Subject: Reading Service for Blind Expanding
From: Ginette Perkins (ginettep@seals.org)
Date: Mon Jun 11 2001 - 11:06:12 PDT
Friday June 8 7:22 PM ET
Reading Service for Blind Expanding
By JOHN BIEMER, Associated Press Writer
BALTIMORE (AP) - A free service that provides the contents of daily
newspapers to the blind will expand nationwide by early next year.
Newsline began a pilot program in 1994 using only USA Today. It now reads
almost 50 newspapers to people in 73 U.S. communities - mostly urban areas -
and Toronto.
In March, the service will offer the contents of 100 newspapers - including
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal - everywhere in the United
States and Puerto Rico.
Distribution of Braille newspapers is prohibitively expensive and other than
television and radio, blind people haven't had too many alternatives.
``I couldn't read a newspaper 'til I was 50 years old,'' said James Gashel,
the National Federation of the Blind's director of governmental affairs.
``Those of us who are blind ... get more used to listening to the radio or
TV news. Newspapers have not been part of our life.''
People access the federation's service through a toll-free number. They can
pick a newspaper, a section of the paper or an article and a
computer-generated voice reads it to them.
About 30,000 people use the service. Gashel said that number could grow
substantially since there are 1.1 million legally blind people nationwide
and another 11 million with weak eyesight.
The federation plans to include newspapers from every state and might make
magazines available, he added. A $4 million federal grant will pay to
develop the high-speed telecommunications and computer technology.
Peggy Elliott, a blind city councilwoman in rural Grinnell, Iowa, said she's
been at a disadvantage without a newspaper.
``I can't tell you how many times someone has said at a meeting, 'Did you
read The (Des Moines) Register this morning?''' she said. ``Ecclesiastes
says there's nothing new under the sun, but now there is.''
-
On the Net:
National Federation of the Blind: http://www.nfb.org/
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