University of Virginia Library

Unit Anniversary Celebrated
By Recording For The Blind

By Stefan Lopatkiewicz

Dedicated to further the education
of blind or handicapped students
of all ages, Charlottesville's
unit of Recording for the Blind,
Inc. celebrated its tenth anniversary
on Sunday.

Located at 1936 Arlington Boulevard,
the Charlottesville unit is
one of 17 throughout the nation
which make up the national volunteer
organization, headquartered in
New York, which records and distributes
textbooks for use by the
blinded and handicapped.

Mrs. Ralph Miller, who calls her
work with the organization the
"most stimulating volunteer work I
have ever encountered," and a
group of Charlottesville citizens,
including T. Munford Boyd, a professor
at the University's School of
Law, founded the local unit in
October, 1958. Since then it has
grown into an activity participated
in by 200 volunteers, including 31
University students, and producing
over 100 recorded books annually
from its four recording booths.

The national organization was
conceived at the end of World War
II by a group of New York women,
headed by Mrs. Ronald MacDonald,
who began recording textbooks for
use by blind veterans who were
completing their educations under
the GI Bill of Rights. As word of
the service spread, demand for recorded
textbooks grew beyond the
women's capacity to fill requests.
In 1951, the activity was incorporated
and awarded $75,000 by
the Fund for Adult Education, with
the stipulation that the organization
become nationwide in
character.

Recording for the Blind now
produces and provides free of
charge recorded books with accompanying
diagrams to over 4,000
blind or handicapped students who
are carefully screened for the service
on the basis of need and
ability. Roughly 1,700 elementary
and high school students, 1,300
college and graduate students, and
1,000 adults pursuing careers had
the opportunity to use the 25,500
recorded books circulated last year.
Seventy-five per cent of these students
attained academic averages of
B or better.

In addition, the national organization
has, for the last nine
years, awarded three scholarships
annually, which have all been presented
by the President of the
United States, to blind students
who have shown themselves outstanding
on a national basis.

During fiscal year 1967, the
federal government relaxed restrictions,
thereby allowing physically
handicapped persons to
make use of educational material
originally designed for use by the
blind only. Recording for the Blind
has, since its inception, provided its
services to not only blind individuals
but to amputees, victims of
multiple sclerosis, and others.

Books are recorded at the
Charlottesville unit in sessions of
one-and-a-half to two hours each, in
which time one side of a tape,
equivalent to one hour of listening
time, is produced. The average
book fills about 12 tapes, making
up 24 hours of listening, though
some specialized books may take
up as much as 30 or even 40 tapes.

In addition to borrowing the
recordings free of charge, students
may buy copies at $1 a tape.

Students requesting tapes being
made for them are asked to provide
one regular printed copy of the
book to be used. Two copies of
each volume are actually needed as
each recording session involves both
a reader and a monitor, who follows
the text and runs the tape
recorder, stopping the reader when
he makes a mistake.

"It's the monitor's job to make
sure the book is recorded correctly
with all the technical sound in,"
commented Janet LaSauce, the studio
director of Charlottesville's
RFB unit. Among the "technical
sounds', which the monitor must
watch for are a "beep" signal every
time a page is turned and a "two-beep"
code for each new chapter.
This facilitates the blind listener
being able to find the place he left
off when he returns to "reading" a
book.

Blind Library

When a book is recorded at an
RFB studio, at least four copies of
it are automatically made, one
going to the student requesting the
book and the others to the Recording
for the Blind Library at the
organization's eight-story national
New York headquarters building in
New York City. The RFB Library
currently holds over 12,000 recorded
titles.

The organization's headquarters
is sent all requests by students for
needed recordings. If the book has
already been recorded, a copy is
sent from national headquarters to
the student. If not, headquarters
secures the book publisher's permission
to record the title and
assigns one of the 7 local units,
according to their strengths in various
subjects, to produce the recording.
"We're strong in law, medicine,
and, for the time being at
least, in Spanish and Russian," Mrs.
LaSauce noted of the
Charlottesville unit.

Mrs. LaSauce said that, originally,
recordings were made on
discs, but that now tapes, "which
are faster, safer, and can be mailed
more easily," are being used. She
noted that the old disc recordings
in the RFB Library are being
phased out in favor of taped recordings
now, and added that
braille is also "quickly going out"
as a medium of education for the
blind.

In addition to the recording of
books, raised line drawings - photographs
redone so they can be
interpreted by a blind student
through his sense of touch - are
produced at the Charlottesville Recording
for the Blind unit.

In this process, a tracing o a
photograph is first made and then
placed in reverse over a thin piece
of tin. With the use of a special
tool, the picture's outline is then
stamped into the piece of foil.
Next, a sheet of special-composition
paper is laid over the
impressed foil, and the two pieces
are placed together inside a kiln
which quickly melts the paper over
the foil and, thus, into the outline
of the picture. Special books of
raised-line drawings are made to
accompany recordings of textbooks
where they are considered helpful.

3,900 Volunteers

Nationally, 3,900 volunteers, including
readers, monitors, raised-line
drawers, clerical and library
workers contribute of their time to
Recording for the Blind. Readers
are carefully selected for the
service, and must pass a 15-minute
recording exam. Last year only
one-third of those taking the test
were chosen to record.

Mrs. Ralph Miller said that
"very few student volunteers" were
lost by the Charlottesville unit
when it moved from its Madison
Lane location out to Arlington
Boulevard in June, 1967, but added
that "the demand for more volunteers
always exists. Where we have a
great need is in biology, chemistry,
and mathematics," she said, explaining
"we only put scientists on
science books, lawyers on law
books. There are some things a
layman would not understand."

In addition to the 31 students,
Mrs. LaSauce said, "The ideal thing
is for them to come at least once a
week to read or to monitor."

The national organization now
operates on a budget of $389,000
annually, with all its funds contributed
voluntarily. Charlottesville's
unit of the RFB was originally
supported by contributions specifically
for that purpose, but five
years ago it became a part of the
local United Givers' Fund cause.

The local unit obtains all its
major equipment through the New
York headquarters, while it supplies
its own tapes and brailling equipment
from its UGF budget. "For
best recording conditions." Mrs.
LaSauce commented, "it would be
the ideal set-up in a building that
has nothing in it but Recording for
the Blind."