Any person who is legally blind is eligible to borrow books and magazines in Braille, on cassette tapes, or in large print from special libraries which have been established to provide materials in these special media. Library service for the blind is more valuable to blind individuals served than public libraries are to sighted patrons, because it is not possible for blind individuals to obtain their reading material from drug stores, newsstands, advertisements, and all other sources of printed material. Of course, not all printed material is made available to the blind in other forms, but there is probably more material available on tapes and in Braille than you would expect and the way to find out about it and make use of it is to contact your regional library for the blind.
If you do not know how to contact your regional library, you may find out where it is from the National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Physically Handicapped at 1291 Taylor St. NW, Washington DC 20542 or phone 202-707-5100 or www.loc.gov/nls/reference/ directories/addresses.html. NLS is a part of the Library of Congress responsible for selecting and producing many of the books that are circulated through the regional libraries. Blind people in every state are served by one of the regional libraries.
In a few states there are two libraries, each serving part of the state, and in a few states there is no library of this kind, but blind individuals can borrow materials from a library outside the state. In most cases, one library will distribute all types of material, but some regional libraries for the blind do not have a collection of Braille books, only books on tape. Thus, some blind individuals will borrow Braille materials from a library in another state. Large print materials may not be available from all regional libraries either.
If you like to read, you should waste no time, but contact your regional library immediately. You will be asked to provide a doctor's statement that says you are legally blind. It is not necessary to get a special eye examination in order to get this statement. Any doctor who has treated you including a general practitioner, can vouch for the fact that you are legally blind. If you have already been in touch with a rehabilitation agency, this agency could provide the necessary statement.
You are eligible to borrow cassette tape players from the regional library. These cassette players can play four tracks on each tape at half the speed of commercial ones. Cassette books are now being recorded at 15/16 ips on four tracks. Therefore, even if you have a cassette recorder, you will need to borrow another one from your regional library. In any case, your regional library can and will help you get the talking book machines you need to read recorded books and magazines.
You may have the regional library send you books within a general category or you may specify books you wish to read by title and author. Your regional library can send you print or tape catalogs listing books available on cassettes, in Braille, and sometimes in large print. You may make lists of books you wish to read, and the library will send them to you a few at a time as you instruct them. If you wish to read three books a week or ten books a month, they will send them to you in that way. Some regional libraries have In-Wats lines so that you can request books by phone. You can also arrange to receive a magazine entitled Talking Book Topics on tape from your library bi-monthly. This magazine lists the newest books that have been produced on cassette and in Braille and you may order books from its listings.
If you have difficultly reading the materials you receive, let the library know. Most regional libraries for the blind can arrange to have someone come to your home if there are problems.
You should also ask your library what magazines are available on cassettes. You can subscribe to any magazine that is available and receive it regularly. In some instances, you will receive the recorded magazine within a few days of the time your friends and neighbors receive their copies in print. At other times you may not receive the recorded copy until much later.
All materials (including talking-book machines, catalogs, books, and magazines) are mailed to and from the library free of charge. This is provided for by Act of Congress and is very important to library service for the blind, because postage costs would be substantial and the best way to get materials from libraries for the blind to readers and back again is through the mail. Because this material is sent "free matter for the blind," it sometimes takes several days for it to travel from the library to you or back. Nevertheless, you will want to make use of the "free matter for the blind" provision.
Very often, learning of this free library service—an opportunity to continue reading by listening—is the first good news a newly blinded person receives. It can provide all the things that books and magazines have always meant to you: information, stimulation, entertainment, education, and more. Utilizing this library service requires no special skill or knowledge. All you need are cassettes and the machine to play them on. Even if you have not done a lot of reading in the past, you may find recorded books extremely enjoyable. We urge any blind individual who is not already receiving this service to contact his or her regional library immediately. Chances are, you will be glad you did!
MYTH: It is not as enjoyable to read books on tapes as it is to read them in print.
FACT: After an individual has become accustomed to reading recorded books and magazines he or she and very often his or her family enjoy them immensely.
EXAMPLE: Mr. Douglas is a retired lawyer who became blind suddenly at age 70. He was an avid reader of several magazines and interested in reading several different types of materials. To think that he would not be able to continue reading these materials was extremely upsetting to Mr. Douglas. When he learned about the talking book service from the library for the blind he felt no pleasure at all. He said simply, "That isn't reading."
However, Mr. Douglas became more and more bored and decided to get a talking book machine and some books from the library. At first he found that reading these materials was better than nothing. Very soon he began subscribing to some of the magazines he had been reading for the past several years and enjoyed them thoroughly. Mr. Douglas began refinishing old furniture while he read and thoroughly enjoyed both the reading and the hobby.
Directory assistance is provided by phone companies so that numbers too new to be in the phone book can be found. It is also available to individuals who cannot read the phone book. If you wish to use the directory assistance service without charge, you may fill out a form and have your phone line exempted from charge. The telephone company will do this for those who cannot read the directories. In many states you may be automatically connected after you are given the phone number by directory assistance. For local calls, this is a convenience to some. For long distance calls, it may mean the long distance charges are much higher than if you placed the call yourself. Free directory assistance may be very valuable to blind people.
Newspapers are accessible to the blind by telephone through NFB-NEWSLINE®. At the time of this writing in early 2003, 187 newspapers are accessible on the NFB-NEWSLINE Service. Those who cannot read print newspapers may apply for this free service by writing NFB-NEWSLINE at 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230 or calling 410-659-9314. You will be issued a six digit identification code and a four digit security code.
The general number is 888-882-1629. If you dial this number on a touch-tone telephone, you will be greeted and asked for your identification number and security code. Then you will be given choices. By pressing keys on the touch-tone key pad, you may choose to read whichever newspaper you wish, certain articles in which you are interested, the issue from one of two or three dates, and you will be given other choices. There is a help feature on the service to assist you in learning how to move around through each publication and from one publication to the other. You may change the voice quality, the pitch, or speed. The NFB-NEWSLINE Service has been greeted with excitement by many seniors who have read newspapers for a lifetime.
If your local or regional paper is not on NFB-NEWSLINE and you would like to read it by telephone, you may be able to arrange to have it added to the service. You should call 410-659-9314 to discuss the steps necessary to accomplish this.
No matter how much material you read in recorded form or in Braille, there will always be a few items (your mail and bills at least) for which you will need to find a reader. You will want to find or hire a friend, a family member, someone from your church or neighborhood to read certain kinds of materials for you. You will need to learn to use a person who is reading for you in this way as a reader only. It is your responsibility to keep track of the balance in your checking account, whether or not you already paid a bill, to decide whether information should be saved or discarded and all other related matters. You reader cannot decide such things for you, and if you let that happen, sooner or later you will find that your affairs are not done as you want them done. You may wish to instruct your reader about how to keep records and work with him or her closely to see that it is done according to your wishes. You may wish to keep some records in Braille as was discussed in Chapter 8. It is also possible to keep track of this information on tape.
Besides telling a reader what to write and keeping certain records on tape, you may wish to do some writing for yourself. You signature is as legally valid as it ever was. You will certainly want to sign your own checks. If you have a little vision, you may wish to use a felt tip pen to keep some records, make your shopping lists, and for a few other things. If you know how to type, continue to do so. You can fill out checks on a typewriter by counting lines and spaces. Correspondence, grocery lists, notes to family members, etcetera, are convenient for you and for them when typed. If you prefer handwriting (yours is probably about as legible as it was when you could read it) you may wish to purchase a handwriting guide which will help you keep the lines straight. These are available from a number of companies that handle special devices for the blind. As in so many other areas, you have choices about writing and reading and the best way for you to get it done.
Since the cassette machine you borrow from your regional library is a play-back machine only, you cannot use it to record any information on your own. However, you may wish to purchase a cassette recording machine of your own. Several commercial models are relatively inexpensive. You can record figures or other information that is difficult to remember on tape so that you can refer to it again at a later time. For example, you could keep a tape on which you would record the amounts of checks you write and the current balance in your account. Each time you write checks or make a deposit you would note this on the tape, add or subtract the amount of the check or the deposit and record the new balance in your account. You would want to identify the tape at the beginning so that you can tell what material it contains. This is a workable system and enables blind persons who use it to keep accurate records of their personal affairs.
If a family member, particularly a husband or wife, is willing and able to handle the book work and read the mail, it may be that you do not have to worry a great deal about it. This is between you and the other person, of course. Even so, you may wish to use a combination of methods so that you, too, have whatever information you need immediately available.
Some people keep notes on their answering machines for a few days, anyway. If you family does not erase messages, this can be a convenient means of remembering phone numbers or addresses for a short time.
If you have a computer with voice, large print, or Braille output—you have access to a large amount of print material, and you have the means for storing and organizing data in detail and in quantity. A indicated elsewhere in this material, alternative outputs are not as flexible and quick as the mouse and the print screen of a computer. Nevertheless, blind people use computers very effectively in most of the ways that sighted people use them. Backing up this information is both possible and essential as any experienced computer user would tell you.
Phone numbers and addresses, recipes, and other information can be kept track of on tape, also. The disadvantage of keeping this material on tape is that you cannot quickly turn to an item in the middle of the tape for reference. This disadvantage does not prevent many blind individuals who do not use Braille from using tapes for this purpose and feeling quite good about their method.
If you have a tape recorder, you may wish to have a friend or relative record other bits of information in which you are especially interested. This machine can be useful in a variety of ways.
Although one of the things that concerns newly blinded individuals most is the inability to read print, reading matter is available from many other sources as you have seen from this chapter. There is no reason for a blind person not to do all the reading he or she wishes to do. You can be as well informed as you wish to be. You can keep track of information you need. You have choices about which method to use: Braille, recordings, and, for some individuals, large print. As you gain experience as a blind person, these methods will become second-nature and seem simpler than they do at first. Although not reading print is thought to be a serious problem this is one area where a blind person has many resources available to him or her.
MYTH: Blind persons cannot read and write efficiently.
FACT: Blind persons have several methods available to them to get printed materials read. These include books and magazines on tapes; newspapers by touch-tone telephone; use of computers with accessible output; and live readers reading aloud. Blind persons can write Braille use a keyboard, write legible longhand, and/or keep some records on tape.
EXAMPLE: Bessie Johnson is a blind, retired school teacher and lost her sight at age 68. In addition to being a constant reader, Mrs. Johnson also was in the habit of keeping careful records of everything she did. She kept receipts filed carefully; she kept a detailed diary; she kept notes and letters from her children and grandchildren.
When Mrs. Johnson began to lose her sight, she felt as though she would not be able to function at all. She obtained reading materials from the library for the blind and enjoyed it immensely. She bought a tape recorder and began corresponding with her children and grandchildren by tape. She enjoyed that more than the letters. She decided to learn Braille so that she could label pictures in her picture album and she did. She also put Braille labels on her receipt files, tax records, and other materials she kept. Mrs. Johnson says, "Of course I could read books in Braille, but I like the recorded tapes. For me Braille is best for labeling, receipts, and phone numbers." Mrs. Johnson uses e-mail for much of her business correspondence.