Books for the Blind also referred to as Talking Books is a program in the United States which provides audio recordings of books in a proprietary cassette tape format, along with a cassette player supporting that format, free of charge to people who are blind or visually impaired. Yet, with new technologies available today, Books for the Blind is moving toward a digital format with the effort of the National Library Service of the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) leading the way. New ways to help service the blind include books available on a digital and with the Web-Braille format. The digital format deals with talking books, and making the whole book, which usually could never fit on one medium before, available on a memory-card. The Web-Braille program, which deals with downloading books, is written in Braille, and allows the patron to print the format at their home. Again, the Web-Braille format utilizes the same technology as the digital books: these materials can be downloaded onto a memory card, and since they can be downloaded right away, are much more convenient than what was available before. The only hurdle left is really creating the best medium to play these new talking books on the digital format. Since these players need to be accessible to blind patrons, it needs to be created with them in mind. In 2001, the NLS did create a contest for someone to come up with the most practical player, but, as of 2004, no winner or design was chosen.
Read more about Books For The Blind: History
Famous quotes containing the words books for, books and/or blind:
“The trouble with most problem-solving books for parents is that they start with the idea that the child has a problem. Then they try to tell us how to fix the child, or else, after blaming the parent, they suggest how we can fix ourselves.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)
“I always was of opinion that the placing a youth to study with an attorney was rather a prejudice than a help.... The only help a youth wants is to be directed what books to read, and in what order to read them.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers’ battle with the heavens that cover them. Snow, rain, and mist highlight, drench, or conceal the vast towers, but those towers, hostile to mystery and blind to any sort of play, shear off the rain’s tresses and shine their three thousand swords through the soft swan of the fog.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)