The Switch From Audio Tape to Digital Creates
Problem for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
from
Recording For The Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D)
TROY, Mich., -- Recording
For The Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D), a national
non-profit educational resource
enabling those with print disabilities to
complete their educations, advance their careers, and gain self-
esteem, is having its difficulties
these days in its efforts to produce recorded
textbooks and educational materials
for over 8,000 students in Michigan. The
audio textbooks are supplied free on loan along with
reference and support services.
The cause of the problem is
that RFB&D must equip their nine recording
studio booths with all new digital recording
equipment within the next few months. Books
on CD are not only easier for students to use, but
provide several features that make
listening easier. For example, students can
easily find a place in a book by using the
digital format.
Acquiring the new equipment
is critical because no company currently
manufactures the reel-to-reel recording
equipment currently in use and parts are
impossible to procure. Currently, RFB&D is cannibalizing
old units in order to find parts to
keep the nine studios in service.
According to Carla Reeb,
Executive Director of the Michigan RFB&D unit in
Troy, "This comes at a very bad time
for us. We, like so many not-for-profit,
United Fund recipients, have had to take budget cuts this
year, because of the state of the
economy."
"It will cost us about
$15,000 dollars to equip and train operators for each
of our nine recording studios and we
are not able to afford much of the $135,000
it will cost.
Last year, more than 5,300
volunteers, working in RFB&D's 32 recording
studios across the United States,
contributed 396,703 hours of their time
producing 4,160 new titles on tape, or computer disc (E-text) or CD.
There are many volunteer
opportunities throughout our nationwide locations. In
California, units are in Los Angeles,
Orange County, the Inland Empire, Santa
Barbara and the Bay Area.
When RFB&D's initial
release culminates in full-scale national distribution,
RFB&D's library of digital textbooks
on CD-ROM will offer members unprecedented
navigation and convenience. Utilizing synchronized electronic
text and human voice, digital audio books can be played on
standard multimedia personal computers or
specialized players. The contents of a
standard textbook can now be contained on a single CD that
students can
navigate by page, chapter or heading. Previously, a standard textbook
required between eight and 12
cassette tapes that could only be navigated by
forwarding or rewinding a four-track tape recorder through a
series of page indicator beep tones.
For more information about
RFB&D, visit it's website at
www.rfbd.org.
