The letter below was faxed to Members of the Committee on House Administration and Members of the Joint Committee on the Library from the International Association of Audio Information Services (IAAIS). The portions between asterisks are the suggested amendments, with those selected sections to be deleted.
Re: Bill S. 2918 - An Act To Provide Access to Newspapers for Blind or Other Persons with Disabilities
The International Association of Audio Information Services (IAAIS) is an association of independently operated, volunteer-driven services that have used telecommunication technology to turn print into speech for more than thirty years. IAAIS Members, a mixture of public and privately supported entities, provide varying types of audio services that provide free, timely access to national, regional and local newspapers, magazines and other print media for blind, vision-impaired and other print-restricted consumers, including seniors - the largest single consumer base for audio information services. Radio reading, dial-up telephone and web-based services make up the IAAIS membership roster. Ninety-eight percent of IAAIS member services operate in the US and serve more than one million print-restricted Americans.
We believe the wording in Senate Bill S. 2918 is limited and not inclusive of all audio information providers. We are asking that the language be expanded to allow for other delivery methods and/or regionally offered programs. In essence our suggested changes will open the possibilities to allow more than one organization to provide services with the Library of Congress' allocation and eliminate the restriction to a single, national-based organization and/or one delivery method. Our suggestions would allow the Librarian of Congress to choose among a variety of sources. We would like to offer the following revised language as a suggestion of how the goal of this legislation can be more readily achieved:
...(1) IN GENERAL.--The Librarian of Congress is authorized, subject to the availability of appropriations, to pay telecommunications costs for blind and other persons with disabilities to have ***interstate*** free access to electronic editions of periodicals and newspapers, disseminated in specialized audio and electronic text formats and available contemporaneously with their print editions, from *** a multi-State nonprofit source *** nonprofit source(s) described in paragraph (2).
(2) *** MULTI-STATE NONPROFIT SOURCE NONPROFIT SOURCE(s).-- The MULTI-State nonprofit source *** nonprofit source(s) referred to in paragraph (1) shall be *** an entity *** entities that *** obtains *** obtain content from publishers for free distribution of 1 or more periodicals or newspapers to blind and other persons with disabilities *** in each state in which *** where such eligible persons receive books and other publications supplied by the Librarian of Congress under the Act entitled ``An Act to provide books for the adult blind'', approved March 3, 1931 (2 U.S.C. 135a).... We ask that the Committee on House Administration take our suggestions into consideration as you examine the structure of Bill S. 2918 approved by the Senate on July 11th, 2006.
ORIGINAL SIGNED BY
Heather Lusignan
President
416-422-4222, ext 224
Fax: 416-422-1633
Day Al-Mohamed
Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs
American Council of the Blind
1155 15th St. NW
Washington DC 20005
Tel. 202-467-5081
dalmohamed@acb.org