Total Resource Guide:
Reading Materials in Alternative Formats

Once the printed word is scanned and digitized, it can be accessed in any form—downloaded from the Internet, spoken through a screen reader, enlarged to large print, or converted for Braille output. The listening world has mostly shifted from analog sound to digitalization, and that has increased access to reading materials by those with visual or reading impairments, while being convenient to any listener. Digital technology is superior to analog because sound quality is easier to control, though many fine programs are still offered in other formats.

Talking books can liven up long commutes or be listened to during less engaging activities, like housework. Story telling will always be an irreplaceable art form, as old as humankind. When an author or performer reads a work aloud, he or she inflects a deeper level of meaning into the words. The following resources are a mix of free programs for persons with visual impairments, as well as commercial vendors and listening devices. Each offers something different.

American Foundation for the Blind
http://www.afb.org
Order AFB's publications online. Browse through the AFB Press Catalog of Publications, and access your online subscription to AccessWorld™ and the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness.

American Printing House for the Blind
http://www.aph.org
APH manufactures Braille, large type, recorded, computer disk, and tactile graphic publications, as well as a wide assortment of educational and daily living products, and reading devices such as the BookPort.

The Blindness Resource Center
http://www.nyise.org/text/blind.htm
Access to all types of media and resources for BVI.

Audio.com
http://www.audible.com
Download newspapers, periodicals, books, and radio shows to your PC or other audio player. Audio.com offers a wide range of spoken word material and a free device with 12-month contract. Subscriptions range from $14.95 to $19.95 per month.

Bookshare.org
http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html
Bookshare.org is a web-based system supplying accessible books in digital format designed for people with disabilities. These digital formats are the NISO/DAISY XML-based format for the next generation of talking books, and the BRF format for Braille devices and printers. Access to copyrighted books from Bookshare.org is limited to people in the United States with bona fide print disabilities and the non-profit organizations serving them. An array of security protections and Digital Rights Management solutions ensure that these books are available only to authorized users.

Center Point Large Print Books
Tel: (207) 568-3717
Fax: (207) 568-3727
Contact: Paul Garelli
e-mail: centerpoint@vninets.net
Center Point Large Print is an independently owned company that offers a 40% discount standing order discount with free shipping, along with remainder titles priced from $2.50-$10.00 per book.

Choice Magazine Listening (CML)
http:/www.choicemagazinelistening.org
Choice Magazine Listening is a free audio anthology for a special audience of blind, visually impaired or physically handicapped subscribers. CML was created in 1962 by the non-profit Lucerna Fund to offer the best of contemporary magazine writing, completely without charge, to adults unable to read standard print. CML selects and records memorable writing from over 100 leading magazines. Every other month, this unique, free service offers its subscribers eight hours of outstanding unabridged articles, fiction and poetry read by professional voices and recorded on four-track cassette tapes. The tape players are also lent free of charge to subscribers. For questions, call 1(888) 724-6423.

Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Consortium
http://www.daisy.org
Talking-book libraries to lead the worldwide transition from analogue to digital talking books formed DAISY in 1996. The vision of the DAISY Consortium is "that all published information is available to people with print disabilities, at the same time and at no greater cost, in an accessible, feature-rich, navigable format".

E-books
http://www.ebooks.com
E-books offers a wide variety of books in electronic format at about the same price as printed books—some even cheaper; information and sale of compatible laptop and desktop readers.

Large Print Reviews
http://www.largeprintreviews.com/lpbookstore.html
Discounted large print books, magazines, bibles, articles on eye diseases and related information, low-vision aids.

National Braille Press
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp
National Braille Press promotes literacy as a bookseller and printer of fine Braille products, including books for children and adults, and print books for sighted teachers and parents.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS)
http://www.loc.gov/nls/aboutnls.html
THE NLS offers Braille and recorded books and magazines to more than 20,000 children and adult readers 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.

National Federation for the Blind (NFB)
http://www.nfb.org
Many resources, including the Braille Monitor, a monthly periodical that addresses issues of concern to the blind community and the philosophy and activities of the NFB. It is published online, in Braille, large print, and on audiocassette tapes. Available to the blind and the sighted alike, upon request.

NFB Newsline
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Newspapers_by_Phone.asp
Call 1(888) 882-1629. Individuals across the country can access the daily news by phone. This enables those who cannot read conventional print to have access to newspapers on NFB-NEWSLINE® when traveling throughout the United States. Upgrades to the service will allow for additional options such as other language papers to be placed on the system. The NFB-NEWSLINE® user can easily choose which newspaper, section, and article to read with the use of a standard touch-tone phone. Each day, with his or her morning coffee, the user can choose that day's, the previous day's, and the previous Sunday's issue of each newspaper on the service. The menu provided allows the user to change the speed and voice quality, spell out, or search for words.