Bill,
   Because your request for info is of general interest to all people losing
or having lost their vision, I think it is worthwhile to post suggestions to
the list.
      Each state has different agencies offering help to the blind, some
offering more help than others.    A city hall or librarian can help finding
these agencies.  Most local phone companies will provide free directory
assistance with proof of blindness, so access to listings is  generall
available, though celphone companies, as far as I can see, do not provide
this service, charging as much as .99 per request.
     Of course, there is the Talking Books program available through your
state library redistributor for the LIbrary of Congress.  Books are provided
via cassette these dats, with a promised changeover to randomly accessible
CD-ROm-like media sometime in the net 10 years.   Players are provided by the
participating library at no charge. AGain, verification of visual status (or
disability) is required for participation. Another organization, Readings for
the Blind and Dyslexic (RFBD) does make a one-time initial charge of $50.
Their mission is to tape books not already covered by the Library of Congress
Taking B ooks project.  They use volunteer readers rather than professional
readers like the Library of Congress, but you can get textbooks, technical
works and less massmarket appeal readings. They will also read a  book for
you if you provide two copies, both of which are returned, at no charge (as
far as I know).  There is an annual fee of $25, very much worth the cost.


     The Library of Congress also provides through the Taling Books program
such magazines as National Geographic, ATlantic MOnthly, American Heritage,
National REview, Outdoor LIfe, The WRiter and many others, with new titles
added each year.  These are also frees, the requested magazines on cassette
come to your door monthly via US mail.
     Most journals and many magazines are availalbe over the World Wide Web
in plain text versions.   A screen reder for your computer can read these
articles aloud to you.   The software is not free, but some states will pay
for the license.  Some states will provide computers and equipment. AGain,
check with your local blind services agency.  I should mention that most of
these benefits are provided as part of a program to eitehr keep or gain
employment.     It takes time to learn the program, but it's worth it.
    Some other programs, like Open Book (Freedom Scientific) and Kurzweil
2000 can read a book to you by using a scanner to scan in the books pages and
using Optical Character REading software to translate the scanned page image
into readable text, which the software then does.

     There are also sites on the internet, like Project Gutenberg, which
provide text versions of out of print books. These books were typed in by
hand by volunteers over the last 20 years or so to preserve books from
disappearing forever once they are no longer published.    You can download
these books for free and your screen reader can read them.    There is no
charge for this service  but the managers of Project Gutenberg, all of whom
are volunteers, will gladly accept contributions to provide new equipment and
the like.
       There are other sites on the web that provide scanned-to-text versions
of all kinds of things like historical documents.   I am compiling a list of
these and plan to put them up on a website one of these days.  By the way,
anyonw of who knows of sites that provide free access to full-text documents
regionally and locally, please send a private email to me at
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     Furtyher, Newsline is a national service that offers access to
newspapers via the telephone in most of the country, with more newespapers
added each month.   Almost all the mamjor national newspapers (USA Today, NY
Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, etc.) are available, as are the
local big city and many  mid-city newspapers.   Look up Newsline on the
internet for further details.  If you are a member of the Talking Books
program already and Newsline is available in your area, you are already
eligible. If not, you'll need to provide proof of your impairment.   Further,
most newspapers will provide full texts of at least part of their content
locally, which, again, can be read by your screen reader.

     Finally, I suggest seeking out blind people who are doing the things
you'd like to do and get to know them.  One of the best ways to do this is to
join an organization fo blind folks.  I belong to the National Federation fo
the Blind but there are many more, all of whom provide mentoring and who
include many, many dynamic and successful blind people who are very willing
to share their strategies with you.
     If your sister would like to communicate with me, I'd happy to answer
andy questions she may have and to provide more reverences to resources she
might be interested in.   She can reach me at the email cited int his post.

    Hope this helps.   Blindness is certainly inconvenient.  Losing vision
can be vbery frightenning but it sure isn't the end of your life.   There are
so m any resources today and so many blind people are living full lives that
the future is bright even for those who can't see hwo bright it is.

Dan Flasar
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