CML) is a free service that provides audio tapes of current
magazine material to people who are blind, visually impaired or
unable to read because of other physical limitations. CML is free
of cost for eligible individuals. The unabridged articles are recorded
on 4-track tapes that can be used with tape players available free
through the Library of Congress. For more information visit the
CML Web site at http://members.aol.com/CHOICEMAG,
call (516) 883-8280 or e-mail NUCABD@hofstra.edu.
CRIS Radio
For people with blindness or visual impairments, Chicago Radio Information
Service, Inc. (CRIS) is the eyes of Chicagoland. They provide verbatim
readings of newspaper and magazine information 24 hours a day, seven
days a week from all daily Chicago papers (including a weekly Spanish
paper). Featured are job ads, radio dramas, sports, TV listings,
and articles from popular magazines. There is also a dial-in service
listeners can call to select readings they wish to hear. You must
have a special radio to pick up the CRIS Radio sub-frequency; these
are provided free of charge to listeners who need them. Call (312)
541-8400 for more information, or visit http://www.cslib.org/cris/.
National Library Service
for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS)
The NLS offers the Books on Tape Program, consisting of Braille
and recorded books and magazines to more than 850,000 readers (children
and adults) through a network of 56 regional and 90 sub-regional
libraries throughout the United States and its territories. This
cooperative network is made up largely of state and local public
libraries that circulate books and playback machines directly to
readers. Visit http://www.loc.gov/nls
for more details, and call (202) 707-5104, or (800) 424-8567 to
locate your corresponding regional library.
Bookshare Digital Books
One of the best ideas ever realized into one program is Bookshare,
a program that allows persons with blindness or visual impairments
to download popular books from the Internet. Digital books can then
be read with a text-to-speech reader or talking screen reader. The
Bookshare program also offers the option of downloading the digitized
text into Braille format with embossed Braille capability. Bookshare.org
takes advantage of a special exemption in the U.S. copyright law
that permits the reproduction of publications into specialized formats
for the disabled. Consider becoming a volunteer and scanning your
books to share. Go to http://www.bookshare.org./web/Welcome.html
to learn more.
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