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Using the Internet to help the blind read (November 24, 1998 00:57 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) -- How many books a year does an average blind person in this country read? It may surprise you, but the answer is 30. The average sighted person reads only one book a year. The books we're talking about are either in Braille or recorded in audio, and they're available to all because of a 1931 Act of Congress. The act directs the Library of Congress to provide blind Americans with free reading material. The fact that blind people read so many books has environmental consequences. Fortunately, because of work that's been done at the Library of Congress, these consequences are positive, and the future holds some possibilities that are close to amazing. To understand what's going on, remember that there are 700,000 legally blind people in this country. As patrons of the library's National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, they are eligible to draw from 65,000 titles, including 2,000 new titles each year and more than 70 magazines. The books include classics, children's stories, the latest best sellers and just about anything else that would interest a sighted person. Last year, the Library of Congress loaned out roughly 20 million books to blind or physically handicapped people. If all those books had been in Braille, the amount of resources used would have been enormous. Books written in Braille are roughly four times bulkier than regular print books. The pages must be thick enough and large enough to accommodate the raised dots that form the Braille characters. Creating, packaging and shipping 20 million Braille books would be an enormously expensive and resource-intensive project. Instead, the vast majority of those books are recorded as talking books on disc or cassette. The Library of Congress' talking books are less resource-intensive than the usual recorded book. Cassette tapes normally play 60 to 90 minutes. The library's special four-track, half-speed cassettes last six hours. That's the current technology. But John Jackson, Braille technology adviser, and his colleagues at the National Library are testing some remarkable new approaches. They're working to make the library's Braille reading material available to the blind by distributing it on the Internet. Distribution costs would be almost nothing, and patrons could get their books in minutes rather than having to wait days for the material to arrive by mail. Further, the service would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But how would a blind patron read a book from the Internet? The answer is a 12-inch book-shaped electronic device called the Braille display. It attaches to a regular computer. The computer downloads information from the Internet to the display. The display then converts the information into Braille, using small metal-coated plastic pins that raise and lower to form the Braille characters. By running their fingers across the Braille pinheads, blind people can "see" one line of Braille characters at a time. The blind user then presses a control, and a new line of characters appears. With this device, blind people can read in Braille just about all the text that a sighted person could read on the Internet. In fact, they'll have access to more because they can read current best sellers and other material that on the Internet may only be available in Braille. Says Jackson, "With the bulkiness of Braille reduced to electronic form, both the blind and our environment will reap the benefit of technology." For more information, contact: National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, 1291 Taylor Street, NW, Washington, DC 20542. Or visit their Web site at lcweb.loc.gov/nls/. by Mitzi Perdue Copyright 1998 Nando Media Copyright 1998 Scripps Howard janet paterson - 51 now /41 dx /37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/ [log in to unmask]