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<h1><b>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</b></h1><b>CONTACT:</b> <br>
Chris Danielsen<br>
Director of Public Relations<br>
National Federation of the Blind<br>
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330<br>
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)<br>
<a href="mailto:cdanielsen@nfb.org">cdanielsen@nfb.org</a><br><br>
<div align="center"><b>HathiTrust at U-M, NFB to Make 14M+ Books
Accessible to Blind and Print-Disabled Users<br><br>
</b></div>
<br><br>
<b>Ann Arbor, Michigan (June 29, 2016): </b>More than fourteen million
digital books will soon be made available to blind and print-disabled
users, thanks to a new collaboration involving the National Federation of
the Blind (NFB) and the HathiTrust Digital Library, a digital repository
hosted at the University of Michigan.<br><br>
<br><br>
When launched, the program will dramatically increase the availability of
books for users who are blind or print-disabled. According to the NFB,
currently less than five percent of all published works are estimated to
be available to the blind, most of which are popular titles.<br><br>
<br><br>
NFB President Mark Riccobono says the effort will be an important
advancement that will specifically benefit print-disabled students and
scholars within the academic community.<br><br>
<br><br>
"While most barriers that blind people face are artificial ones
created by low expectations, access to the printed word has historically
been a great challenge," he said. "This collaboration will, for
the first time, make millions of books available to blind readers across
the nation, giving us access to more books in a single repository than we
have ever had. The significance of this development cannot be overstated,
and we are delighted to work with HathiTrust to transform this dream into
reality."<br><br>
<br><br>
Founded in 2008, HathiTrust is a digital preservation repository with
more than one hundred institutional academic and research partners that
is housed at U-M. Their online archive, a major portion of which was
scanned by Google, currently contains millions of digitized titles in
different languages from libraries around the world. Users can search not
only by title, author or subject matter, but also via page-by-page
content within a book.<br><br>
<br><br>
"Supporting print-disabled users has been a focus of HathiTrust
since the very beginning, and we have long provided students at
HathiTrust member schools with access to our collection" said Mike
Furlough, executive director of HathiTrust. "The collaboration with
NFB is an important turning point, because we are now striving to help
non-academic print-disabled users for the first time." <br><br>
<br><br>
Over the coming year, NFB and HathiTrust will collaborate to plan and
implement these services. User eligibility will be determined by criteria
used by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped and similar services authorized under US law. <br><br>
<br><br>
According to Furlough, HathiTrust currently provides a similar service to
qualified print-disabled students at its member schools. The new program
will expand this service to allow similarly qualified users not
affiliated with HathiTrust schools access to full-text works in the
HathiTrust collection.<br><br>
<br><br>
NFB and HathiTrust, like the federally operated National Library Service,
will lawfully and securely make books available to qualified people in
the U.S. who have print disabilities.<br><br>
<br><br>
<a href="http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5557&qid=1309428">
HathiTrust</a><br><br>
<div align="center"><b>###<br><br>
</div>
About the National Federation of the Blind<br><br>
</b>The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.<br>
National Federation of the Blind<br>
200 East Wells Street<br>
at Jernigan Place<br>
Baltimore, MD 21230<br>
United States<br>
(410) 659-9314
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