by Sharon Lovering
Whether you’re a teacher, a librarian, a student or a parent, “A Field Guide for the Sight-Impaired Reader” has something for you. In this book, author Andrew Leibs shares his knowledge of the tools and resources available for visually impaired people.
The book, printed in large print, contains excellent forewords, one “To the Student” and one “To the Librarian.” Leibs’ introduction explains some of his experiences under the special education umbrella, and the reasoning behind the heavy emphasis on books on tape. He states, “In the fall of eighth grade, after finally getting my first book on tape, and having taken Braille and typing lessons, it was abundantly clear to me what tool was going to drive my education: only tapes would play a significant role.” When he tells about his difficulties with a four-track tape recorder, I could sympathize, and I feel certain that many of you will too. And when he speaks about reading “Watership Down” on tape, and his relative’s ire at Leibs’ method of reading, I feel like I’m right there with him.
His closing paragraphs emphasize the importance of books on tape, and of using all resources and technologies. “Once you learn how to find and use all resources and technologies, a great thing happens: reading becomes as much a part of you as it is for any fully sighted reader,” Leibs says. “... With this book, you can do in a day what took me 20 years.”
Content and organization
Leibs has organized the book into seven different chapters: foundation resources; technology resources; braille resources; large print resources; how to find and manage readers; Internet resources, and winning strategies for any academic reading task, as well as five appendices (a state-by-state resource guide, commercial audio publishers, what to read, the Americans with Disabilities Act in the library, and grant sources for funding ADA projects in the library).
This is a well-organized book that leads the reader through the basics to the somewhat more complex world of reading. In chapter 1, he focuses on cassette books, calling RFB&D and the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped the “eternal library cards, the life changers, the points of departure on the road of reading.” At the end of each informational section on the particular organizations, he places a summary box containing all the contact information on each. I hadn’t known before I read this book that the National Association for Visually Handicapped has a lending library!
He repeatedly mentions the National Federation of the Blind, even listing the organization’s state offices in his state-by-state guide. I feel uneasy about this aspect of the book. I realize that ACB does not publish books — “The Braille Forum” is listed in a later chapter — but people may acquire a bias after seeing so much mention of NFB, and so little of ACB.
In the technology-related chapter, I was pleased to see so much variety. However, that pleasure turned to dismay upon seeing mention of Maxi-Aids. After the suit between that company and Independent Living Aids, which Maxi-Aids lost, even the NFB refused to deal with them, stating in a “Braille Monitor” article that “Zaretsky and Maxi-Aids do not behave ethically and are a destructive influence in the blindness field ...” (“On Ethics and Maxi-Aids” by Kenneth Jernigan, July 1998).
Also, some information in that chapter is out of date. Henter-Joyce and Blazie Engineering have merged. The companies will continue to manufacture their product lines separately, but administrative functions will be combined at Freedom Scientific in Florida.
I especially enjoyed reading the braille chapter. It contained information about where to get braille writing equipment, translation software (though Duxbury and MegaDots have now merged, too), speech synthesizers, screen readers, braille embossers, portable braille devices, braille books and periodicals, transcription services, and much more.
“Today, braille has both ardent champions and a host of blind persons with no interest in learning or using the language,” Leibs states. “The availability of cassettes or talking books offers what some regard as a more convenient way to read, and many who lose their sight later in life find it difficult to begin learning a new language. ... That no blind person had any hope of becoming literate and educated before the existence of braille often goes unmentioned.” That last sentence stuck with me throughout the rest of the chapter and the book. Though I have been sighted all my life (and a bookworm too), I have wondered what I would do if I were to become blind. This book has helped me understand what’s available.
Appendices
The five appendices are a useful follow-up to the information in the preceding chapters. Those new to the field of blindness will find the state-by-state resource guide especially helpful (though again, the ACB is not listed).
If you’re a bookworm like me, and you like reading books on tape, Appendix B will really get you going.
And if you’ve ever made a list of books you want to read, but haven’t done so yet, check out Appendix C. It contains 60 books selected from the American Library Association’s “Outstanding Books for the College Bound,” Robert B. Downs’ “Books That Changed the World” and a list published by the Great Books Society (University of Chicago). What’s more, each entry in the list contains the RFB&D shelf number, NLS cassette number, a braille identification number, and mention of its availability in large print and/or via commercial audio producers. Books include “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “Battle Cry of Freedom,” “The Canterbury Tales,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Moby Dick,” and selected works by Shakespeare.
Appendix D deals with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the library. “In general,” Leibs says, “libraries will make changes that will benefit the largest number of patrons.” He gives the example of a library supplying a CCTV or computer with screen-reading software instead of a live reader. The appendix lists valuable resources for librarians and other library workers with regards to the ADA.
Appendix E talks about sources of funding for ADA projects in the library. It is the shortest of the five appendices, and lists four web sites and two guides to finding grants and other funding sources. While it does contain useful information, I feel it would benefit from a lot more detail to make it useful to the general public.
Conclusion
I believe this book is well worth its 280 pages of information. It is useful to students, parents, families, teachers, librarians, and other people who work with the visually impaired population. It is well organized and written, with doses of the author’s experiences sprinkled in to add color and flavor. Anyone new to the field of blindness would do well to read through this book.
To order, call Greenwood Publishing Group toll-free, (800) 225-5800. A complete listing of all Greenwood titles is available at http://www.greenwood.com.