News Release

Recorded Textbooks Go Digital for Students with Visual Impairments, Learning Disabilities New accessible collection offers unprecedented access to the country's most widely read textbooks for more than 102,000 students of all ages

Princeton, NJ (August 16, 2002) — Students who are visually impaired or who have severe learning disabilities will have unprecedented access to the contents of textbooks and other educational materials with the nationwide (September 3, 2002) release of digitally recorded textbooks on CD from Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic® (RFB&D®).

An inaugural collection of more than 6,000 digitally recorded educational titles, ranging from Harry Potter to Systems of Psychotherapy: a Transtheoretical Analysis, will be added to RFB&D's unique collection of 91,000 accessible textbooks — the largest collection of its kind in the world.

For more than 50 years, RFB&D, a nonprofit organization, has been the nation's largest educational library for students who are blind, visually impaired or who have learning disabilities such as dyslexia.

"RFB&D's AudioPlus™ digitally recorded textbooks are a long-awaited innovation in reading technology for people with disabilities who cannot read standard print effectively," says RFB&D President & CEO Richard O. Scribner. "They level the playing field for students with disabilities because they offer functionalities that significantly enhance the ability to study and research."

To listen to RFB&D's AudioPlus digitally recorded textbooks, students need a portable CD player equipped to play RFB&D's books or a standard multimedia computer equipped with a CD-ROM drive and specialized software. Playback hardware and software will be available through RFB&D for nonprofit sale.

"RFB&D's AudioPlus books are changing the way blind and visually impaired persons read textbooks by providing a high quality audio output of books that have been read by experts in the respective fields. The technology, combined with the human voice, allows for the highest quality of audiobook ever produced previously," says Cary Supalo of Bolingbrook, IL, who is pursuing graduate studies in chemistry at Pennsylvania State University.

Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to summit Mount Everest, is an enthusiastic supporter of digitally recorded textbooks from RFB&D. "I embrace the technology. It's a system that will help people be more efficient and more productive, and blind people definitely need every advantage."

With RFB&D's AudioPlus digitally recorded textbooks, students will enjoy:

Instant access — Digitally recorded textbooks allow instant access to any page, chapter or subheading in a book with the touch of a button - there is no need to fast-forward through and count embedded beep tones as is done with books recorded on analog cassette tape.

Convenience —- Digitally recorded textbooks are stored on CDs, which hold more than 40 hours of recorded material. Therefore, the contents of a standard textbook, which requires eight to 12 RFB&D cassettes, will now fit onto a single CD. Portability, ease of navigation and bookmarking capabilities make digitally recorded textbooks from RFB&D more effective study tools for students with print disabilities.

Better audio quality — Digital audio technology produces recordings with significantly less noise ("tape hiss") than analog recording.

"Over the course of its history, RFB&D has transitioned its technology to keep pace with the needs of its members and evolving technologies. RFB&D updated its library from vinylite disks to reel-to-reel tapes, then to the analog cassette tapes and electronic text that now comprise its complete collection," says Scribner. "These recorded books are available to RFB&D's 102,000 members in kindergarten through graduate school, and to any other student with a certified disability that makes reading difficult or impossible."

RFB&D's AudioPlus digitally recorded textbooks have already been used in 89 schools nationwide that took part in a pre-release pilot program. The students and educators participating in RFB&D's pre-release product placement program provided important feedback about the use of RFB&D's AudioPlus textbooks, and their input has been used to continue to refine and enhance this technology.

Vivian Shelton, a teacher at North Dade (FL) Middle School who has been piloting RFB&D's AudioPlus in her classroom, said, "I have seen my kids motivated through digital audio [recordings]. When you work with kids who are underachievers, reluctant readers, reluctant learners…when you see them excited and learning, it's an awesome sight."

RFB&D has been outfitting its 32 studios nationwide with new digital recording facilities and training its 5,400 volunteers in the digital recording process. As the transition continues, RFB&D is converting the most frequently requested recorded textbooks in its CV Starr Learning Through Listening™ Library in the Princeton, NJ, headquarters to digital format. RFB&D's Classic Cassettes™ will also remain available as long as there is a demand for them. Offering RFB&D's AudioPlus digitally recorded textbooks is just another way for RFB&D to serve its members by providing a wider choice of formats to meet their needs.

In addition to developing state-of-the-art reading technologies that make educational materials more accessible to students with disabilities, RFB&D has also expanded its mission to offer effective strategies to help maximize the benefits of auditory learning.

RFB&D's national Educational Outreach Program targets students with print disabilities, their teachers and parents, to make RFB&D's products and educational strategies more widely known and available. While RFB&D historically has offered individual memberships to students, RFB&D's Learning Through Listening™ Institutional Memberships provide accessible textbooks and teacher training to schools and districts to help educators integrate recorded textbooks into daily curricula. More than 4,000 schools have partnered with RFB&D through this program.

# # #

Interviews with students, parents, teachers and other experts in the fields of education and disabilities who are familiar with RFB&D's AudioPlus books can be arranged.

additional media inquiries:
RFB&D News Desk 1-800-803-7201, Option 6
(Morgan Roth or Sue Brooks)
media e-mail inquiries