[Perform-talk] 7 RFB&D centers to close

[Donna Hill]

 From the Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/north-central/story/1104502.html
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic's Miami office set to close
The local chapter of a national volunteer organization that provides 
reading materials for the blind and dyslexic will close its doors at the 
end of this month. 

George Grim, 94, is a Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic Volunteer. He 
has donated over 10,000 hours during the last thirty years and a 
volunteer award in his name was established in 2001. He is pictured here 
in the recording booth. Volunteers Ken Ciceron, 69, and Tim Crowther, 63 
monitor the audio levels
and read along with him outside the booth.
 
 CHARLOTTE SOUTHERN    /    FOR THE MIAMI HERALD   

BY LEORA ARNOWITZ
LARNOWITZ at MIAMIHERALD.COM

About 11 years ago, Robin Forman was reading the paper and came across 
an ad seeking volunteers for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, an 
organization
that records printed materials for students with disabilities.

Ever since, Forman, a 58-year-old retired librarian from Kendall, has 
spent more than 2,000 days helping out at the organization's Miami 
production studio.

''I do everything but the windows,'' she said. However this will change 
on June 30 when the studio, 6704 SW 80th St., closes its doors.   

The Miami studio is one of seven throughout the United States that will 
close as part of a decision made by the organization's national 
headquarters to
cut costs, said Kathleen Fisler, the local studio production director.

Fisler said the Miami unit has been in service for 51 years and has 
recorded hundreds of thousands of works. She said the unit has more than 
140 volunteers,
and on a normal day about 15 are in the studio.

Forman said Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic works like a library. 
People who need the organization's services become members. They pay a 
membership
fee, and if a member needs a particular book, he can receive it in MP3 
or CD form. He can use the file for up to a year, and then send it back.

''It's kind of like Netflix, I suppose,'' Forman said.

The studio primarily records textbooks to help students through school. 
Books are available in all different subjects and at any grade level.

One former student who found the unit's services to be particularly 
helpful is Darren Gregory of Perrine. Gregory has been using the 
services since 1988,
and he said the recorded works helped him get through college and 
graduate school at Florida International University, where he now works 
as a career counselor.
Gregory has cerebral palsy, which he said affects his vision, speech and 
coordination.

He said he feels the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic helped him 
rely less on others.

''I'm sure I'm speaking on behalf of the 54 million people with 
disabilities when I say that we want to be as independent as possible,'' 
he said. ``I feel
that anything that can provide a level of independence for people with 
disabilities should be expanded not retracted.''

But Forman said there is no hope for saving the Miami studio. She said 
some of the volunteers have written letters to the national headquarters 
to try to
save the center, but the studio closing is a ``done deal.''

Fisler said some volunteers might continue to work with the organization 
through outreach by going to schools and recruiting new members to use 
the Recording
for the Blind and Dyslexic services. She said the main change is that 
the studio will close and therefore the volunteers won't be able to 
record new materials.
There is a studio in Boca Raton, but she said she doesn't expect 
volunteers to travel that far.

Forman is one volunteer who won't be traveling to Boca.

''I am going to go back to my roots and volunteer at the public 
library,'' she said. She expects the organization will lose a lot of 
specialized volunteers
when the Miami studio closes.

''We have people who read law books, medical books, and texts for math 
and science. Those books require people who are specialized and fluent 
in that area,
and that's what we have,'' she said.

She said it will be hard to leave the other volunteers.

''When you're with an organization whether it's your workplace or 
volunteer place they're your family away from your family,'' she said. 
``It's all very
sad.''

Gregory said he thinks members also won't be inclined to use the 
services of the other studio.

''For students, it will take longer to get a book from Boca, and they 
will get frustrated,'' he said. ``Once people don't have it at their 
fingertips they
won't use it as much.''

Gregory added the services are needed in Miami, and he feels the studio 
closing will negatively affect people with disabilities.

''I think wherever you have something that makes your life easier, even 
something that may seem nonessential, it is a shame that it has to be 
taken away,''
Gregory said. ``I know it's going to impact the quality of people's 
lives.''   





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