[Ohio-talk] Refreshable Braille NFB Resolution

[Cheryl Fields]

Paul, I agree! This is wonderful news. Thanks....


On 9/13/17, Paul Dressell via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> This is a good resolution; what do you think?
> Paul
> Regarding the Distribution of Refreshable Braille Displays to Patrons of the
> National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
>
> WHEREAS, there are currently 119,487 libraries of all types operating in the
> United States, and of these only the National Library Service for the Blind
> and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is specifically tasked with distributing
> Braille books across the nation; and
>
> WHEREAS, the distribution of these Braille books by the NLS and a network of
> cooperating regional libraries primarily occurs through the mailing of
> hard-copy offerings, but new, low-cost devices (known as refreshable Braille
> displays) can produce electronic Braille, saving money, saving paper, and
> using a small electronic device instead of multiple and large volumes for
> just one book; and
>
> WHEREAS, in April of 2016 the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
> recognized the potential that refreshable Braille displays offer to increase
> the availability of Braille materials to NLS patrons, while simultaneously
> saving the NLS approximately ten million dollars annually; and
>
> WHEREAS, in July of 2016 Congress affirmed the GAO’s findings by amending
> the Pratt-Smoot Act, (2 U.S.C § 135a), to allow the NLS to “provide books
> published either in raised characters, on sound-reproduction recordings, or
> in any other form,” thereby opening the door for the NLS to distribute
> refreshable Braille displays: Now, therefore,
>
> BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention
> assembled this fourteenth day of July, 2017, in the city of Orlando,
> Florida, that this organization call upon the United States Congress to
> authorize a one-time appropriation of five million dollars to the National
> Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which will enable
> the NLS, through the bidding process, to purchase a minimum of ten thousand
> low-cost refreshable Braille displays, jumpstarting the distribution of
> these devices to the 11 percent of NLS patrons who are already accessing the
> library’s electronic Braille files and increasing access to refreshable
> Braille.
>
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-- 
Wishing You All the Best,

Cheryl E. Fields


A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human
life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will
never sit.
--D. Elton Trueblood