From: http://www.rfbd.org/AudioPlusLaunch/mediaprAPa.htm

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 September 3,
2002 release of digitally recorded textbooks on CD from Recording for the
Blind & Dyslexic® (RFB&D®). An inaugural collection of 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(tm) 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(tm) Library in the Princeton, NJ, headquarters to digital format.
RFB&D's Classic Cassettes(tm) 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(tm) 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. 

# # #