The National Library Service (NLS) is developing a digital talking book and Braille book system for use by the blind and physically handicapped community. The following elements drive the design of the program: NLS offers a free library service; NLS is consumer-driven; NLS pays no royalties to copyright holders; the program is accessible to a wide…

The Carroll Center for the Blind operates the Ed-Tech Loan Program which enables Massachusetts schools to borrow adaptive computer devices for blind students. For $50 per month, with a three-month maximum, schools can borrow braille printers, large-print processors, talking software, or speech or braille laptop computers to evaluate before making…

The paper examines ways in which computers have radically altered and improved the lives of handicapped students. The visually impaired have been helped through the use of computerized braillers, embossers, and readers. Both adaptations of off-the-shelf software and specialized software have provided the visually impaired with magnification of…

Each person who is deaf-blind--whatever her sensory, mental, and physical abilities--deserves the opportunity to become literate in all the ways of which she is capable. Reading and writing are especially crucial for one whose world is narrowed because of vision and hearing losses. Literacy can enable such a person to exchange information and…

Describes the Braille/Large Print Reference Project developed in Illinois to provide visually impaired patrons with information transcribed into either Braille or large print. Topics discussed include equipment needs; staff training; user response; and problems. Examples of publicity and guidelines are included. (LRW)

With the cooperation of composers and publishers who grant permission to use copyrighted works, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) of the Library of Congress selects and produces music scores in braille and large-print formats, and music magazines and books about music and musicians in large-print, braille,…

The role of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) in serving the aboriginal (indigenous) peoples of Canada, especially those in the Northwest Territories (NWT), is described, and the possibilities for future library delivery systems are discussed. The right of these peoples, and of all blind and visually impaired persons, to…

Randolph Technical College (RTC) and the Division of Services for the Blind of the North Carolina Department of Human Resources have cooperated for two years on a program to provide blind students with the opportunity to receive instruction in a traditional classroom setting on a college campus. Problems encountered in the early stages of the…

This monograph summarizes the status of the Library of Congress's National Library Service (NLS) Talking Book Digital Conversion Project, a project to offer digital sound reproducers and its library materials in digital format beginning in 2008. Following an introductory section describing National Library Service services and users and the…

Papers on library services and developments in reading materials for the blind, which were presented at the 1984 Expert Meeting of the IFLA Section of Libraries for the Blind include: (1) "Teaching Map Concepts to the Blind" (R. B. Horsfall and B. Cox, Canada); (2) "Optical Character Recognition 'Reading' for Computerized Braille Production"…

Focuses on how skills required by the visually impaired to facilitate language learning are acquired in mainstream and special schools. (18 references) (CK)

British Columbia College and Institute Library Services (CILS) is a provincial clearinghouse of resources for students and faculty with print impairments. CILS provides services by direct loans, interlibrary loans with partner agencies, and production of new alternate format materials (audiotape, electronic texts, large print or Braille). This…

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), an arm of the Library of Congress, leads a highly successful national program to produce and distribute books and magazines for blind, visually impaired, and physically handicapped individuals. A fostering relationship exists between NLS and a network of 143 regional and…

The most notable events affecting the status of the blind within this biennium are: The arousing of the attention of society to the existence and needs of the handicapped; the labor shortage, which created many and new openings for their employment; and the Federal law providing, under certain conditions, for the rehabilitation of people injured…

This final report discusses the outcomes of a federally funded project that studied visual, auditory, and tactual methods designed to give youth with visual impairments access to microcomputers for curricular, prevocational, and avocational purposes. The objectives of the project were: (1) to research microcomputer systems that could be made…