[bksvol-discuss] Reader's Digest "Partners For Sight" Social Science Collection

"Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> · Fri, 24 Sep 2004 14:24:59 -0400

Reader's Digest "Partners For Sight" Social Science Collection
Posted by: laurakujawski
Thursday, September 23, 2004
PNN Online (USA)

Thousands of students with print disabilities will have access this academic 
year to a growing collection of digitally
recorded social science textbooks through a major grant from the Readers 
Digest Partners for Sight Foundation to Recording
for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D.)

Funded by a $400,000 grant made in 2002, The Reader's Digest Partners for 
Sight Foundation Social Science University
collection at RFB&D currently contains 121 titles and will grow to 190 by 
2005, helping students prepare or careers in a wide
range of professions. The collection's books on CD-ROM include core texts 
recommended by the National Association of College
Stores. Covering subjects from Immigration Studies to Social Science 
Methodology and Research, access to these texts will
ensure full academic exposure to the next generation of Americans who are 
blind or visually impaired, a population estimated
at 39,000 students. Some titles in the collection include The Social 
Organization of Work, Environment, Energy, and Society,
The Essential Galbraith, and Exploring Child Welfare.

The grant is part of a $1.6 million award program administered by the 
Foundation and furthers RFB&D's transition from analog
to digital technology.

In addition to providing students with a far more compact and portable 
medium, digitally recorded textbooks offer students
the ability to navigate through a textbook by page and chapter, and to 
bookmark sections for later reference. This represents
a dramatic improvement in functionality for students used to receiving 
textbooks in the traditional four-track analog
cassette format, which limits navigation to fast-forward and rewind, and 
often requires that students manage up to a dozen
cassettes per textbook.

Reader's Digest Partners for Sight Foundation is a Pleasantville, New York 
nonprofit foundation dedicated to increasing
independence, self-reliance and dignity for people who are blind or visually 
impaired. "We have witnessed the enormous power
of digital technology for students with visual impairments and are happy to 
contribute to the tools and resources that allow
them to pursue all of their academic goals," said Susan Olivo, Partners for 
Sight vice president and general manager.

Based in Princeton, NJ, RFB&D is the nation's educational library for 
students of all ages who cannot read effectively
because of a disability, such as a visual impairment. "Digital technology 
levels the playing field for students who are blind
or visually impaired. It is especially important to convey the complexity 
and sophistication of college textbooks without the
time and space-consuming qualities of analog tapes," said Richard Scribner, 
RFB&D's president and CEO. "We are pleased with
the swift progress of the Reader's Digest Partners for Sight Foundation's 
Social Science University Collection. It is a great
benefit to our current and future members, all of whom will be more equipped 
to pursue a career in the social sciences."

RFB&D, a nonprofit organization, serves 127,000 students of all ages with a 
one-of-a-kind library of 100,000 recorded
textbooks and other educational materials. Students rely on RFB&D's unique 
accommodation to access the printed page and to
achieve educational success.

All of RFB&D's accessible titles are recorded by volunteers working in 28 
RFB&D recording studios nationwide.

 © 2004 by PNNOnline.

http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=5478&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

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