A Guide to Developing Braille and Talking Book Services [Reprint 2013 ed.] 9783111658520, 9783111274188

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International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Fédération Internationale des Associations de Bibliothécaires et des Bibliothèques Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen MexayHapOAHaa 4>cAepau>u ΕΗ6.ΠΗΟΤ6« Accomiatine h yipexaemift

I FLA Publications 30

A Guide to Developing Braille and Talking Book Services Edited by Leslie L. Clark in collaboration with Dina Ν. Bedi and John M. Gill

K G Saur München · NewYork · London · Paris 1984

IFLA Publications edited by Willem R. H. Koops R e c o m m e n d e d catalog e n t r y : Clark, Leslie L. A Guide to Developing Braille and Talking Book Services / by Leslie L. Clark. - München, New York etc.: K . G . S a u r 1984. 108 p.; 21 cm. (IFLA Publications; 30) ISBN 3-598-20395-0

CIP-Kurztitelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek Clark, Leslie L.: A guide to developing Braille and talking book services / ed. by Leslie L. Clark in collab. with Dina Ν. Bedi and J o h n M. Gill, [internat. Fed. of Library Assoc. and I n s t . ] . - München ; New York ; London ; Paris : Saur, 1984. (IFLA publications ; 30) ISBN 3-598-20395-0 NE: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions: IFLA publications; HST

ISSN 0 3 4 4 - 6 8 9 1 (IFLA publications) © 1984 by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions The Hague, The Netherlands Printed and b o u n d in the Federal Republic of Germany for K . G . Saur Verlag KG, München b y Hain-Druck G m b H , Meisenheim/Glan by T h o m a s Buchbinderei, Augsburg All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic mechanical, p h o t o c o p y i n g , recording, or otherwise, w i t h o u t permission in writing f r o m t h e publisher. ISBN 3-598-20395-0

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Table of Contents

Preface Chapter I

Introduction

Chapter II

Knowing the Population Served

Chapter III

-

Die Nature of Reading The Development of Talking Bocks The Development of Braille Books

Chapter IV

-

Creating a Facility General Principles

Chapter V

The Talking Book Facility

Chapter VI

Hie Braille Bock Facility

Chapter VII

-

Chapter VIII -

A Survey of Current Practice The Future of Braille

and Talking

Books

Appendioes I II III IV V

-

Survey Form Pre-test Mailing List Manufactures and Suppliers Selected Further Readings Braille and Talking Book (Tables)

Producers

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Editor: Leslie L. Clark Baruch College City University of New York New York, New York United States

Contributing Editors: Dina Ν. Bedi City University of New York New York, New York United States John M. Gill Brunei University Oxbridge, Middlesex United Kingdom

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Dedicated To the Memory of Pieter Jan Albertus de Villiers

Pieter de Villiers died on October 15, 1980. Known as a natural leader vi» motivated his associates to produce their best work, Pieter will be long ranarfcered by his colleagues as a co-founder of the Round Table of Libraries for the Blind, International Federation of Library Associations, and as co-author of the first international standards for bibliographic control of materials produced for use by blind individuals. Pieter's kindness, understanding, patience, and modesty endeared him to individuals of varying backgrounds front all countries of the world. Wiile he has passed from us, his work will live on.

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Chapter I Introduction This bock results from a collaborative effort, both in its planning and in its content. It evidences the willingness to share experience and knowledge by libraries and producers of reading raterial s for the blind and visually inçaired all over the world. That information was gathered frcri a variety of sources, but one of the most important was an international survey of producers of braille and talking bodes. Our purpose is threefold: First, to provide an overview of current practice in producing braille and talking books. Second, to describe some typical systems for producing reading materials. Third, to provide guidance to those wishing to establish new facilities for producing reading raterials, or to update older facilities. The sponsors of this study included a number of organizations with an international perspective on the process of producing and deploying bocks in forms other than ink print (blackprint). They include: 1. Wie International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Round Table of Libraries for the Blind (now an IFLA Section); 2. The Subcarmi ttee for Talking Book Distribution of the Canni ttee on Cultural Affairs of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind (WCWB); 3. The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress (NIS), U.S.A.; 4. The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), U.S.A.; 5. The United Nations Educational, Cultural Organization (Unesco).

Scientific

and

The bock was reviewed by the Section of Libraries for the Blind of IFLA and approved for publication. The study was directed by Peter E. Hanke of the Talking Book Department of the American Foundation for the Blind, with the cooperation of Frank Kurt Cylke, National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, (U.S. Library of Congress); D. Roskilly, Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) ; and D.S. Zharkov, Republican Central Library for the Blind, U.S.S.R. Part of our reason for this study was to find out viiat libraries and

10 presses around the world were doing to satisfy the demand for books for the blind and visually impaired. Therefore an international survey of current practice was an important component. Survey results are used throughout the text. A description of the survey methods will be found in Chapter VII "A Survey of Current Practice." In brief, we sought answers not only to questions of current levels of production, but also on methods of distributinq books; information on their format; data on the devices used to read then (in the case of talking books); seme idea of the use of available information on demand and its influence on the content of the books; the capability of presses to meet increased demand; and some idea of the social context within vii ich the press or facility was established. Itiis kind of information is crucial to a snapshot of current practice. It is surprising that it has never been gathered before except in a fragmented way. It is also crucial knowledge for persons who will create or upgrade methods of producing books that meet the needs of readers in a given country. It can also help those establishing programs to produce books where, as among the Hausa, no braille code even exists as yet for the spoken language; this is one very inçortant use of this book. For an increasing number of national plans for braille and talking book production, a process of "technological leapfrogging" can occur. It is no longer necessary for production and deployment systems in every country to go through evolutionary growth. With the rapid exchange of information now possible, and the world-wide availability and distribution of equipment, no country need be divorced frcm the potential of the latest systems to natch the individual needs of the country and its readers. But with so many options available, how does one choose anong them? Here is where shared experience may provide help frcm those v*io have operated facilities over a period of time. In the original work plan for this study, it was hoped that the following purposes could be served: 1. Libraries throughout the world serving blind and physically handicapped individuals would be identified, and information about their location, administration, format of materials produced and held, language(s) used, availability of materials through interiibrary loan, and catalog availability would be included; 2. Expanding services to blind and physically handicapped individuals, and building library programs in developing countries where they do not now exist, could be guided; 3. Braille and talking book centers oould be proliferated, and the distribution of braille and talking bocks could be developed with special attention to developing countries;

Il 4. An Information center could be developed to receive and update information, maintain contacts among survey respondents and solicit international cooperation for development of programs, stimulate study groups to meet identified needs, and organize and maintain a roster of experts to which others could t u m for advice and counsel. The first three purposes are addressed in various ways by this bock; the fourth will be an outgrowth of the survey effort and the development of this book. The organization of the bock was designed to carry out the above objectives. To aid the reader, we took the stance of an extended conversation with a planner and developer of new talking book and braille book production services in an area or country or nation in which no such services were available before now. Wiat advice, in other words, could the best of current practice and technical counsel offer the person who was starting . .frcm scratch"? We took this point of view because we thought we could avoid the danger of taking very much for granted—beyond our cumuli experience, and the knowledge necessary for any manager to irpletnent a national plan. Althoucfi these are no snail assumptions, they are probably safe ones for many readers of this bock. In what follows, then, we discuss first the need to know the population of persons to be served and those who will be affected by the plan for production and a production facility will require obtaining current quotations from manufacturers and suppliers.

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Chapter II Kncwing the Population Served Fundamental to any plein to serve the needs of users i s the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of those users and their s p e c i f i c needs. This preliminary step in formul a t i n g a plein t o produce talking books or b r a i l l e books i s often overlooked even among countries having conprehensive national services. Part of the reason why t h i s step i s often not taken, a t l e a s t a t the outset of planning, i s that i t i s d i f f i c u l t to carry out. We shall discuss l a t e r the implications when we discuss administrative plans for marketing the product of the b r a i l l e or talking book f a c i l i t y . There we shall see that no rational marteting plan can proceed without sene firm knowledge about what i s wanted and by whom. At the outset, however, the pleinner must know seme thing about the nature of the population of persons he intends to serve. He eissume that there i s a need f o r bredile and talking bock products. The need can be based on a number of events or observations. I t may be based on c u w m knowledge about the population: that there are many blind and v i s u a l l y impaired persons. Public health measures j u s t beginning t o be applied may have i n d i cated that many already s u f f e r visual impairment fron widespread lack of regard f o r elementary health precautions. Sane c u l t u r a l l y defined pract i c e s nay l i e a t the root of the generation of eye disorders (the most celebrated exaiple being that of the ccmnunity use of a pot of eye shadow powder). Hiere i s also a need, however, f o r more concrete data. Vtiere can i t be found? The f i r s t step i s to contact professional s t a f f a t departments or minist r i e s o f public health, of general health, and of education. The ministry of health (and/or department of public health) may well be undertaking studies of the general population t o determine the incidence and prevalence of diseases and conditions that inpact on the s t a t e of the nation's heeilth. I t has been said by S i r John Jarvis of the Royal Comonwealth Society that, in many countries of the world, half of the blindness i s remediable and the other half preventable, ünesco-funded programs i n nary countries that attempt t o nake t p f o r a deficiency of Vitamin A in the infant d i e t are an exanple of e f f o r t s to pnnwaiL impairment of v i s i o n by correcting the condition—an improper d i e t — t h a t gives r i s e t o visual ijipairment. The travelling c l i n i c s tredtin^ cdtâTâcb renoval i n Kenya and India are examples of ptugiaiis that attempt t o attack the problem of remediation. Yet, even the most vigorous of such programs cannot prevent e n t i r e l y the occurrence of certain congenital and early infant conditions—not even i n technically advanced s o c i e t i e s . These conditions contribute to an i n c i dence o f one t o two percent among the general population who have visual

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impairment making reading of ordinary newspaper difficult, even with corrective lenses; or making difficult the recognition of the face of a friend from a short distance. There is a certain imprecision in this definition of visual impairment, it is deliberate. One great epidemiologist and statistician. Dr. Hyman Goldstein, once said that more persons were blinded from definition than fron any other cause. Certainly it is true that one can reduce the population of blind and visually inpaired persons by adopting a very strict and limited definition of blindness, i.e., by limiting "the blind" to those who have total absence of vision; or to those who have "light perception" (those vie can tell only when a light is present or absent, or when it is day or night). Countries with lijnited financial resources and a core population of totally blind persons have on occasion adopted this most restrictive definition of eligibility for rehabilitation and other services. We think it an unwise decision on four grounds: 1. One cannot define sharply the cost of suffering and denial of opportunity to those with severe visual infirment as canpared to those who are totally blind. 2. It is easier to make definitions of visual inpairment realistic (i.e., defining restriction in daily activities), rather than merely administrative. One can then decide upen what level of service is to be offered to the several groups or levels of infirment. In other words, it is easier to inpose administrative rather than false functional restrictions . 3. It has been the experience of many countries, including the United States, that as aie gains expertise in providing talking bock and other services to the visually inpaired, sane features of the service may appeal to segments of the population with impairments other than visual. 4. It has become increasingly apparent that except in unusual circumstances visual impairment does not occur by itself; it is often associated with other impairments (sensory, motor or both). A good argument may be nade that keeping the needs of the individual together, rather than separating them into artificial categories or ccnpartments of impairments, makes sense frcm the point of view of both the administrator of national programs and the humanist. It is certainly true in the developed countries that, around the beginning of the twentieth century, there were two leading causes of blindness—from industrial accidents and from ophthalmia neonatorum. It is also true, and

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worth noting, that nest of the rehabilitation structure of the developed countries was built vç> on the basis of these two causes. Hence, the emphasis on the education of the young and the vocational rehabilitation of the adult in the work force. Today, however, the picture has changed. Blindness frcm industrial accidents has declined to a very small proportion of the population of the visually inpaired. This has been done through better protection for the eyes in work places and the continuing and increased erphasis on vrorker safety arti precautionary measures at work. Blindness fron diseases of the mother at birth was all but eliminated with the introduction of the standard medical procedure of the administration of drops of silver nitrate solution into the infant's eyes upon birth. In the developing countries due attention will have to be paid to duplicating this concern for eye safety in the work environment. Ttiis is a natter of allocation of resources, time, staff arid money to increasing the awareness of the inportance of safety in the work place, and by the introduction of the devices to ensure it. The wise planner would try to assure that sudi measures are in the forefront of any other planning department's strategies thile increasing the industrial base of the country. In the developing countries, the swift transfer of medical knowledge has made it already all but universal that precautions are taken at birth to protect infant vision. Even here, however, with the majority of births occurring outside of modern hospital environments, it will repay the planner to look into the training practice for midwives and others concerned with deliveries so that elementary precautions against damage to the eyes can be taken. Although we have spent sane time examining the questions of industrial safety and neonatal care, the advice to the planner to examine prugrjiK in his own environnent in these areas is not idle. The prevention of blindness and visual impairment is a cost-effective way of reducing the ultimate demand for brail le and talking book products. It also reduces the amounL of disposable resources the nation must allocate to rehabilitative services for the blind and visually inpaired. Although research has indicated that virtually every society existing above the line demarcating them fren mere survival or subsistence has such disposable resources, and that all that do, allocate sane of these to care for the blind. It is obvious that the lees one has to allocate to this purpose, the more the nation will have to allocate to other programs considered to constitute priorities in national growth and welfare, file fact that the planner has looked into these matters will reinforce other national programs, and may reinforce cooperation among the ministries he visits as he goes about his own task. Even in the most advanced nations, it is not unknown that a blind child can be stunted between the ministry of education and the ministry of health, with each claiming it is the other's jurisdiction to take action in the child's education. There is aranterof alternatives available to the planner to determine the

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extent and type of visual impairment and blindness existing in his country and to plan the development of facilities to meet the demands of this population. One way is to request special funding for a national survey of visual impairment. Yet, this nay not be an efficient way to proceed in many cases. Por one thing, it is expensive. For another, it nay duplicate needs for interviewing and the acquiring or training of skilled persons that other departments or ministries may have already. Another way is to sede information gathered by employees of another enterprise or ministry. In Puerto Rico, for exanple, a quick measure of the extent of blindness and visual impairment was taken by having those persons viio read household electric, water and gas meters ask members of the household whether there were any persons in the house who had problems seeing. In Sweden, postal carriers and letter deliverymen in rural areas inquire after the well-being of those with inpairments of all kinds, including visual. In both instances there were ways of identifying or locating the visually impaired among the population at relatively lew cost. There is the added advantage that rural areas are also covered in this way. And there is the further advantage that since the meter reader or nail carrier is sane thing less than an "official" person the response rate in identifying the visually impaired is higher than it is apt to be when an interviewer appears, board in hand, at the front door of a household. There may be other professions or occupations whose members may serve the function of the meter reader or letter carrier in these exarples that—like the itinerant paraprofessional health officer—share the characteristics of frequent and wide-ranging mobility and informell contact with individual households. All such methods of identifying the population in need, however, must be considered to be interim measures. Oiey do not satisfy the principles of thorough and complete methodology of more sophisticated approaches, but their simplicity and low cost suggest use in the planning stages of a new facility. Uiey can give a quick reading or "snapshot" of need that will guide the planner in anticipating the demands to be made on a system he designs to meet the reading needs of the blind and visually impaired. What are the more canprehensive approaches? shall discuss each of them briefly.

There are three types, and we

First, there is a generad health survey of the population. Usually, the ministry of health will decide to ask a carefully selected subpopulation of the nation (sarple) a series of questions about the state of general health of individuals and families. The questions are uniform, that is, they comprise a set of questions that are asked of everyone in the sample. Interviewers are trained carefully to administer the questions in an uniform way. Every effort is nade to secure responses frcm each of the persons or households that are included in the sample drawn up beforehand. The responses to the questions are assigned nutters (coded) and these data are entered on to punched cards or magnetic tape for manipulation by a centrally located computer. Conducted carefully with suitable safeguards of consistency and accuracy, such surveys can give a good idea of the kinds of

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health problems found in the population as a whole. They will also show the extent, scope or universality of a given condition. Taken once, the data give a "snapshot" also of general health, but one of good resolution. This kind of survey yields what is called "prevalence of conditions" in the health of the population. If such a survey is conducted periodically, and analyzed in ways that make the survey results conviti hie fren one survey to the next, one can determine, over time, the rate at vdiich the number of persons in the population with a given health condition increases, decreases or stays the same. This kind of analysis yields viiat is called "incidence information" on given health conditions. Thus, if baseline figures on the number of blind and visually impaired persons in the population were to be gathered in general health surveys, and subsequent sanplings showed a sharp rise in the nunber of people becoming blind and visually impaired during the interval between one survey and the next, the ministry of health would be alerted to look for the cause(s) of the narked increase. It would be wise for the planner of talking book and braille services to ask vAiether these kinds of health surveys are rede by the ministry of health (or ccnrparable agency) and to inquire further whether questions about blindness and visual impairment might be included. Hiese kinds of data are among the most reliable over the long term for planning purposes. The second type of survey is really a subcategory of the first. It is a health interview survey as well, but includes only questions about blindness and visuali impairment. Again, sudi studies are usually conducted by the ministry of health, perhaps in cooperation with a local university facility viiich gives advice en the phrasing of questions designed to obtain information on visual impairment. (There are also model surveys in English and other languages that can possibly be adapted to this purpose.) Generally, estimates of the prevalence and incidence of blindness and visual impairment in the general population based on this type of specialpurpose survey are derived fron procedures similar to the generell health survey already described. But a variation on the basic method is also often used, that is, to sanple a broad subpopulation with a "screening questionnaire." A full interview is then administered only to those persons and households among which the screening survey shows evidence of possible vision impairment. Aie planner of bock services, if he or she is cooperating with the ministry conducting the survey, has the opportunity also to suggest the inclusion of some questions of direct interest to him in planning and conducting his service. Among them: the extent to which respondents read before beaming visually impaired; the present interest in reading materials; vhether braille has been taught to the respondent who has been blind ¿ a n an early age; whether the respondent wishes to learn braille; what the needs are for recreational, educational, reference and professional reading materiell s ; and so on. The third approach to assessing reader need is one which assumes that the government has made a ocrrmitirent to log and follow φ on those with visual impairment severe enough to interfere with the conduct of daily life, work

18 and education. This record is called a register of persons with severe visual impairment or blindness. Entry on sudi a register may be required before certain assistance is available to citizens: subsidies, pensions and other types of financial or rehabilitative service. Often the degree of visual impairment nust be certified and recorded by an ophthalmologist or other medical officer. Here, the planner can inform himself, and perhaps help to educate others, by inquiring what criteria are used in making additions to the register; and by suggesting modifications to the definitions based on sane of the considerations listed earlier regarding the use of talking books by other iirpeiirment groups. Registers can be very useful instruments for assessing need, but they aire very nearly as expensive as health interview surveys to construct and maintain; and they have the unfortunate tendency of representing the distribution of blind and visually impaired persons in the population falsely unless they are kept up to date. The planner can previde a valuable service to his governmental ministries by showing the link between health surveys—of either the general or speciali purpose variety—and follow-υρ procedures that certify the condition of visual impairment or blindness by a medical officer. Thus, additions to the register of blind persons will truly reflect the existing population of the visually inpaired. But his effort must be supplemented by sane mechanism that will ensure removal of names fron the register when an individual dies, or moves out of the country, or is otherwise no longer in the population to be served. He should also bear in mind, given Lord Jarvis" reminder, that some substantial proportion of the register population can be removed viien the cause of blindness, as with cataracts, can be removed. If there is a national or local association of blind persons known to him, he may engage that organization in his efforts to ensure that the register reflects faithfully his potentiell service population. What we have suggested is a set of activities that is preliminary to, or simultaneous with, the planning of talking book or braille book services. They are neither idle nor wasted efforts. The costs of providing services are rising constantly, so are the expectations of the special populations of the impaired and disabled in every nation. The wise planner will become one of the local experts on the nature and extent of visual, and other, impairments to the population of his country. By taking the trouble to inform himself of the true needs of his fellow citizens, he will have close at hand the vital information he needs to plan rational means of supplying the need that exists for reading materials of all kinds. By contacting the several relevant ministries and organizations concerned with the population he serves, he will have acted as an agent for educating himself and others; he will have forged links with those vrtio can provide the information he needs to carry on his work; and he will have increased the visibility of his efforts to provide the books that are wanted, vtfien they are wanted, and by whan they are wanted, at the least cost. There is another advantage to this process of information gathering that the planner can benefit from. As we shall see later in our discussion of marketing his product, the planner will cane upon points fran time to time

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at viiich he nust make crucial decisions: Do I concentrate more on educational or recreational reading? How do I select titles to produce fron among the many available in ink print? How serious ought I be in deciding to provide professional reference materiati s? In making these decisions, he needs advice. In justifying the decisions that are reflected in his budget proposals to the ministry funding his work, he will need independent confirmation. In planning new departures he will need new knowledge of the best and the least costly procedures. For all these reasons the planner should consider very carefully the formation of an advisory group. There may be no better start for this group than fron among the persons the planner nay contact during the period when he is familiarizing himself with the nature of the population he is to serve. With such an advisory group, the planner will have the advantage of constantly renewed knowledge about the blind and visually impaired in his country. He will also beocme knowledgeable about the growth of and changes in other impaired populations—the deaf, the deaf-blind, the physically disabled, those who suffer accidents—all of whctn nay be potential users. If his time and energy permit, he may even be able with this kind of current knowledge to reach out to these other populations to assess their needs. This can contribute still more positively to his visibility; and he has the additional confort of knowing that his actions nay encourage favorable consideration of his next budget request! In this chapter, we have dealt with the issue that good planning for talking book and braille book services is crucially dependent can the amount, variety and quality of information about the population of blind and visually impaired persons that is to be served. We have stressed the creation of a social organization of networks from sources of such information to the consumer «ho will use that information. He have also stressed the dual role of the planner. He will construct the plant and capacity to serve a specific population of readers. He will also consciously create a model of excellence that can serve to further national plans to serve other impaired grotps. In closing, we can emphasize that no organization exists in a vacuum; constant nourishment of the interaction among the several agencies, organizations and ministries the planner has contacted in his work makes possible the growth of a coherent, rational, national plan to serve the needs of all citizens. In the next chapters, we shall touch on the nature of reading and how this inpacts on the creation of talking book and braille book production facilities; and the general principles that guide the architecture of the organization making this product, and deploying it, for the benefit of the blind and visually impaired reader.

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Chapter ΙΠ Hie Nature of Reading Introduction Reading is both a mental activity and a rotor a c t i v i t y . Hiat is, i t requires the ability to hold a book and to turn the pages, and the knowledge to understand vrfiat i s printed on the page. The rotor requirements in reading are relatively modest except where there i s impairment of physical strength or movement of arms and hands. The requirements for carrying on the mental activity range widely depending on what the individuell chooses to read. In ordinary visual activity a distinction i s nade by scientists between "vision" and "gaze." Vision nay be considered a relatively autorat i c process. Whenever the eyes are open and the individuell i s awake and aware of his surroundings, a constant stream of information comes to his mind through the visual channel. I t has been estimated that more than 90 percent of our knowledge of the world outside our bodies cones to us in this way. Yet, even when vision i s not impaired, we use very l i t t l e of that information; there i s nudi information that we do not need, and therefore, to Vilich we do not attend. Hie only condition under which the ordinary person uses his channel of vision to the utmost i s when driving an automobile under conditions of heavy t r a f f i c and relatively high speed. Under those circumstances i t has been estimated that he uses and processes as many as one million "bits" (binary digits) of information in a second. Visual activity, as we have said, i s a virtually automatic activity under ordinary conditions. I t i s \¿iat has been called a "driven" process; that is, even i¿ien looking ahead without paying attention to something in the visual f i e l d , a series of small back-and-forth movements are nade by the eyes called "sacades." Illese serve to heighten the apparent sharpness of central vision and support the ability of seme receptors in the eye to detect movement. Rie process i s also automatic in the sense that most of what we see under ordinary circuís Lances i s familiar; thus, viiat we see i s heavily dependent on former visual events stored in our memories. Because of our dependence in ordinary l i f e on such memories, we can be fooled by "optical illusions" into thinking a line i s shorter than i t i s , or that a particular image can be interpreted as depicting more than one image. All of us have seen exaiples of such illusions. He contrast this automatic, power-driven process of vision with the process of gaze. Gaze requires not only recognition but interpretation. I t i s the process that occurs when we come tpon a new visual experience. Vtien confronted by an optical illusion our attention i s alerted, we look at the element in the visual f i e l d that disturbs us and a rnirber of guesses i s made to interpret what we see. We may seek additional information about the thing at which we are looking to confirm or deny our guesses. Eventually, we resolve the discrepancy between what we see and what we know, and a new memory i s added in our minds to help interpret novel events in the

22

future. There eure many grades between the two points we have identified in using our vision. Locking at the clouds in the sky while reclining on the grass on a warm day requires little interpretation of what we see. Catching sight of a pretty girl in a crowded city causes us to concentrate nore on supplementing the information our first sight has given us. Attending to a swift-moving event, like a robbery that occurs "right in front of our eyes," causes us to lavish great concentration on what we see. Wien we read we are using our capability for vision in the service of gaze. That is, while we could know that we are looking at a printed page without attending to it (as many a sleepy student studying for an examination the next day would confirm!), reading to derive information or enjoyment requires attending to the information printed on the page. There are, of course, varying levels of attention and varying levels of knowledge required to support that attention. Very little understanding or knowledge may be required to read sinple ranantic novels or a child's bock. More knowledge and attention is required to read a daily newspaper; indeed, sane of the great newspapers of the world require a great deal of understanding to read and enjoy them. Technical and reference works ray require very close attention and engage gaze to a maximum degree. Reading can thus be regarded as an activity that uses the channel of vision to capture information from a printed page, and regni res various degrees of attention to interpret that information depending on the nature of the text that is read. Although the usual definitions and measures of "work" cannot be applied to the process (since little physical energy is expended in the process), we know that it is widely agreed among those who read that at least some types of reading require work. Keeping one's attention to the text that is reed for a given length of time may be an indirect measure of that work. In any case, there are wide variations in any given population for the amount of work that individuals are willing to invest in capturing information frcm the printed page. Indeed, most of the populations in most nations of the world never get very far beyond a daily newspaper, if that, in their investment of work in reading. If reading is defined as finishing at least three or four bocks (a book being 250 pages or rrore) a year, then the nvnter of persons in almost any relatively literate population vi» can be said to be readers will rarely exceed 10 percent of the population (and the true figure is probably under that). The occurrence of visual impairment or blindness does not radically alter this definition of a reader. Blindness inposes two great burdens on an individual. Hie first is the difficulty of navigating even in familiar environments. Die second is the denied of access to the printed page. By far, the most overwhelming need for a newly blinded person is to learn techniques to overcome the first burden. Rehabilitation programs all over the world are sensitive to this fact and concentrate not only on the various techniques of negotiating the daily environment, but also techniques for ocping with the demands of self or personal cetre, the managing of one's

23 household, working and studying. But it is a camon experience that irrrediately as sore headway is made in coping with these problems, the need to read beoanes essential—more so for the blind than for the sighted. Even the mature adult blinded in later life, who usually learns brail le poorly, if at all, is soon keenly aware of the need to identify with single braille labels those features of the environment that were captured almost autanatically visually: the matching of clothing he wears, the labels on food containers, the identification of needed medication, and so on. Curiously, the need to make up the information that is lost with the loss of the channel of vision does not turn nonreaders into readers. Beyond the sijnple requirements for identifying the everyday environnent, the nimber of persons in the blind and visually impaired population who are readers does not greatly exceed 5 percent of the population, as we have already noted. This is not to deny that for those who do read the availability of ink print in alternative forms (as talking books or as braille books) is not important. On the contrary, for those relatively isolated by being blind, reading assumes a major role in maintaining contact with the world. It may fill Deny enpty hours. It may allow sene appreciation of worlds different in place and time from one's own familiar environnent. It may be a companion to the older person. Most of the uses of reading mentioned here can be characterized as "recreational. • Such reading does not include professional or educational material, although the importance of this kind of material nay be great for the blind professional or student. It may caiprise versions of the daily newspaper and popular magazines. And this kind of material makes up the bulk of the reading material produced for the blind the world over. Ihe reason is no rrore nysterious for this population of blind readers than it is for the sighted. Again, the degree of attention one must devote to the process of reeding is determined by the difficulty of the text that is read, the motivation of the reader, and the understanding of the recider that can be called vpon to supply information or interpretation not made explicit in the material read. Here, then, we have the equivalent of "gaze"—the degree of attention to be paid in reeding text, whether presented to the ear or to the sense of touch. And we can add to the requirement for attention the larger effort needed to appreciate the read text, ttiat is, while the eye can normally scan, and the reader interpret, printed material at the rate of 250 to 300 words per minute, the rates of reading in the other two modes are much lower. Although authorities may differ on the precise nutters involved it is probably safe to say that material presented in talking book form is usually read at a rate of between 120 and 160 words per minute. Braille reading rates even among high school students are typically not much more than 100 words per minute or so. Hais, not only must more attention be paid to what is read when materials eus presented to the ear or the hand; more time must be spent in absorbing what is presented. Ulis may be one of the reasons that the nunfcer of talking book and braille readers is not

24 greater than it is: although the need to secure information about the world nay be increased when the visual sense is absent or irrpaired, so is the effort required to access it. Thus, viiatever gains in the reader population one might expect frati the first factor, the loss due to the second factor more than makes up for it. The net result is that we find the number of readers of talking bocks and braille books to be somewhat less than the ratio found in the normally sighted population. Illese facts are, by and large, not known among the normally sighted population, not even among those of considerable sophistication and education. It is probably true that the inventors vtfio discover a new method of creating braille or artificial speech expect much greater application than they find in practice, even when factors of cost and production capability are taken into account. The Development of Talking Books Shortsightedness could not be attributed to Themas A. Edison and his 1877 patent for "An Improvement in Phonograph or Speaking Machines." His discussion clearly included an indication of his ability to foresee unusual applications of his inventions. He mentioned at the outset of the recording art the use of the phonograph for reading materials back to the blind. His patent applica tien did not claim invention of the phonograph. The Phonautograph was in fact described as early as 1857 by Leon Schott; and in 1877 Charles Croe of France described the disc recording art without, however, accomplishing it in actuality. The germ of Edison's work was planted by F.B. Fentoy, in 1863 patented the "Electro Mechanical Phonograph," actually using spots to record when keys had been depressed on an instrument such as a piano; his work led later to the development of player pianos. It was Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone and tracher of the deaf, who devoted more attention than Edison to the development of the new recording process; and in 1886-87, he began comercializing the phonograph. But, in 1895, Qnile Berliner set down in a comprehensive patent most of the features we associate today with the recorded disc, and it was coincident with the production of the flat disc by his associate, E.R. Johnson, in 1898. The comercial success of the phonograph under these pioneer developers motivated Edison to return to the exploitation of his development with greater interest, even though he was reluctant to use the flat disc. With his innate love for technical excellence, he continued to devote much attention to the refinement of the cylinder. His success can be heard even today with admiration by the technically informed listener for what he achieved so long ago. Nor did Edison stop experimenting; perhaps he still had the requirements of the blind in the back of his mind. But pronpted by the need of the growing broadcast industry in the United States, his laboratory produced discs in 1927 to 1929 which matched many of the characteristics of today's long-playing record (LP). They rotated at 30 revolutions

25 per minute (rpm), were recorded with grooves twice as fine as those used on the LP today and played for as much as 50 to 60 minutes per side. The organizations for the blind were not long in seeing the possibilities for the use of these advances. In 1931, the American Foundation for the Blind initiated an experimental development program for talking books on discs and produced a number of titles on 12-inch diameter discs made of flexible material, recorded at 33-1/3 rpm (just like today's LP record), and with grooves cut fine enough to allow a playing time of 15 minutes per side. In collaboration with the O.S. Library of Congress, a system for distributing simple, cheap playback machines was started within a year. The talking bock program, as we know it, was begun. The interplay of ccrrmercial exploitation and development of aids for the blind, so often seen, began around 1950 to accelerate the rate of innovation introduced into the talking book program. Itms, in 1964 a 16-2/3 rpm disc containing 90 minutes of recording on each side was introduced (a still slower disc, rotating at 8-1/3 rpn was developed also). The development of cheap flexible discs and entossing systems made possible the creation of inexpensive recordings of technical and scientific texts for the professional and the student. The fully matured technologies involved in the production of the disc talking book, however, can be used to the fullest only in countries in which their readers are relatively nunerous, a single language is used, and the size of the reading population guarantees the demand for a large variety of titles. Dp until about 1960, there were only about four countries in which these condì ti cms were met: the United States, England, France and Austria. But in the I960*s another technology appeared that has altered radically the talking bock medium in every country in the world: the maturing of the modern tape recorder frcm the German Magnetophone (introduced to the United States engineering community sifter the second World Kar). The flexibility, editing capability and ease of use of the tape recorder by the individual has almost entirely taken over the talking bock format. In one form or another, the tape recorded talking bock has replaced the disc format in every country in the world except the United States. Even there, most of the production of talking books is now on tape, iraking headway year by year against the cost advantages of the disc. The original master recordings for talking bocks are nade everywhere on magnetic tape recorded on reels at 3-3/4 inches per second (ips) (9.53 cm/sec). There are several forms in viiich the tape recorded talking bock is found. In England, Spain and Argentina a cartridge type of tape recording was introduced in the early I960* s capable of mal ti track playback, with a total available recorded time of 21 hours. A fully matured system for duplication was introduced by the manufacturers, Clarke & smith, Ltd. of England. Over the years, an ingressive amount of attention has been paid to the needs of users of the playback machines using these cartridge systems, so that persons with physical úipairments other than visual can operate them

26

with ease. Hie proliferation of open-reel tap? recorder manufacturers, and the rapid adoption of this medititi for the talking bock, led to the establishment in 1956 of a tape duplicating facility in Paris by the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind (AFOB, known today as Helen Keller International , HKI ). It produced tape copies of master recordings for a nutter of countries over the world, and helped extend the use of the talking book to many previously underserved regions. IXiring the decade or so of its operatici, it trade a great irtpact on the availability of talking bodes by rettoving the need for small countries to operate an expensive facility themselves. During this period, the dominance of the tape talking book became increasingly clear. The open reel type of talking book is now found almost everywhere in the world. Despite the price disadvantage of tape over disc talking books—the reproducers are, at best, twice as expensive for tape as for disc, and in many cases more than that—the ability to produce ocpies at higher speeds, the reduction in stocking requirements of copies possible by retaining a master tape for reproduction when denand warrants it, and the ease of handling of the meditati have proved overwhelming advantages. These advantages were exploited further by the quiet introduction by Philips, in the Netherlands, of their catpact cassette in 1963. Originally meant only as a dictation and secretarial aid, it was quickly adapted for general speech (and limited music) recording by the general public. Among the advantages that helped it to achieve quick acceptance were that no handling of the relatively fragile tape was requited; different lengths of tape were available in the same anali physical package; and the technical specifications were defended vigorously by Philips, which assured that a recording made on any canpact cassette machine anywhere in the world would play back on any other corpact cassette player. Accomodation was made by Philips to the special requirements of stereo recording by placing two tracks of recorded information, separated by a guard Dand of unrecorded tape, on that half of the tape originellly intended for a single track. The use of speeds other than the standard of 1-7/8 ips (4.76 cm/sec), and of four individual recorded tracks, was allowed by the patent holder for talking books and other special applications only, not for sale to the general public. The amount of technical attention to, and the rapidity of technical development of, the caipact cassette during the last decade or so has been ranarkable. Ihe introduction of superior tape and systems which reduced the extraneous noises inherent in the tape recording process made use of the compact cassette possible for high quality sound reproduction. These advantages have been seized upon and exploited by several manufacturers of high quality equipment over the world. Ttius the range of equipment using the carpact cassette has beccme unprecedently wide, ranging frati $40 record/playback units to the lofty region of $5,000 for the latest professional equipment. Moreover, tape recorders using carpact cassettes have displaced entirely

27

the open reel recorders for most high fidelity enthusiasts: there are very few open reel recorders in the price range of $300 to about $2,000 available any more. By now, the problems in manufacturing fairly inexpensive and reliable compact cassette recorders and players are well understood: practice in making literally millions of these machines has led to considerable perfection. More importantly, the requirements for making the compact cassettes themselves has beccme equally well-known. It is possible to set down wary specific requirements for the dimensions and tape performance characteristics of the compact cassette; in fact, the O.S. Library of Congress has done so (as has virtually every international standards and national standards groqp). Fortunately for the talking book producer, the manufacture of the compact cassette has beccma so straightforward that it is possible to use the product of almost any well-known manufacturer and ignore all but two characteristics (which we will touch upon in Chapter V) with no ccnoern over consistency of the final product. ihe Development of Braille Books The history of braille production systems has not participated in the advantages that the tape talking bock has from the point of view of parallel comercial ecploitation of technical advances. At least that has been so φ until the very recent past, when the ccnputer has begun to play a role in braille production. The earliest form of embossed or engraved writing for the blind was invented by a Spaniard, Francesco Lucas, in 1640. By the beginning of the 19th Century, there were seme 23 différait methods of aifcossed printing in existence. It is small wonder that the adaptation by Louis Braille of a "night reeding" system of raised dots inverted by a French cavalry officer, Charles Barbier, did not cause a stir. It was not, in fact, until two years after Braille's death, in 1852, that it was officially recognized in Paris. By then, the syston had been developed and in use for nearly twenty years at the National Institute for the Young Blind in Paris, itte acceptance of the braille system has never been easy or swift. In the Onited states it required a "war of the dots" among several competing systems, all of which had merit, before agreement on the use of braille as the standard medivjn was achieved in the 1920's. Agreement between the United Kingdom and the Onited States followed swiftly on the characteristics of the code to be used and, with minor exceptions, braille English is understood throughout the English-speaking camunity. Advances in making braille easier to use have been achieved by individuals with special dedication, and by subsidy of their efforts. Diere was never a large market that allowed exploitation of the economies of serial production· V a t there was competition among good ideas, however, is underscored by the fact that since 1850, when the first mechanical braillewriter was developed, acre than 35 such systems have been introduced. Today, the worldköde standard of such machines remains the Perkins brail lewriter, althou^ others are available.

28

Ihe introduction of the braille sheet typewriter and the braille stereotyper, in the period from 1888 through 1892, by Hall of the United States and Kull in Germany, allowed the preparation of braille printing plates. Flat-bed printing presses are generally used, now as then, for relatively short runs, especially for bocks (400 to 600 sheets of brail le material per hour). For longer production runs, then as now, rotary presses are ccmmonly used; these are capable of 5,000 to 8,000 cycles per hour and produce one braille sheet of four braille pages every cycle. These well-established and well-understood technologies have formed the basis of short and long run braille production—along with the braille slate and stylus—for over a half-century. But in the late 1950's and early I960's much excitement was stirred by the collaboration between the American Printing House for the Blind (ΑΡΗ) and the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) bo create a ccrputer-assisted system of braille production. Although the system concentrated cm the adaptation of the business-oriented models (700 series) of large scale computers to the entering and editing of beset, the capacity of the ccrputer could be used bo help in the difficult process of transcribing frcm ink print text to the contracted form of braille. Hie system used punched cards as the medium for carrying the coded version of the text; and an automatic stereo typer driven by a card-reading input was developed to produce the plates used for the braille printing press. Advances in the computer art since these early days have been so rapid and so profound in their inpact on every aspect of modem life that it is not surprising that these systems have been applied to the problems of producing braille. Such applications have gone beyond the impressive achievement of entering the information that is the equivalent of the ordinary ink print page. It is now possible bo create a contracted version of braille, if that is viiat is wanted, even for a language not yet having a written form. The computer system can also prepare the plates for printing. In seme versions even the printing can be acocrplished automatically under the direction of a computer. Most sudi systems eure carplex and expensive, but in a world of increasing costs they may prove cost effective. Conclusion In planning the provision of reading materials for the blind and visually irtpaired population, one is confronted by a very great proliferation of equipment and possible procedures and systems from which to choose. Moreover, such planning must often tate place under conditions in which one does not know the present and future size of the reading public, its needs or wants, the distribution of reading skills, the ability of readers to use braille, and the specific information needs it may have. Vtien it is realized that the number of readers among any given general population is apt to be stall, as we have already pointed out earlier—and that this proportion does not change even among the still smaller population of blind persons—one is tempted to concentrate on the tape talking bock and ignore braille. We feel this would not be wise, on several grounds. For the

29

deaf-blind, braille may be the only medium of reading. For those who are oongenitally blind, braille remains the median through which literacy is achieved. For the blind of any age, braille is supreme in its use for technical and reference material; this is due to its so-called "randcm access" character. That is, it is easy to locate rapidly the material that the reader is interested in by scanning chapter headings and pages. To achieve this capability for the tape talking book requires expensive and not wholly satisfactory solutions. Above all, it is necessary to stress that there is no ccrçetition arcing the various media used to convey information to the blind and visually inpaired On the contrary, there is need to supplement that flow of information by offering all forms and media possible: talking bocks, braille, tactual diagrans, persons vàio read aloud to the blind person, radio and so on. How to do this, vAat it costs to do it, and how to plan for the future—these are the relevant questions. We shall address these questions in the chapters that follow.

31

Chapter IV Creating a Facility General Principles Planning and carrying out the organization of a production facility for talking bocks and/or braille bocks does not differ markedly frcm planning that of any enterprise. Wiat is wanted is a major mission, the statement of major goals to be accomplished and the objectives to be achieved toward both. The consciousness of these goals and objectives in the acccnplishment of the mission becones ever more important «¿ten scarce resources must be found and deployed in ways that will encourage continued support of the enterprise. Me shall take it as given that the major mission of the production facility is to enhance the flow of information to the blind and severely visually impaired population by the prevision of talking bocks and braille bocks in sufficient quantity, variety and quality to satisfy the needs of the population. (He shall say more in a moment about the coupling of talking book and braille bock production under the same heading.) The goal of the managing director of the facility is to find the resources necessary to locate the premises, the staff, the equipment and the supplies; and to deploy these resources to produce reading materials in a timely and effective manner. The objectives to be realized by the managing director must be stated so that they indicate what activities must be undertaken, and during what period of time, to meet the goals of the enterprise. In carrying out these tasks the managing director performs a muter of functions or activities. Illese may be described in different ways. He shall consider eight aspects: planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, reporting and data collecting, budgeting, directing, and evaluating. Planning This function has been alluded to in Chapter II. With sane idea of the need which exists to be served, planning can begin to fill that need. If changes are discovered in the nature or ocnçosition of the blind or visually impaired population as a result, say, of saqple surveys, the targets for production established in objectives for the current year may have to be revised. Likewise, if it should be decided that talking book production is to be available to inpaired populations, in addition to the blind, production objectives will have to be revised upward. Orxpnizinq The managing director must understand the work to be done by the facility

32 well enough that he can be assured that job functions are clustered effectively; the work to be done in making books flows smoothly; and that the lines of authority ensure identifying responsibility for production tasks and maintenance of good quality output. If a number of books must be delivered in time for the school year, for exanple, he must ensure that other tasks are cleared sufficiently well so that this deadline can be met. Staffing Hie managing director is ultimately responsible for finding, selecting, aipleying, training, appraising, promoting or discharging his staff— including any consultants he may choose to engage. Sane aspects of this function may be handled by the assistant director, a supervisor of a production unit, or a technical director; but the managing director mast establish the criteria for, and provide direction in, increasing the capability of the staff to meet the objectives of the facility in acccnplishing its goals. He (or she) must provide the leadership that will extract the best performance fron staif. Coordinating In our earlier discussion of planning, we suggested that a formal or informal advisory gimp be formed frcm among the persons that the planner has contacted in defining the nature of the problems of the blind population. Although their advice will be modified by the special knowledge of the managing director in sane cases, there are many instances in \4iich they, or a similar group, will be invaluable. Will he concentrate on recreational reading? Of what kind? Will he provide religious material? Which textbocks will be selected for production? To vdiat extent will he attenpt to provide for the needs of university students, those ençloyed, those seeking mare anbitious employment, special grotps like the deaf-blind? To what extent will he attenpt the provision of information on governmental regulations, on notices of cultural events, or on instructional material for the taking of medication? Such natters cannot be decided in a vacuum. W e y represent a difficult decision, perhaps a series of difficult decisions, with benefits and penalties associated with each one. the advice and counsel of others knowledgeable of the circumstances will be invaluable in ordering the operation of the facility. Another aspect of the coordination has already been mentioned: that of his facility's relations with other services in his country. He may be able to provide information and reading material to aid in deciding upon whether the ministry of education should consider integrating the education of the blind in sighted classrooms or to educate blind children separately. His talking bock and/or braille product nay help determine the effectiveness of the training and rehabilitation the ministry of social welfare can provide to blind children and adults in mobility arid personal cetre. In these functions, the managing director does not comnand; rather, he offers help, stimulation and persuasion as an advocate on behalf of the group of persons he serves: the blind and visually impaired.

33

Reporting and Data Collecting The establishnent and continued, operation of a system for gathering data on production, including time and cost, records, distribution of books, and other details of operation of the facility is a major priority. Such a systen mast also include those checks of records and occasional double observations that ensure monitoring of the data gathering system. Hie collection of accurate data on the operation of the facility is the basis for assessing the success of the facility in meeting its objectives (monthly, quarterly, annually). It allows for changes in planning to meet altered conditions. Finally, such data are the basis for thereportingVilich must be done to the advisory group, to users, to the sources of funding for the facility, and, not the least of which, to the general public whose goodwill should be sought and encouraged. A well-publicized annual report, however modest, that shows the successful outcome of rational planning and operation may be something of a "political" act. It is nevertheless true that the good public relations that result from its issuance will help to ensure the future funding needs, especially for anticipated growth, of the facility. Budgeting Obtaining, managing, and accounting for funds for operation of the facility are among the nest critical tasks of the managing director. Ulis may include working with the support of the advisory group to sede and secure funds. In losing the funds efficiently and assuring control over the expenditures of the facility, there will be need to establish a good accounting system. It will be used for the periodic examination of funds spent and funds remaining, in conjunction with operations, data and planning activities and to correct funding difficulties before they become damaging to the established goals and mission. Directing The managing director should make sure that in discharging these several functions, he has been given the authority necessary to carry them cut. This is true whether his facility has been established by a governmental action or by the legal creation of an organizational entity by a board of directors (in the case of a voluntary agency). He must have the authority to deposit and withdraw funds from the facility's account in the banking structure; to represent the facility legally in giving test imply on planning needs; to arrange for contracts for equipment, supplies, and/or consultative services. Evaluating Finally, the managing director has the responsibility of establishing methods for appraising and placing a value upon the degree to which the

34

activities undertaken in the reporting period have contributed to meeting the objectives set in advance. Hie evaluation procedures should include the measurement of the success with which each of the staff has discharged his or her tasks toward that end; measurement of the effectiveness of the structure of the facility so that improvements in procedures can be carried out; measurement of the degree to which the demands of users have been met, given the objectives established. Ulis assessment or evaluation becomes the basis for suggested changes and improvements in the operation of the facility toward meeting its goals. What has been given in the above section can be considered a job description for a managing director. Taken as a whole, the description nay appear to describe a complex and demanding job. This nay be true. But there eure compensations that will attract good managers. Such people enjoy the ability to see the whole import and meaning of a facility's services, not just a part. They enjoy the opportunity to try out their own ideas, to develop pleins based on new knowledge and those ideas and to watch them unfold as they are put into operation. The work nay be demanding, but it is richly satisfying for those viio weloome the challenge of managing human and material resources toward the goal of inproving the condition of life for those burdened with the barriers that the loss of vision may pose. Hiat advice can we give to such a new managing director? Fortunately, we have same data to which we can turn for some answers, derived frcm our international survey of current practice. And, there are some additional reocmendations we shall malee based on our knowledge, limited though it may be, to those who are the most likely readers of this information. Regarding trail le production, we can anticipate that: 1. About half of the facilities you establish will include some capability for producing books. 2. The output of your braille facility will lie under 2,000 pages a month, most likely well under that figure. 3. You will be producing bocks in a variety of subject areas, rather than in a few specialized areas. 4. You will face the dilema of «¿tether to produce contracted or uncontracted braille. 5. You are likely to be a distributor of the braille materials you produce, and the materials that others may produce. 6. The types of bra i 1 leraterials that you distribute will be recreational reading, textbooks, magazines, vocational information and seme others; 7. Not surprisingly, you will be likely to consider the maintenance and operation of a braille library

to keep track of the variety of materials you distribute; the library will be likely to exchange at least seme materials with other libraries. These observations can give rise to seme useful advice: 1.

In the establishment of your facility, give serious consideration to production of both talking books and braille books. In the realm of snail or medium-sized production facilities, economies can œ realized by centralizing production, and by using the same management for providing both media to users.

2. Since relatively few titles or pages of braille will be produced in a year, you can plan for either a anali or mediun-sized production center and keep as an option the possibility of calling upon the larger braille presses for aid in unusual demand circumstances. 3. If you are likely to produce braille material in a variety of subject areas, you will need the advice and counsel of others in selecting from among the many possibilities in production. By establishing priorities, you will anticipate the objection of bias on the part of users and approach the meeting of the minimm demands for literature in a variety of user environments. 4. Vhether you are using sinple or oonplex methods of braille production you must faoe the crucial question of whether or not to use contractions. Hie advantage of s p a œ saving—in most braille codes 20 percent or mane—must be balanced against the need to learn the contracted code. Every additional difficulty beyond the mere perception of the braille dots (such as that imposed by contractions) tray reduce reading speed. Consider, also, that mastery of braille is directly related to intelligence. All things considered, it is worth pausing to ask whether you should not start producing unoontracted braille—«itile working closely with educators and research persons toward the decision to create a contracted code for braille. Unless you are obliged to use an existing contracted code for braille in your country, and by a directive to you to use it, it may be worth considering the use of unoontracted output fron the braille facility at the outset to ease the learning process for adults blinded late in life. Be warned that there is much controversy in this matter, however, and that even

36

major producers of braille in Europe do not agree on whether it. is better to use contracted or uncontracted braille. 5.

In starting your braille production facility, you will face problems of reasonable complexity in setting up and actually making braille materials. Using volunteers requires that you create very specific and clearly defined tasks for them to accomplish; and you cannot place upon them demands for production that you can upon your own staff. Unless you can allocate a substantial fraction of the time of one of your staff to oversee braille production by volunteers, it is recommended that you defer starting a volunteer program activity until you have achieved some production experience and are ready to expand your capability.

6.

Whether or not you decide to provide braille materials frcm your cwn production, you are likely to consider the operation of a modest library for braille readers. You might consider this a useful msans of centralizing access to the braille collections of other countries and thus supplement your cwn collection should need arise for titles you do not have, or for materials in languages other than that of your cwn country. Note that this function is separate frcm the other kind of library function—the storage of master copies frcm which loan ccpies are made of bocks and other materials that you produce in your own facility. The latter library can also contain master tape recordings.

Regarding talking bode production, we can anticipate that: 1.

The number of titles of bodes recorded per year will be well under 200; most of you will produce under 50.

2.

You are likely to borrow ccpies of master recordings made elsewhere of material of interest to your cwn readers, and you can anticipate that as you begin to build your cwn stock of master recordings others will request copies fron you.

3.

You are likely to be the distributor of talking bocks in your country.

4.

You will quickly build toward a library of master copies, your cwn and those frcm others, that approaches the region of 1,000 titles.

5.

You

will

discover

that

the

majority

of

titles

37 recorded in the world are in English, but with substantial fractions available in the other major languages of French, German and Spanish. All the other languages of the world contribute only onefifth of the total world talking book production. If your country is among the latter group your recordings will form an important contribution to a precious resource in the world's library of talking bocks. 6. The largest fraction of your talking book output will be for recreational reading, with text and vocational materials about 10 percent. 7. Your distribution system will require readers to use and then return talking bocks that are sent to them. 8. Your country is somewhat more likely to require users to purchase machines on which talking books can be played back than to provide free or loaned machines to users. 9. The demand for your talking bock and braille bock product is likely to increase rapidly during your first five years of operation. Based on these observations and interpretations we can offer some further recommendations to the managing director of the talking book facility: 1. If your planning studies indicate a relatively small population of potential users, you can safely organize your facility for smal1-scale operation. The investment for such a facility is modest, as we shall see in our next chapter. 2. You can expect that as knowledge of your product grows the demand of users in terms of the variety of bodes, and the number of users, will grow by about 20 percent or so each year. This is consistent with the demand curve for the developed countries. Increases beyond this are unlikely unless the number of playback machines increases rapidly. You may consider taking a role in making this cane about, since it is now possible for playback devices to be powered by rechargeable accumulators (batteries or power packs) that are fed frcm solar cells, at a cost of about $250 per playback machine. 3. Since most of your talking bock output will be of recreational material you will wish to consider carefully who will record this material on your

38 master tapes. In many countries, readers are sought for among professionals—actors and actresses—who are skilled in creating an atmosphere in their readings. Often their services are volunteered, or they are paid a very nominal fee to cover their expenses. 4.

Since you will be distributing talking books and exchanging materials with other countries, it is well to consider at the outset a library facility. Its structure and operations will have to include procedures for examining a portion of returned bocks to ensure maintaining good quality in the bocks you send cut. Itiis centralized library distribution function shares the advantages ail ready pointed out for the braille library function. It can also serve to request and receive master copies of bocks frcm other countries. In any case, jou will need to consider storage for your master and user library copies.

Mary of the above observations and reccnnendations are particularly apt for the new managing director of a proposed talking book and/or braille book facility. Let us group 9ome of the uciiiron denominators we have found in these listings so that we can define somewhat better the nature of such a snail or median sized production organization. 1. The overwhelming majority of new facilities will have only modest output in both talking books and braille books. Counting together books and other materials, well' under 2,000 pages a month of braille will be produced—under 50 titles a year will be produced. In talking books, the nunber of titles is likely to be somewhere between 40 and 100 per year. 2. You will supplement your own production by exchanging copies of books with facilities located outside your own country. In the case of both media, you will begin to accumulate a collection of master copies of bocks and other documents and a collection of circulating copies of these same materials. 3. You will be looked to by users as the distribution center of all types of materials in talking book and brail le formats. Most of your titles will be recreational in nature. But textbook and vocational materiell s will be sought after; and denands will be placed on you to make available to the blind other information widely and easily available to the sighted. 4. You will be regarded as the center of information

39 atout the blind, the visually impaired and the deaf-blind. To the extent that talking books will be offered to other impaired groups (including the hospitalized and other institutionalized persons), demand will grow on you to supply books and other materials for their use. 5.

You can expect that the demand will grow for your product frcm year to year.

6.

You are likely to devote careful consideration to operating a library to control and help distribute your products.

The distilled wisdom frcm current practice, as revealed in these findings and observations, can prompt the creation of an overall set of recorrmendations to managing directors of new talking bock and braille bock facilities, as follews: 1.

Initiate talking bock and braille book production in the same facility. —

2.

Locate your facility near a major postal facility. —

3.

Small production runs imply a relatively high cost per bock or document produced, for staff and overhead charges. These costs can be amortized and allocated for economy by using staff time and facilities fully. Combined production will also allow nore rational planning of production of given titles in both media.

Most of the distribution of your talking bocks and braille material will be carried out through the postal system. In most countries, there are no fees when such rreterials are sent to blind persons or returned by them to your facility. Although talking bocks are not bulky, braille bocks are. As your traffic flew increases, transportation of books to and from a postal facility may become a major concern.

Locate your facility near a major research facility. —

As a new and innovative service, your facility will appeal to the curiosity and interest of highly qualified and educated persons. This m y have two major advantages: a.

You may be able to acquire staff from among persons related to a research or educational institution at costs no higher than from other sources, but such persons may have the knowledge and expertise to solve problems that will arise in carrying out your tasks of production.

b.

You will have the potential for access to persons with technical expertise in the newer disciplines, such as ccmputer science and electronics. Knew-

40 ledge of "mechanical" devices is very widespread in many countries; knowledge of "electrical" devices is not. Yet, efficient production of both talking books and braille materials depends on sane knowledge of the newer technologies and this trend will increase in the next decade. 4. Initiate the library function at the outset of production. —

The cataloguing and control over a rapidly building collection of master tapes of talking bocks and master copies of braille bocks nay be more than can be handled comfortably by the usual production or works staff. Exerting similar control over circulating copies of these same materials may become an increasing burden unless it is planned for.

5. Plan for a temperature and humidity controlled environment from the outset. —

Consistency in quality in production of tape talking books will require some attention to control over excessive humidity. "Die fumes produced fren snail-scale braille production, along with uncomfortably hot duplicating devices, must be handled. Hie creation of quiet areas for sound recording requires isolation fran the ordinary environnent of most buildings; this often iirplies the building of special recording areas that must be supplied with fresh air and artificial lighting. Beyond these reasons, a comfortable vorking environment may provide an attraction to potential staff and help to offset what are likely to be modest salary levels in most facilities for the blind.

In this chapter, we have defined the external and internal factors which help to define a facility with the mission of remedying the lack of information flow to blind and visually inpaired persons. We have treated in some detail the nature of the position of managing director; we have in fact developed the major portion of a job description for such a person. Note, that similar job descriptions must be made up by the managing director, eventually, for each of the staff positions under him. Frcm our survey of current practice, we have also developed the general features of the organization of such a facility. Our focus in these remarks has beai on the small to medivm facility, since that is the size of facility most likely to be involved when a decision is nade to begin a program of production of talking book and braille bock materials for the blind and visually impaired population. In the following chapters, we shall follow this same line of development. We shall consider the equipment and layout requirements for small and medium-sized talking book and braille bock production. Together with the present description of the social organization of the production process, VE shall thai have defined the facility completely, so far as this can be done apart fran local conditions.

41

Chapter V The Talking Book Facility Introduction The process of making a talking book begins well before any recording is done. He have alluded to this already in earlier chapters when we pointed out that an advisory group can help in the selection of titles to be recorded. The other aspect, that of locating persons who will read the bocks aloud on to the recording tape, has also been mentioned. Much time and frustration can be saved in the production of bocks if these first steps are taken carefully. It is well to realize that the recording of a talking bock is a time dependent activity. In the simplest of systems we shall reocmrend, those using equipment that is standard and available in the comercial marketplace, there is no provision for the cost and time saving capabilities of sene systems used in large talking bock facilities. It will take about 20 hours to record the average book of 250 ink print pages. This effort will result in a group of 4 spools of 7 inch (18 cm) open reel tapes that contain sane 11 to 12 hours of recorded information. The material cost alone will be about $20. Ulis does not include staff seilaries and overhead. This estimate is based on the use of tapes that are 1/4 inch (6.45 mil) wide; 1.0 mil (.025 ran) thick; of good quality, backed with polyester or polyvinyl chloride; used at a recording speed of 3-3/4 inch per seoond (9.5 cm/sec). The reader is presumed to read at a rate requiring about three minutes per normal printed page. The tape spools are presmed to contain 1800 feet (55 m) of tape. Two tracks are recorded, one on each side of the tape. Since rruch care will be lavished on the creation of a taped version of a printed bock, it would be well to pay special attention to the selection of a good reader of the book. Among the characteristics of the reader that are desirable are the following: 1.

the ability to use correct pronounciation; a listenable voice and presentation;

2.

fluency, ease and good contend of the spoken language;

3.

the ability to use correct pronounciation;

4.

an awareness of the manner in which words fit together for good verbal expression;

5.

the ability to comunicate printed material;

6.

clear and distinct enunciation which is readily understandable;

accurately

42

7.

avoidance of declamatory, monotonous speech;

patterned, or

8.

the ability to read at a pace which is appropriate to the text;

9.

a familiarity with the subject natter and vocabulary, especiadly when reading highly teduiical and specialized material;

Although volunteers can be used to carry cut this task, it is preferable that paid professionals be considered first. Proofreading of the recorded raterial will also be necessary. Ulis can be accomplished in a nimber of ways: 1.

Two persons, a reader and a noni tor, work together during the recording. Both should be familiar with the material being recorded. The monitor checks the reader for accuracy, proncunciation and overall performance. He will stop the tape when necessary to make corrections.

(It should be noted that unless sane visual system is set φ to alert the reader vAten a mistake is made and a portion of the text must be recorded again, it will be necessary to install a two-way iirtertxrnmuriication system between the monitoring position and the person in an enclosed space who is reading the printed material.) 2.

Monitoring nay be done in the delay mode, playing bade the recorded tape against the printed material for errors; when found, they are marked and the appropriate portion of the tape recorded again.

(Far general reading raterial s the reader and the noni tor aire usually two different persons. Mien specialized or technical material is recorded the reader may do his own proofing and correcting.) 3.

Vtien it is not feasible to monitor the recording while being made, or after it is made, spot checking of tie text may be done to assess the risk and level of errors in the recorded material. A decision can then be made to let the recording pass through to duplication or to schedule it for none extensive checking and/or monitoring.

(Educational and technical materials will demand the more careful proof-

43 reading and monitoring procedures. Recreational materials can generally be treated by spot checking. If proofreading or monitoring of the recorded material is not feasible for any reason, the user should be informed of that fact on the beginning of the recorded tape. ) The Recording Environment The general rule for making any kind of sound recording, whether for nusic or speech, is: the more silent the background, the better. Consider the "ideal" recording environnent: It is very much like the "perfect picture" of peace and contentment that we all have when we imagine "...a quiet day in the countryside." Think of a large meadcw, with low lying grass, far fron sources of noise. Hiere are no motors that can be heard operating. No airplanes drone overhead. No jets scream by. Now we walk to the middle of the meadow. Even the trees are several dozen yards or meters away. There are no running waters to be heard. Ite wind is still and there are no insects heard buzzing. An occasional bird may fly by. The sun is shining, and the temperature is about 71 F (22 C). It is quiet. This is the kind of auditory environment, or almost an absence of auditory environnent, in fact, that is recreated at very great esqpense in large research laboratories in a few places in the world. The large roans with these features are fitted with a heavy wire crossgrid floor. Ite walls, tcp and bottom are fitted with two foot (half-meter) wedges of absorbing materiell, 15 to 30 feet (five to ten meters) to each surface in every direction. Ite room is artificially illuminated, of course, and when one walks into it, and the entrance door closes, one alters a world as rarely experienced as that quiet meadow it imitates. Sane people find the total quiet peaceful; but the lade of any sound makes other persons very uneasy. Both the meadow and the special roan (called "anechoic," meaning without echo or reverberation) share the feature, however, of defining a lower limit of our auditory experience: the lowest point of the scale of sensitivity of hunan hearing, in technical terms, the sound level in such environments is at, or near, the "0" mark on the sound level meter. Ulis level of quiet actually makes one » a r e of the sound of the blood pulsing in one's ear. And, it is probably also a level of quiet that is largely unobtainable in the real world except through great trouble and/or great expense, ftiat, thai, is a practical goal we can aim for in the recording charter of a talking bock studio? One guide rray be the ocnmercial LP disc. Although in theory it is possible to achieve a sitial to noise ratio (SAI) of 60 decibels (dB) or more, in practice this is rarely approached. More customarily, commericially available classical or folk LP discs display a S/N of about 50 dB; and rock records have such a narrow dynanic range (the difference between loudest and softest signal), often no more than 10 dB, that few demands are placed on the producers of rock discs for high quality or wide dynamic range. Our

44 aim point, for the talking bock, is apt to lie in the 40 to 50 dB range; that is, the difference between the quiet background level when there is no speech; and peak signal recorded (excluding momentary peaks of plosive sound) should lie in this range. Hie presence of extraneous noises in a tape recording is often what distinguishes a high quality recording made at the talking book facility and those made by volunteers at hone. The degree to v*iich we mist exclude the outside world and the sound it generates from the tapes that we record for talking books can then be evaluated. Note that a quiet office environment is found to have a noise level of about 50 dB above the 0 level of the anechoic charter or that quiet meadow. The task, then, is to isolate the recording room in which the reader and microphone are located by about 40 to 50 dB frcm the rest of the local environnent, acoustically speaking. This is no easy task. Seme isolation frcm the noise contributed by the outside environnent is offered by windows (vAien they are shut) or walls (if they are dense). But, there are sane very low frequency sounds, like that of trucks (lorries) or subway (metro) trains, which, if they are near the recording environnent, are so difficult to control and so expensive to isolate that the managing director might as well count on working around them rather than against them. Tliat is, it would be better to schedule talking bock recording at times when trucks and trains are not running, if this is at all possible. ISe remaining task, then, is to construct recording studios or chantiers that are 40 to 50 dB quieter than the local environnent. He must provide the recording area with lighting so the reader can see the text he or she is reading; and with ventilation and/or cooling, to provide fresh and/or air conditioned air to carry off heat generated by the body of the reader, the light(s), and the waste products of breathing. The acoustical, physical and engineering knowledge to accorpiish these requirements has by this time in history been reduced to standard practice. Ble general principle to rementer is that this kind of construction requires special knowledge and skill. No architect or engineer should be engaged unless he or she has acquired those skills. Moreover, the managing director should not attempt such designs himself unless he has had the requisite training. The creation of artificial quiet environments is usually necesary for every talking book facility in the world. Hie principles of construction required include raised flooring with isolation fron the frame of the main building; erection of sound insulated walls and ceilings, resulting in a closed environment that most be provided with a similarly insulated window to view the monitor; electric light; and a means of introducing air conditioned and/or fresh air. Specific information can be obtained fron any talking bock facility. The nutter of such recording enclosures required will depend on the number of titles or equivalent to be recorded each working year. As a rough guide, about one enclosure will be needed for each 70 books to be recorded.

45

The enclosure should be equipped with sane means of alerting the reader wten to stop for a correction as the monitor follows the recording of the printed material. A sinple light may be enough to alert the reader; if the budget allows, a sinple two-way paging system permits the monitor to speak to the reader without leaving his position. The aost of a paging system will range fran $100 to $300. A light mast be provided to illuminate the printed text to be read. Its intensity should be great enough to avoid eye fatigue; generally, a source of 60 watts at a two foot (26 ση) distance is adequate. A good quality microphone is installed in the recording enclosure. It is mounted preferably on a flexible shaft so the unit may be placed conveniently for the reader while he works. The microphone should not be closer than six inches from the speaker's mouth while recording, nor further than about twelve inches (15 to 30 cm range). Suitable units are manufactured by Shure Brothers (U.S.A.), Telefunken and Siemens (Germany), AKG (Austria) and manufacturers in many other countries. The price of such units is about $40 to $100 for good quality instruments. Ite Haster Recorder The master tape recorder, in ocnbinaticn with the microphone, determines the ultimate quality of the recorded book. Its controls should be easy to operate, smooth, and its mechanism reliable. These characteristics are generally true of most open reel recorders in the current market for the reason given in Chapter III: the virtual disappearance of the moderately priced open reel recorder in the face of ocmpetition freni cassette re— corders. It is reocmnended that first attention be paid to semi-professional and professional equipment. Suitable units are made by Sony, Akai, Matushita, Panasonic, Ferrograph, Anpex, ReVcoc/Studer, Telefunken and others. Die specifications should include: 1. 3-3/4 ips (9.5 cm/sec) and 7-1/2 ips (19 cm/sec) (two speeds); 2. solenoid controlled functions; 3. ability to use 7 inch (18 cm) reels or spools. Almost all currently avail ble machines will meet this specification. Every machine will meet car exceed any reasonable expectation of the operator for low distortion, flutter (rapid changes in the reproduced signal of 10 to 30 times a second) and wow (very slow change in the reproduced signal), smooth frequency response and uniform tape tension. Care should be taken, however, that the machine is biased and adjusted for optinun response fran any of the standard brands of 'low noise/high output" tapes. Only tapes from major manufacturers should be used, and tests should be run for each new production batch of tape received by the facility. Maintenance on the master tape recorder will be limited generally to checking bias and frequency response once a week and a careful cleaning of recording, playback

46 and erase heads elfter every ten hours, or so, of use, using a cotton swab moistened with ethyl alcohol (spirit). Master tapes will be consumed at a rate of four per book, as already mentioned. If one book is recorded every week, over 200 tapes will be needed each ^ a r . Since tapes are made of fairly stable polyvinyl chloride stock (or better, on polyester stock), larger quantities can be purchased at one time to secure maximm discounts. Uvey should be stored in a oool, dry place until needed. A stock of 1,000 tapes, enough for more them 250 titles, will cost approximately $5,000. Prices on master recorders range frcm $1,200 to $2,000 for serâprofessicnal equipments and vp to $5,000 for professional-grade equipments. One recorder will be needed for each recording enclosure (booth). Space Requirements He have now proceeded to the point at Vilich titles have been selected for recording, readers have been secured, an appropriate recording enclosure or location has been made ava i 1 able and the bock has been read cn to tape and checked for accuracy. He have produced the master tape frcm which copies for the blind reader will be nade. Note, however, that we have assumed that consumable storage space has beai nade available for "raw" (unrecorded) tape stock and for storing the master tapes produced. We are also assuming that at least one monitor/scheduler /recordist is available, plus the services of one day a week or so of a ccnpetent technician to run operational tests of the recording system. He also assume that the technican is supplied with a suitable test set ($100 to $2,000) and working space. The recording enclosure makes modest demands on floor space—in the region of 43 square feet (four square meters). The space for the monitor/recordist, viiich may also serve as his office for arranging and scheduling readers and recording times, will be approximately 175 square feet (16 square meters). Rie technician will require another 175 square feet. The recording process, space requirements, equipment and staff required to carry out a talking bock progran for any facility follows essentially the guidelines given above. For the anali, and even the medium, sized facility the above suggestions would ed low the production of more than 100 titles a year. More careful and controlled procedures will be required to keep the process flowing smoothly in the upper ranges of these figures. It would make good sense to increase the number of enclosures to two or three, along with the purchase of matching microphones and recorders, for the larger producer. 1t>e floor space requirements should be incremented by 50 percent for each enclosure/recorder added. Additional staff would have to be hired for monitoring and proofreading, especially if educational and technical materials are to be recorded. Scheduling should be done in the head monitor's office. Technician time required will increase modestly to perhaps two days per week. Storage space must be increased proportionately for raw tape stock and for storing master tapes.

47 Tape Standards With the availability of master tapes, we are now ready to consider the requirements for making oopies of books for the reader. Our task is nade easier by the need to consider only two formats: the open spool similar to that used in naking master tapes; and the now near universal ccrpact cassettes. It is made none ccrplex, however, by the need to take account of technical advances that have been nade in recording talking books on the canpact cassetts. Although we shall mention these advances, we anticipate our conclusion by saying that for the new facility it is reoaimended that only standard international formats be used. Hie meaning of this reocrmendation will become clear shortly. Configuration of copying facilities will be described briefly for the small and for the mediun-sized producer of the talking book. Mien the compact cassette was first introduced by Philipe in 1963, it was an outgrowth of years of development by severed major manufacturers around the world vi» sought a convenient and easy-to-use replacement for the relatively curfcerscme and awkward open spool of tape. The outside shell, made of plastic material (meted is used in seme specialized applications, sudi ¿is with computers), measures about 4 X 3 X 1/2 inch (100 X 64 X 13 mn). Inside the shell are found two hube around one of which is wound in a flat pack of 436 feet (132 meters) of recording tape about 2 incites (48 ran) wide. At a fixed recording speed standardized at 2 ipe (4.76 cm/sec), this is sufficient tape far about 28 minutes of recording per side as the tape unwinds freni the full hub on the left and on to the enpty hit) on the right side. In the very rigid and jealously protected speci fica ion set down by Philips, information was recorded on twotrack»—one for each side of the tape packet. Hie packet was designed to œ used in recording/playback machines of similarly ccrpact dimensions. the comercial success of this recording format, and its oenpanion recording and playback devices all ewer the world has already been mentioned. The scale of production of this system—millions upen millions of recording an! playback machines, hundreds of millions o£ the canpact cassettes containing "raw" or recorded tapp—plus the convenience of the system, attracted the makers of talking books almost at once. To accomodate the interest of this special group, Philips has at least twice made exception to its international specification for talking books. The first time was in allowing the four tracks of separately recorded information to be placed on the tape in place of the two normal (or "double two" stereo) tracks. Die second time was in allowing the use of a half speed in recording and playback of 15/16 ipe (2.38 cm/sec). The reason these exceptions were sought for talking book producers was cost. By doubling the amount of information recorded on each ccrpact cassette, the cost per book is thereby halved. Arid an equal saving is made by halving the recording/playback speed. In all, the amount of information on the four-track, half speed ccrpact cassette has been quadrupled; the muter of cassettes required per

48

title was reduced by a factor of four; the aosts per copy reduced by an equal factor. Raw material costs were thus reduced frcm something under $1.00 to $0.25 per hour of recorded raterial. As in every area of life, disadvantages accompany advantages. These exceptions to the standard Philips' specification do exact sane penalties. There is seme increase in noise when the nuitoer of trades is increased. There is a further increase in noise and flutter when speed is dropped. Hie resulting talking book is, however, quite listenable. The noise level is a steady hiss in nature, and flutter is less perceptible for speech than it would be for music. (Music containing sustained tones—piano rrusic, or long sustained orchestral melodies—would be excrutiating to listen to on such a system). Another penalty of these gains is that special copying equipment, as well as, speciali playback equipment is required. If, at some future date, it is decided to embark cm a production program using these exceptions to the standard system, because a sufficient nunber of suitable playback machines is available for distribution or sale to users, the changeover can be aoocnplished with little loss in capital equipment costs. Since the changeover is not likely to occur in any case within a five-year period, the usual accounting procedure will have written off the costs of the standard format and speed copying system. For the snail producer, little additional equipment investment will be required; for the medium-sized facility, adaptation and updating of copying equipment is not difficult. Vtien the time arrives, inforration on the changeover can be obtained frcm the manufacturers of copying equipment. We are now ready to proceed to the description of the small and mBdium talking bock copying facility. The configuration of equipments will include: 1. copy recorders; 2. labelling devices; 3. containers for shipping. The Small-Sized Facility Simplicity is a keyword for the smaller system; economy is another. There are two methods of producing copies which reccmnend themselves on these bases: 1. Cassette recorder to cassette recorder; 2. Open spool recorder to one or more cassette recorders. Equipment required include the master tape recorder for playback of the master tape; one other master recorder for making a duplicate of the master recording for lasers; one cassette recorder for making copies of master tapes; additional cassette recorders as needed for multiple simultaneous cassette ocpies. Prices for these equipments are approximately as follows:

49 1.

Master recorder

—

$1,000;

2.

Cassette recorder —

$1,000.

For ease of maintenance, both master recorders should be of the same malee and model. Choosing cassette equijxnent is a difficult task, but not because there are too few cassette recorders accepted in the industry as "professional." Rather, the quality and reliability of the enthusiast grade of cassette decks now available approach the needs of the saniprofessional recordi st. Among the suitable malees in the price range noted can be found models by Nakamichi, Tandberg, Dual, Sony, Akai and others. Ihe original master copy made of the reading of the printed text is loaded on to the master tape recorder. If an open spool copy is desired a cable is connected between the output of the master recorder and the input of the second master recorder (which now functions as a "slave" recorder). The slave recorder is loaded with raw tape and switched on in the recording mode; elfter a ten-second pause beyond the colored leader tape, the master playback unit is switched on in the "play" mode. W e open spool copy is made 1:1, that is, at the same speed and talcing the same amount of time as the original playback does. Copying can proceed unattended until the end of the tape is reached. Both sets of reels are then turned ewer and the procedure is repeated for the second side of the tape. Although the master recording has been made at a speed of 4 ips (9.5 an/ sec) and uses two tracks, the machines used by readers may permit fourtrack recording and/or playback. (In machines equipped for four track recording and playback, the recording and playback heads are made with a gap that is slightly less than one-quarter track width.) If this is the case, the second master recorder may be ordered with berth two-track and four-track recording and playback heads. In this case, twice as many trades will be available en the copy tape as on the master tape, but the recorded level (strength of the recorded signal) will be slightly lower, and the noise level slightly higher, than for two track operation. The technician must preset the recording levels appropriate to the master tape in making copies. Making a cassette copy fron the master tape requires only the substitution of the cassette recorder in place of the open spool recorder in the description of the procedure given above. Again, the levels for recording are set by the technician beforehand. Cassettes containing enough tapp to record for 45 minutes on each side are called "C-90" since they contain a total of 90 minutes of recorded information. Although cassettes are available with different lengths of tape, as given in the designations C-15, C-30, C-45, C-60, C-90, and C-120, it is reconrenâed that the C-90 be standardized vçon to simplify stocking raw supplies; and that a tone or voice announcement cm the tape be added when necessary to inform the reader that the end of the recorded information has been reached. As in the case of open reel stocks, it is strongly recommended that only cassettes of "low noise/high output" grade frcm the major world manu-

50

facturers be used (Sony, Fuji, Maxell, Agfa, BASF, Airpex are representative). It is also strongly recomnended that the advice of the manufacturer of the cassette deck be followed; and that the technician check carefully before first use that the cassette recorder is biased for meeting its frequency and distortion specification for the tape type to be used. Maintenance procedure for the cassette recorders should be scheduled as for open spool recorders and at the same intervals. To ease making cassette copies, it is useful to prepare two cassettes directly from the master open spool tape, both made with great care. One can be stored in the library as a reserve; the other can be put into circulation directly. When an additional copy is called for, the library copy of the cassette can be used as the master fron which another copy is made. Two or more slave cassette recorders can be connected to one master open spool (or master cassette) recorder through a siirple switching box (about $50 to $100), and connecting cables. The system described, in its sinplest form of one open spool recorder and one cassette slave recorder, can yield a cassette copy of each trade of the master tape in slightly under two hours. Thus, the typical recorded book «uprising 12 hours of recording will require the better part of two working days (one working day equalling eight hours) to make one circulating copy. Additional copies can be made by connecting one or more slave recorders containing cassettes through a switching box; the number of working days required for each additional copy will thus be reduced by a factor equal to the nuiter of additional slaves. Vften the cassette copy of the book is recorded, it must be labelled and prepared for shipping. Conventionally, the content of a cassette talking book is identified by an ink print title on one side of the cassette and a braille label on the other side. An ordinary typewriter can be used to prepare the ink print label. A braillewriter can be used to prepare the braille label. If self-stick label stripe (available from paper suppliers) are used, the prepared label is siirply stripped off the label sheet and pressed into the depressed area of the cassette shell. Shipping preparation is accomplished by using book-lite holders in which eight cassettes at a time can be inserted. Wiese are available in quantity for approximately $1.70 each. Althou^i relatively slow in overall production rates, the sinplest system described can oope easily with the demands of producing 3 to 5 copies each of 20 to 30 titles per year. Ifiis production can be increased by a reasonable amount—from three to ten times—by adding additional slave recorders and switching boxes. Basic equipment costs will range between $3,000 and $15,000 depending on the number of slaves. To this must be added the costs of recording enclosures. Running costs for materials (tape spools and/or cassettes) will range, similarly, from about $500 per year to about $2^500 per year depend-

51

ing on the number of copies nade. to $1,000 to the costs.

Shipping containers will add about $100

The Medium-Sized Facility The main difference between the sinplest recording facility described above and a median sized facility is that advantage is taken of the capability of the tape median to be speeded up successfully. That is, with suitable equipment, it is possible to go beyond the necessity of making copies 1:1 (a copy taking as long to record as it took to playback the originell). Ratios of 1:8 to 1:16 and higher are errployed; it is then possible to malee a copy of a 45-minute master tape in three minutes or less. As a result, it is easy to increase the volume of production of copies of a master tape ten times or more in a given time period as carpared with simpler 1:1 systems. Moreover, there is the capability of using more than one slave recorder at the same time. The time required to produce a given ranter of copies of a master tape, as conpared with the sinpler systems already described, can thus be reduced first by a factor of ten by using high speed duplicating systems. Die time required can thai be reduced further by a factor equal to the nuriber of slave recorders used in the high speed system. With three slave units, three copies of a master tape can be itade in just under three minutes instead of just under ten minutes using one slave; ten copies can be node in three minutes rather than 30 minutes; and so an. High speed duplicating systems are made far cassette duplication by only a few manufacturers throughout the world; and among these the best known are those made in the United States by Infonics and by Telex Corporation. Prices for a reocmnended system ccnçarising a station for loading the cpen spool (tape copy) of the master recording, and two to three cassette slave recorders, including switching and all electronics, are about $10,000. *Rie ^y|i hub. Vtexi all goes well, the cassettes can sinply be inverted after this test and they will be ready for recording. TSe torque specification can be measured with the torque gauge by the technician before recording is started. The friction torque of both hubs, measured in the cassette itself at the nearly full hub, should not exceed 1 oz/in (27 gram/cm). With a holdback torque of 1/4 oz/in (8 gram/cm) applied to the erpty hub, the required torque to be applied to the nearly full hub when roving tape should not exceed 2 oz/in (55 gram/ση). The measurements are made with a torque tester. (Two ccrmon models are the Information Terminals, Inc., Model M-400; and the Minnetech Laboratories MIM 200 series.) The oosts would be about $400. They are used as follows: 1.

Insert the cassette into the tester with the nearly full hub on the take-up side.

2.

Start the torque tester.

3.

With no hold-back torque applied to the supply reel, note the average torque reading on the meter.

4.

Repeat the test, but using a hold-back torque of 0.11 oz-in (8 gram-cm).

5.

With the tester running, note the average torque reading on the meter.

6.

Wind the tape on the opposite hub and reread this last test.

7.

The readings obtained should fall within the values indicated above.

Hie technician rrust also ensure that the bias specification for each of the slame cassette recorders is set at its optimal value to achieve smooth frequency response and the low distortion. The keenest ears can detect differences between copies made 1:1 frcm a master tape and those made at accelerated duplicating speeds. But the differences are surprisingly small in view of the speed of production achieved. They virtually disappear viien the talking bock is played on any of the most cannon playback units used by the blind reader. Using the system described, the medium-sized facility can cope with a demand for under 50 and scrrewhat more them 200 titles per year; and the production of 5 to 50 ccpies such that vp to 1,000 readers can tie served. Moreover, this facility can absorb the output of volunteer produced tapes made under less than ideal conditions, but containing technical or information material of particular value to readers. Capital costs should be calculated on the basis of basic recording enclosure/master recorder units multiplied by two to four, depending on the num-

53 ber of titles to be recorded each year. To this the cost of the duplicating system should be added, and the cost of at least caie cassette playback unit of the type used by readers ($30 to about $150). Running costs can be scaled vç> for raw materiali s on the basis of multiplying the figures already given above for the snail scale facility. Space requirements are also multiplied by the additional activity of the mediun-sized unit. Approximately 440 square feet (40 square meters) will be required to house the duplicating system. An equivalent amount of space will have to be allocated for storage of raw stock and for quality control of the cassettes returned frcm users. At least one, and probably two, full time staff will be required to carry out the activities of obtaining stock, running checks ori cassettes, loading the raster and slave units and arranging sequenced stacks of finished cassettes. Ώιβ labelling of the finished cassettes can still be accomplished with ink print generated on an ordinary typewriter and braille on an ordinary braillewriter, using self-stick adhesive backing. Quality Control

In the description ve have given of the set-up and operation of the talking book facility, we have mentioned the need for quality assurance of the équipent used for recording. The reocmended servioe intervals should not be exceeded. Hie amortization of the equipment used, generally over a five year period, assumes that the cost of maintenance (including spare parts required) will be "average." H>ereferencesgiven to equipment have taken into consideration the reputation for reliability and easy maintenance that these manufacturers have earned over the many years they have been supplying the field. But this kind of maintenance must also be supplementedfcysinple listening checks. In this way, it is possible to monitor the whole production process, from selection of the raw stock to the book that is eventually sent out to the reader. And it is not hard to do: listen to the talking book product that you will send out to your readers. You nay wish to oonsider a two tier deplcyment of talking books: a sanple of your production would be sent to one or more readers who have agreed in advance to pay special attention to the quality of the recorded book, and to report back to you any deficiencies they find. This would require this group to listai to every bock you produce, in its entirety. Such a person might also be on your staff, as a paid or volunteer worker. Wien production is larger than a few titles, the first tier groig> of readers may be extended. But additional techniques are required as well. Por example, when you produce 25 to 50, or more, copies of a title, it will davicmsly be iirçractical to listen to every copy. Although there are sophisticated sampling procedures used in seriell manufacturing of all kinds of goods, siirple comnon sense will do for most talking book facilities. In

54 a run of 50 copies of a title, for example, it may be sufficient to listen to a few minutes at the beginning, middle, and end of ecidi tenth cassette, just to check that the listening quality is acceptable. As a general rule, quality assurance methods should become more strict as the ocmpranises with quality to reduce costs multiply. Hie line between acceptable and unacceptable quality in a recording that has been copied at 15/16 ips (2.38 an/sec), for example, may be quite narrow. A listening test will indicate whether a book recorded at such slow speeds on quarter tracks shows ruffled sound or not. Try also to get feedback fron the readers. Encourage them to report to you any deficiencies they find. If they routinely return talking books to you, try to include a card with each shipment asking whether they found any faults in the recording. Try to comunicate with a few readers at a time on a regular basis so that you have a sense of their satisfaction with the product >ou are sending then. Quality assurance can be attained in these ways at low cost. Your reputation for quality in the books you record is worth the small extra effort you will make to do so. But, user satisfaction will be increased; and there will never be a fear of what they will say to an independent auditor about your oonoern with their acceptance of the talking books you provide to them. Conclusion In this Chapter, we have described the equipment arid process requirements, and touched upon staff, ' recording environment, master recorder, space requirements, tape standards, small- and medium-sized facilities, and quality control. In the next chapter, we shall treat the organization of the parallel, or complementary, production of braille for the small- and mediim-sized production facility.

55 *** IN AN EMERGENCY *** In gaverai, we do not believe that the type of cassette reoorder/player nade for home or personal use is suitable for the manufacture of talking books. Hone use machines are surprisingly rugged for their intended use—viiat is called "intermittent duty," meaning that they are used for a few hours a week at most—and many may last 10 to 20 years. When a talking book service f a œ s a crisis caused by breakdown in its equipment or delay in system repair, however, emergency measures are called for. Heme use machines can be pressed into service in such a crisis. Here is how to do it: 1.

Select if you can a machine fron one of the major producers, or fron a good local manufacturer fron ytaa you can expect good service and repairs. This will be your "master" recorder. Ttiis machine can be used by readers to record talking bocks. Readers can operate the ocntrols themselves; or another person can operate the controls for the reader. Maintain this machine well. Clean the recording head with a swab of cotton moistened in pure alcohol (spirits) before each use; don't forget to clean the tape guides, drive spindle and pinch «heel also. If your budget allows, use this machine only for recording.

2. One or tuo additional machines will then be used to make copies of the talking bock recorded en the first machine. If possible, use copying machines that are the same make and model as the recording machine. Hie reason is that it takes a certain amount of expertise to operate the ocntrols of the master and the slave recorders, and this task will be easier if all the buttons that you mast push are in the same place on each machine. 3. Wien you make copies, the master recorder (or its duplicate) and the slave recorders are connected to each other by wire. Hie wire will have a miniature plug at each end. You will need as many of these wire sets (also called "inter-

56 connect cables") as you have slave recorders. In theory, you may use as many slaves (identical recorders) to make copies as you wish. In practice, the difficulties involved in pressing the proper buttons on each slave recorder simultaneously limit the nutter of slaves to no more than two. 4. Using more than two slave recorders inplies that you will be able to call upon other persons to help you each time you record a new side on a cassette. The staffing and organization of effort quickly become a burden. Only local conditions will dictate to you what you can do, of course; we can only recommend that you regard this as an emergency procedure and not normal production practice. 5. Ttve machines you use mast have both a "MONITOR" output jack and an "AIJX" (high level not "MIC"/microphone) input jack. Ulis is very inrortant. The M3NITOR jack output of the recorder is also used normally to listen to v&at is recorded or played bade using a monophonie (one channel) headphone in which the recorded signad is heard on both headphones, left and right; or from the single mini attire ear plug loudspeaker sometimes supplied with cassette recorders. In this application, however, it will be used as a source of the playback signal to feed the slave recorders. 6. The recording procedure is then as follows: a.

connect cne miniature plug into the MONITOR jack of the master recorder;

b.

connect the other end of the cable, also a miniature plug, into the AUX input of the slave recorder;

c.

connect the second wire set plug into the MKTTOR jack of the first slave recorder, and the other miniature plug into the ADX input of the second

slave recorder. If you will use additional slaves, connect them in the same way, that is, one wire set between the MONITOR jack of one slave and the AUX jack of the next slave recorder; insert the master talking book recording into the master recorder (Note: on some machines, when you plug the miniature plug into the M3NIT0R jack, the loudspeaker on the recorder is cut off. If you do not hear the recorded speech on the master tape when yoa press the PIAY button, ramove the plug frcm the fDNTPOR jack until you are ready to start making the copy recordings. ) ; press the PIAY button and let the tape run until the recording starts (Note: uteri making the original master recording, start the talking book ten seconds or so fron the beginning of the tape. This helps to avoid "blips" in the sound caused by tape damage or irregularities at the beginning of the tape cassette.); press the PIAY button on each slave recorder you have loaded with a blank cassette and let then run for ten seconds or so; then press the STOP button. you are ready to start making copies reinsert the miniature plug into the KKFPCR jack of the master recorder; press the PIAY button of the master recorder; as soon as possible, press the RBC and PIAY buttons simultaneously (on some machines,

58 you nay only need to press RBC buttern) ori earfi of slave recorders (This puts slave recorders into the cording mode.);

the the the re-

d.

let the tapes run until the end of the side;

e.

t u m over the cassettes and play the master recording and make tape copies by repeating the steps above;

f.

label the tape copies appropriately (Don't depend on your memory; you will get distracted fron your task before it is completed and you will almost surely forget!).

8. Seme machines will regni re to set recording levels on the slave recorder by turning the *\OLCME" or " W L - control. In most cases cassette recorders of the hone type are equipped with circuits which ccnpress streng signals so they are not distorted in recording. Hence, in most cases, you can set the recording level ocntol (if any) to its midpoint without worry. As we have said, this is an emergency procedure. But since copies eue made at the same speed at which the original recording is made, surprisingly good quality copies may be made in this way. The noise (hiss) level of the copies will be higher than the master (by 3 dB), but then so are copies made by more sophisticated methods. The procedure is slow since copies take as long to mate as the play time of the master recording. Obviously, one cannot hope to achieve high levels of production of copies, and the reliability of the master and slave recorders may be relatively low when used intensively for production. The method described can service a very snail population of readers (say, 10 or so) for a period of time, and it can keep your facility producing talking books when a crisis has shut down your normal production line. In humid climates, it would be prudent before recording

59

to insert the blank cassettes into the slave recorders and fast wind (press the FF or double arrow button) the tape through to the end of one side. If the sides are labelled A and B, then turn the cassette ever and fast wind the second side as well. Then turn over the cassette, again, wind on for ten seconds or so, and you will be ready to record. This procedure will help avoid the layers of tape sticking to one another and causing distortion in the recorded sound. Itiis emergency technique of recording may also be helpful viien your nain (power line) electrical supply is "down" or not supplying electrical power—if the master and slave recorders can be run on batteries/accumulators. If the power outage is relatively short (three hours or so) you can continue production of talking books until the main power supply is available again. This the emergency systen described night be used even as a stand-by in the usual talking book service. When main power fails, this stand-by system can be used to produce those talking books with a relatively snail circulation, such as technical works and advanced texts, for which there are few users.

61

Chapter VI The Braille Book Facility Introduction We should say at the beginning of this discussion that there is no "best" or "off the shelf" solution to the question of choosing an optimm system for snail- and medium-sized braille production facilities. This is so because of two factors: There has been a lack of comercial interest in the production of brail le: the market for braille is too small to excite comercial interest. There has been an inadequate investment of funds to develop and disseminate technological innovations and new methods to produce braille. Braille has been said to suffer frati "benign neglect." That is, vii ile demand for the talking bock increases sharply every year, the denand for brail le books languishes at a constant level year after year; accordingly, more effort is put into increasing talking book production than braille production. But in the wry recent past, advances in the computer arts and technology have ccnbined to open new possibilities. He can now edit text in braille with the ccnçuter, for exanç>le. And we are at the threshold of seeing a cotinerical version of "refreshable" braille, a page at a time, fed by a canputer. Diese are important developments. They depend on the availability of cheap and reliable micixyiuuessors, or "ccrçuters on a chip." Because these chips are used in a wide variety of conçuter assisted devices, and because the sane chip can be instructed to perform different functions depending vpon that device it is installed in, it is now possible for computer assisted devices to produce braille in the sane way that similar devices produce ink print. In this way, economy in the production of braille devices can be achieved in the sane way as eocrxmy is achieved in devices vAiich handle ink print text—thanks to the microprocessor chip. Because this is so, it is now possible to distribute aaipact and reliable devices to produce, read and edit braille quickly and widely thiou^iout the world. We are also fortunate that in the recent past a handsome and scholarly treatment of equipment for braille production on a small and meditan scale, along with mich other useful information, has beai prepared by B. Hampshire and published by the Swedish Federation of the Visually Handicapped, S-122 88 Enskede, Sweden. Managers responsible for creating facilities should obtain a copy of this Handbock and use it in conjunction with the information in this chapter. Die volune is especial ly valuable for its expert treatment of the costs for capital equipment and running costs of several alternative systems for producing braille. We shall repeat here one previous reoaimendation: Because of the economy that can be realized, it is worthwhile operating a joint tape talking book/ trail le bock production organization. The relatively high cost of braille

62

production can thus be partially offset by the eooncny realized in sharing overhead, space and possibly sane staff with the talking book facility. Management will be better under the overall guidance and direction of a single managing director with full scope to serve the needs of the blind and visually inpaired population. Choice of a System As we have already enphasized, the first step in establishing a braille facility is to estimate with care how nudi braille it will be neoessary to produce. Typically, a medium to large production facility will produce one monthly magazine (400 copies of 30 braille pages), ten textbooks (30 oopies of 500 braille pages), thirty other books (10 copies of 300 braille pages) and one hundred documents of all other types (approximately 3 oopies of 10 braille pages). Hill what is planned to be produced best meet the needs of the braille reading population, or will that plan merely reflect what is easiest to produce? Itie director nay wish to refer back to our discussion of surveying reader needs in Chapter II. When expanded production in brail le is considered, it is very likely that increased production will be concentrated on smaller quantities of a variety of texts. Since a large proportion of the cost of producing a book in braille is invested in producing the first copy, the oost of each trail le valline will be greater for smaller production runs than for longer ones. Sane materials, in fact, may be better handled in talking bock form. If the option is available, for exanple, then recreational reading may be better handled in talking book than in braille form. Braille is superior, however, when material is needed for reference, or when the materiell contains much numerical information—technical information, in general—that must be referred to repeatedly. When ysu have the facts you need in hand, your decision making as planner/ managing director may be aided by filling in this table:

Type of Material

Magazines Textbooks Other Books Documents Diagrams or ÎËEË

At Present Nunfcer of Average Different Nuntoer Braille of Pages Copies

In Two Years Time Number of Average Different Number Braille of Pages Copies

63

Funding Itie next step is to decide upon the anount of available funds to cover the costs of buying and maintaining equipment, staff costs, running costs (traille paper, binders, covers etc.), and overhead. Over the world, it is usually easier to find money to buy equipment than to run the system. Further, as ve have pointed out, most equipment should be amortized (its value decreased to zero) over a five year period; beyond that time the equipment may beocme too unreliable to consider keeping it, but there are seme exceptions. Simpler machinery can give ten or more years' service with a minimim of routine maintenance. The higher the cost of the equipment (usually because of its sophistication) the higher the maintenance cost will be. For most electronic equipment, it would be wise to count on a maintenance cost of 15 percent of the purchase price per year. Thus, electronic equipment costing $10,000 will actually cost $17,500 over the suggested five year period of amortization. Sane of these costs can be met through contractual arrangements, as we have mentioned. The ministry of education, for example, may be willing to pay for textbooks for school cfiildren and university students, and in proportion to the nutter of books provided by your facility. There are even religious grxxçjs who may contract with you for local production of sate of their literature. Space Requirements Braille is a bulky median. The expansion in size of an ink print version of an ordinary volume to its multivolume braille version may be tenfold. Additional space nust be counted on for the production system Vilich includes collating and binding the braille pages, the storage of the completed volutes before they are distributed, and the space required in the master and duplicate copy library for the stock of titles that is kept. A tar ail le press for producing magazines will require about ten times as nudi space as the vacuutt forming system used for snail quantity braille production—144 square feet versus 989 square feet (10 versus 100 square meters). Sometimes planning ahead can alleviate sane of these problems. If, for example, the full ranter of anticipated oopies needed is produced all at once, the storage problem is compounded, it may be useful to consider a systan in which an extra copy of a book is produced on the same day that the original order or request cones in for it. This problem generally does not exist for the special case of magazine production, since the circulation of the magazine is usually well defined before the production run is begun. Another factor influencing storage space is whether the production system makes braille embossed on only one side of a page (single-sided embossing) or on both sides of the page (interpointed braille).

64

Staff Selection Wie choice of a braille production system nay be influenced heavily by the availability of a suitable staff. This is particularly a problem when a traille code already exists that includes rules for contractions and abbreviations. The staff running the production system may have to be trained in the rules of the braille code you nust use. They will, in any case, need to be trained in the layout requirements for braille bodes, particularly those that include tabular information. Most difficult of all are the specialist codes, as for mathematics or music; these require persons with dual understanding of the subject natter and the special tiraille codes used for them. Stages of Production There are six stages in the production of braille: 1. The choice of the material to be transcribed. Priorities for producing titles must be established, and it would be helpful if the advisory groip can offer this help. There is not usually a steady flow of material in braille. Thus, it is worth having work in reserve that can be done at any time; and to consider switching staff fren talking bock to braille production vrfien lulls occur in either sector. 2. Editing of the ink print text to show how it should be laid out in braille. Ulis is a particularly time consuming process for textbooks which include tables, sinoe references have to be nade to braille text pages not to ink print pages. Diagrams present another major problem, and it is often preferable to avoid them by substituting viienever possible a short paragraph of descriptive text. When this cannot be done, arrangements have to be made for creating a diagram or map in tactual form, then inserting it into the braille text at the proper place. Care must be taken to assure that the tactual version is understandable to the reader. This is not an easy thing to do; there are no good international standards for such representations. 3. Production, including proofreading of the braille text, to check on the possibility of mistakes in the material and cm the correct use of contractions and layout requirements. This is a slow process and often requires two persons: a blind reader and a sighted monitor scanning the ink print version. 4. Collating and binding; that is, putting the pages in correct order and fixing them in that sequence

65 by mechanical means. Collating requires a large working area and is usually done by hand. Whether stitching, wire coil, or plastic carfc is used to bind the braille pages will depend cm the quantity of hraille to be produced in the facility. 5. Adding of an ink print label to each volume giving author, title and volane nunber. 6. Packing and distribution by nail. The braille must be protected fran damage in the post. Simple Translation In this system, a skilled braillist embosses directly on paper or plastic using a mechanical braillewriter. Using the most widely distributed machine (the Perkins Brail lewriter), oily one side of the paper can be embossed. The Stainsby machine, however, can produce interpoint or interline hraille. Since the devices are relatively simple mechanical designs the reliability is high. More than one copy can be made at one time by using thin paper or plastic; unfortunately the dot quality, normally superb, suffers «hen this is attenpted. The nain advantages of this system are low capital oost, a miniiruri of required maintenance and no need for electrical power (thus it is suited to the needs of volunteers working in their own homes). Among the disadvantages are the low quantities that can be achieved in production and the difficulty of correcting errors in the text without redoing a whole page. A good transcriber is able to produce as many as 30 braille pages a day including proofreading and the correction of errors. If the error rate is high, as with a poor transcriber, productivity drops sharply due to the difficulty of correcting errors. . Back-rilled Master A master copy is produced on a brail lewriter; then the back of the hraille page is covered with a paste which hardens as it dries. This may require heating so that the paste hardens properly. Copies are made en additional sheets of paper by passing the master and paper between a pair of rubber rollers. The sirrplicity of the system is appealing. However, the resulting dot quality is fairly poor and the master copy will not survive a large production run. Screen Printing There is a number of variations on this technique. Uve best is that in v^iich a master is made by punching holes in a sheet of stiff card or plastic, each dot corresponding to a braille dot; ink is then forced through

66 the holes and down on to a sheet of paper beneath the sheet. The ink on the sheet has to be dried carefully so that it adheres to the paper. The method requires a great deal of care to insure good results. Since thin paper is used, the bulk and weight of the resulting braille bock is considerably less than those in which the normal heavy braille paper is used, λ minor advantage is that colored ink can be used, allowing for easy visual appreciation of the braille on the page. Instructions and further details on the process can be obtained from the Nippon Lighthouse, 12 Naka 2-eterne, imazu, Joto-ku, Osaka City 536, Japan. Stereotype A traillist uses a heavy-duty machine for embossing a pair of metal plates. The machine may be entirely mechanical, «¿lieh requires considerable work on the part of the operator, but it is usually motor driven today. Errors are difficult to correct. The metal plates used are expensive and difficult to obtain in sane countries. A typical production rate is about 15 doublesided plates a day per operator. Copies eure then made in paper by using a flat bed or rotary printing press adapted or built especially for printing braille. The dot quality is very good (more so for the flat bed than the rotary press, typically) since the paper is oarpressed between the pair of metal plates. The metal plates are ideal for long production runs, they are, however, clumsy and consume much space viien stored for future use. These machines are very robust and with reasonable care should last for 20 years. Vacuum Forming A paper master is made using a braillewriter. Plastic copies are thai made from it using a vacuuti forming machine. This process operates by heating the plastic sheet that is in contact with the braille master, drawing out the air frcm under the master to maximize the conformity of the hot plastic to the shape of the braille dots, (tien this filase is oonpleted, the plastic sheet is cooled. Vhen the plastic sheet is cooled, it becomes rigid and retains good memory of the master. It is thai removed frcm the machine for use. The whole process takes about 30 seconds. The best plastic sheet is calendered thermoplastic polyvinyl chloride. The calendering gives the sheet a texture which makes reading by touch easier. Since the plastic material does not absorb moisture frcm the finger(s), however, it is less comfortable to reed than paper copy. A considerable amount of heat is given off by the vacuim forming machine when in use. Since fumes are created when the plastic is heated, it is recarne nded that the device be operated near an exhaust air flow, or under a fume hood, to protect the operator's lungs. Hie cost of the device, depending on the make, will range from about $1,540 (for the Thermoform made in the U.S.A.) to $1,556 (for the Clarice Model 375 made in Wales, O.K.). The thermoplastic material costs about six cents per sheet. Using this system 30 master pages can be produced per day. Copies can be

67 malìe at a rate of 150 per hour, but this is in northern environments. Pages need to be collated and bound, of course, and ring binding appears to be the simplest method. Using typical equipment configurations, three elements are required: an electric punch ($1,500), a manual binder ($500) and plastic binders ($600 per 1,000). Twenty volutes of braille can be bound per hour. Two to three staff are required. Electronic System with Input by Brail list There is a very large number of possible ccnfcinations of equipment in this group. All aim to give the brail list the possibility of editing text that is entered and also the possibility of producing a nuntoer of copies. One suggested configuration would comprise a Telesensory Systems VersaBraille digital braille device ($7,750) for input and editing, with output created on a Resus Model, RS-14 braille embosser (about $14,725). The bra il list keys in the information corresponding to the ink print text; this is stored en a digital cassette contained within the device. Proofreading and correction of errors is aoocnplished by the brail list who reads the traille display and uses sinple ccmnand key instructions to correct any errors that are found. Copies can be embossed in braille on the Resus high speed embosser at a rate of 160 braille cells per second. Alternatively, a device can be used which embosses metal plates automatically too use on a flat bed or rotary press for large production runs. The output fron the Resus device is fan-folded, so it nust be separated; this is best done with ein automatic guillotine ($12,000). A nice advantage of this system is that the braille text is stored in machine-readable form on a magnetic recording contained in a compact cassette; copies are made fron this magnetically recorded "master" whenever they are required. Electronic System with Input by Ordinary Typist This system is a refinement of the foregoing. The text can be entered by a typist W » has no knowledge of the braille code. Translation of the ink print text to braille is done automatically by the system's oonputer. The output of traille is embossed on a high speed entasser of the Resus type already described. The typist uses a conventional keyboard like that of a typewriter. The text that is entered is displayed on a TV-like screen (called a "visual display unit" or VDO), vAiere proofreading and editing of errors can be done before the information is stared. Storage is made on a fairly inexpensive medium ("floppy disks") and an associated device (called a "floppy disk unit") in the form of magnetic inpulses. The typist can call up stored information frctn the floppy disk unit and display it on the screen over the keyboard. The displayed information can

68

be moved around, added to and/or removed by using a ranter of siirçle commands typed in on the keyboard. A ccrputer program translates the edited text to contracted braille. Itie output of that translation is also stored cm a floppy disk. The typist can then instruct the computer to send the stored information to the embosser for printing of the braille in as nany copies as eux required. An ink print high speed printer is often also added so that the text can be read in both ink print and braille frati the same text that is recorded on the system originally. Such a system can be bought part by part or as a complete package. A typical cost would be: —

visual display unit...

S

— — —

conçuter unit floppy disc units Total

$ $ $ 2,500.00

—

braille embosser

$14,725.00

—

Total

$17,225.00

To these costs most be added the cost of a program package for translation into braille. A different program is required for each braille code. Vii ile such programs are not perfect, the nuttier of errors is actually quite low and occur most often when the braille code itself requires pronounciation or meaning to be added to the set of rules for its use. The cost of translation programs will vary considerably depending on the complexity of the contracted braille code but a typical cost would be $10,000, if no program already exists for this language. It is a one time cost. To this must be added the fan-fold braille paper, about $40 per boot of 1,000 sheets. Collating is done automatically by the ccrputer. Pages need to be bound with a stiff cover. An electrically assisted punch and manual plastic ring binding machine cost about $2,000. Thus, the cost of equipment and program development over a five year period would yield the following: — — —

capital depreciation $3,445 maintenance $2,584 paper, covers, binders.... $3,000

—

Total

$9,029

plus staff and overhead costs. Assuming an output of ten copies of 5,000 braille pages (that is, 50,000 total braille pages) the unit oost of each braille page will be in the region of 30 to 50 cents. Small Production Facility Versus Large Production Facility The following comparative costing indicates oost benefits for the new technology for a large production system producing 25,000 pages per month.

69 However, it will be sane time (at all) before this technology is oost effective for production of runs as small as 2,000 braille pages per month. SWall Production Facility To produce 25,000 braille pages per ncmth using the vacuum forming system: 1.

Personnel

$

1 transcriber/operator 2.

Capital Cost

$

1 Perkins braillewriter 1 vacuum forming machine 1 manual punch/binder

350.00 1,540.00 1,200.00 $3,090.00

3.

Annual Running Cost Capital depreciation over 5 years Salary of transcriber/operator 2,500 sheets of manilla paper 24,000 sheets of plastic 250 plastic binders 250 pairs of covers Packaging materials Other oosts (maintenance, electricity, etc.)

$ c.

618.00 6,000.00 75.00 1,440.00 150.00 30.00 70.00 300.00 $8,683.00

Unit oost = 36 cents per braille page Large Production Facility To produce 25,000 braille pages per month using: A.

Vacuum Forming System 1.

2.

Personnel 1 supervisor/braille editor 4 braille transcribers 2 operators for vacuvxn forming/ collating/binding Capital Cost 4 Perkins braillewriters 2 vacuum forming machines 1 electric punch

$

$ 1,400.00 3,080.00 1,500.00

70 1 manual binding machine

500.00 $6,480.00

3. Annual Running Cost Capital depreciation over 5 years Salaries (will vary considerably according to location) 30,000 sheets of manilla paper 300,000 sheets of plastics 3,000 plastic binders 3,000 pairs of covers Packaging materials Other costs (maintenance, electricity, etc.)

$ 1,296.00 c.

42,000.00 900.00 18,000.00 1,800.00 350.00 750.00 1,000.00 $66,096.00

Unit cost = 22 cents per braille page B.

Microprocessor Based System 1.

fersonnel 1 supervisor/braille editor 2 typists 1 operator for guillotine/binding

$

2. Capital Cost 2 2 1 1 1 1

$

microprocessor systems RS—14 braille entossers automatic guillotine electric punch manual binding machine braille translation program

5,000.00 29,450.00 12,000.00 1,500.00 500.00 10,000.00 $58,450.00

3. Annual Running Cost Capital depreciation over 5 years Salaries (will vary considerably according to location) 300,000 sheets of fan-fold paper 300 plastic binders 3,000 pairs of covers Packaging materials Other costs (maintenance, electricity, etc.)

$ 11,690.00 c.

24,000.00 12,000.00 1,800.00 350.00 750.00 10,000.00 $60,590.00

71 Unit cost = 20 cents per braille page The above costs are for cciqparision purposes and do rot include the cost of renting space, inport duty and taxes. Conclusion In this chapter we have touched on the advantages and disadvantages of several different systems for producing braille. All can be reccnrended, within their limitations, for the vol ima of braille output likely to be needed by the small- or medium-sized production facility. Note, that we have not hesitated to include systems based on advanced technologies, including miniaturized ccnçuters, even for countries just beginning to produce braille. In doing so, we differ frcm some observers vie are concerned that electronic systems are apt to be regarded as more abstract and perhaps less understandable than largely or purely mechanical systems. It is likely that this prejudice, if it exists, is age-dependent, and that young managers, technicians and consultants will be both comfortable and familiar with electronically based systems. Indeed, an argument can be mounted that they may well feel more at ease with electronic than with mechanical systems. If the point is not an academic one, then it stresses the fact that the world-wide access to and availability of ocnponents and systems based on electronics ought to be exploited even by the beginning facility in those cases where advantages of such equipment can be realized through technological "leapfrogging" over intervening developmental stages. Such choices nay be forced when skilled brail lists are not plentiful and must be used for their skills in specialized oodes rattier than in routine transcription of ordinary text, or, viten there is a need for a rapid run-up in capability to provide a wide variety of materials in a relatively short period of time. Finally, when the production facility is located near centers of technological innovation and use, as we reocnmend, the atmosphere is apt to encourage application of such advanced technologies.

73

Chapter VU A Survey of Current Practice Introduction The great English physicist. Lord Kelvin, said once that he never quite fully understood anything unless he could attach a number to it. A man of his word, he gave the world a temperature measuring scale vrfiich started at the point where atoms were so cold they stopped roving. This was zero on his scale! His sentiment was reflected in our rrotivation to find out something about the way braille and talking bodes were produced around the world. We were also motivated by the general concern over the world that readers can best be served if we can ascertain their needs, and also assess our capability to satisfy those needs. Assessing reader need is most properly the concern of the organization operating within a particular comunity of readers. We have spelled out how to discover the needs of that c o m m ity of readers in Chapter II. That left us with the task of finding out something about the organizations and programs producing materials to be read. The obvious choice was a survey. Drawing φ the survey was a task undertaken with the confcined experience of the authors in survey research, supplemented by informal consultation with academic and other professionals working in the survey research field, 1îïe survey form that evolved from this work is shown below. So far as we know, this is the first time that a survey has beai carried out to define the properties and activities of organizations providing reading materials to blind and visually impaired persons around the world. The Nature of the Sarople Before sending out the survey, we sent it to a group of organizations in order to "test" it and the responses we might receive. The names of those organizations, who participated in this test, can be found in Appendix II. The carplete list of organizations to which the survey was seit can be found in the "International Directory of Libraries and Production Facilities for the Blind," an OTA publication. The directory represents a "culled" list from former lists that had many duplications and inaccuracies. It was conpiled with the help of the IFIA Connittee. All of the organizations named were sent a copy of the survey farm. They were asked to fill it out and return it to Professor D.N. Bedi. Of all who were sait the survey form, we received responses (returned and filled-in forms) from 181. nie normal expected rate of return in mail surveys of this type is 10 to 15 percent of the total of survey forms sent out. We received back better than 40 percent, a very high response rate indeed. Large, median and anali producers of reading materials are represented in the sample.

74 Oie proportions represent roughly their presence ancng the toteil of organizations and agencies vi»o produce reading materials. Limitations of the Study Although we asked a very few questions about the recent history of the organizations, it is important to keep in mind that a survey lite this one has the Aaracter of a "snapshot" taken at a given point in tine. One cannot predict trends fron a single point. The remedy—as ve developed it in our earlier dicussion of survey methods—is to repeat this study periodically in the course of the next severed years. To airi the comparability of information collected in these future surveys with what we have collected, a set of the basic information collected in the form of sheets of ocnputer printout, has been deposited with the project officer, Mr. Peter E. Hanke, at the American Foundation for the Blind in New York. Another fact that the reader should keep in mind in reviewing the findings is that the nutter of organizations responding is not constant for all of the questions. Itiose questions that are most general are answered by all, or almost all, of those who sent back replies. But when technical or service details are needed to answer another question, one finds the nutter of the sanple »Ao answer drops significantly. In most cases, the nutter did not drop below 100, the point generally considered to be the mininuii for making sensible inferences about the persons studied or organizations studied without the need to use special statistical tools. Content of the Survey The areas treated in the survey were the following: 1.

Vtiether the organization produced braille material;

2.

Vtiether are

the the

organization braille

and

produced talking

talking books

books;

3.

How

4.

How many different titles and kind of subject matters are made;

produced;

5.

Vtx> produces them;

6.

Vtiat technologies are used in producing the books;

7.

Vtiat system!s) of braille contraction is (are) used;

8.

How are the reading materials distributed;

9.

Vtr> maintains the library fron which loans are made of reading materials;

10.

Vtiat trends are there in the nutter of books produced;

11. ttiat is the nature of the producing organization: structure and history.

its

75

Based cm this information, it is possible to derive a picture of the producing organizations: their characteristics, their social and cultural setting, and the level of technologies enployed to produce braille and talking books, the survey form reflects these areas and characteristics in its several sections. Bus: 1. Section I deals with brail le production; 2. Section II deals with distribution of braille materials; 3. Section III deals with talking bock production; 4. Section IV deals with talking bock distribution; 5. Section V deals with the social and cultured ocntext of the producing organization, and with long term trends in its production. The survey form was pretested on a sanple of seven organizations. There was an effort made to use sinple English in the survey questions, and wherever possible we inserted ISO metric equivalents for those not using English measurements. Statistical Analysis The principal statistic used in the analysis of the information returned to us was the Chi-square. Ulis measure tests the relationship between two variables without making assumptions about the measures which define the organizations in the sanple we used. It tells us whether a relationship exists or not. Die result tells us vtether the two variables we ¿orange by frequency of occurrence in the sanple survey are related car not—the so called test of independence, fie did not embark on elaborate analysis in this first view of the field internationally. Sie possibility exists to do so; and in fact Professor Bedi is preparing journal articles examining the data in greater detail. (You may wish to write to him and ask far copies of papers that issue fron his analysis.) The Data The information we gathered is given in two parts. Part I cowers the responses given by all the organizations that responded to the survey, part II covers the responses given by the portion of tí» sanple that pcoduses braille materials, so that we could get a little more detail about their methods and activities. Part I The first question we asked was vfrether the organiztion produced braille material. Table 1, below, indicates that a little more than half the sanple produce braille. Since almost ten percent of the sanple did not answer the question, we infer that a little

more than a third do not produce braille. Table 1 Does your organization produce braille material? Category

Number

Percent

Yes

95.0

52.5

No

69.0

38.1

No Answer

17.0

9.4

181

100.0

For those that do produce braille, we wanted to find out how many pages of material they produced each month (or in the last month). Table 2 tells us several things. First, there is a broad division between those who produce fewer than 1,000 pages of braille a month, and those that produce more than 1,000 pages a month. Second, about a third of those that produce braille mate fewer than 1,000 pages, and about two thirds make more than 1,000 pages. Third, it tells us that about 68 out of the total of 181 organizations produce braille. Fourth, it tells us that about a third of the organizations that produce braille did not answer the question. Table 2 About hew many pages of braille does your organization produce each month? Category Less than 1000 1000 or More No Answer

Number

Percent

23

12.7

45

24.9

113

62.4

181

100.0

The third question probed the matter in a slightly different way. We asked producers how many book titles they had produced in 1982. Table 3 shows the response to this question. This question drew more responses than the prior one (23 more, in fact). Nearly half of those answering produced a relatively snail ramber of titles during the year. Although the data do not allow us to make an inference about whether this was a typical year, we think that in all probability it was.

77

Table 3 »Books

Number

Percent

0-50

40

22.0

51 - 100

20

11.0

100+

31

17.1

No Answer

90

49.7

181

100.0

Part of the difficulty in producing braille nay lie in the fact that those who produce braille books are required to deal with a wide range of subject natters in the titles, rather than a large quantity of a few titles. This is shown in Table 4, in response to our question whether the titles represented a few specialized areas (like texts) or nunerous subject areas (including recreational reading). Table 4 Category

Nimber

Percent 39.8

Numerous Areas

72

Specialized Few

17

9.4

No Answer

92

50.8

181

100.0

Further, more of those responding indicate they use contracted (29) rather than uncontracted (19) brail le; sane produced both contracted and uncontracted forms. The use of volunteers to aid the blind is a popular noticn. Hence we were interested in knowing the extent to which volunteers were responsible for aiding braille output and production. As Table 5 shows, however, volunteers play a relatively minor role in braille production. Almost a quarter of the organizations do not use volunteers at all. There were about an equal number of organizations who: (a) used volunteers in less than 30 percent of the total braille production; and (b) used volunteers to help in a larger proportion of total braille production.

78 Table 5 Percent Produced by Volunteers

Nurfcer

Percent

0%

42

23.2

1 - 30%

26

14.4

31 - 100%

29

16.0

No Answer

84

46.7

181

100.0

Hie next set of questions vie asked were concerned with the distribution of braille. In Table 6 we show that more organizations distribute braille (110) than produce it (95). Table 6 Does your organization distribute braille materials? Category

t^jnber

Percent

110

60.8

No

48

26.5

No Answer

23

12.7

181

100.0

Yes

We asked also about the nature of the braille books and journals that were distributed. Since many organizations distribute more than one kind, many of those ròo responded did so in more than one category, as Table 7 shows. Table 7 Category

*

Yes %

*

No

«

t

Total %

Recreational

97

85.8

16

14.2

13

100

Textbock

89

79.5

23

20.5

112

100

Magazines

78

67.8

37

32.4

115

100

Vocations

67

59.3

46

40.7

113

100

Other

69

64.5

38

35.5

107

100

Accompanying data indicated that more than 85 percent of the organizations distribute recreational titles, and more than 79

79

percent distribute texts. Hell over half distribute magazines, vocational and other literature. About 60 percent of those responding distribute ¿ill of these kinds of materials. More than half of those responding maintain a braille library (over 56 percent, in fact). In addition, over 38 perçait exchange braille materials with other organizations; in doing so, same 34 percent did not distribute to those who were not disabled. Oily a small nurfcer, about seven percent, were restricted to distributing braille to the citizens of their own country. [Xiring 1979, the average razrter of those ordering braille to read from each organization was 300 persons; but the range was very wide, from only two persons for one organization to 50,000 for another. Regarding talking books, we found the expected larger muter of organizations producing talking books (104) than braille books (95). But we were a little surprised that 17 of those organizations that produce talking books do not keep master recordings. This bears further study. Ttie average matter of titles recorded in the year was 190; but, again, the range was very wide, with but a single title for one organization and up to 4,500 titles for another (seme 91 organizations responded to this query). The relatively easy portability of copies of master tapes prorpts the question of the willingness of organizations to exchange these with others interested in expanding the repertoire of bocks on tape available to readers in a given country or distribution area for an organization. As Table 8 shews, an overwhelming majority (75 out of 105) of the organizations are willing to exchange tapes; but 15 axe not willing to do so, and 15 more were unsure (this latter groqp may not realize that a master tape copy can be sent; or they may never have raised the question with their governing authorities). Table 8 Category

Nuifcer

Percent

75

41.4

No

15

8.3

Don't Know

15

8.3

No Answer

76

42.0

181

100.0

Yes

Overall, the percentage of the survey sample distributing recorded bocks to readers almost matches the percentage recording than, as Table 9 shows.

(Note that these percentages resemble those for distribution of braille material.) Table 9 Do jou distribute recorded material to the blind? Category

Number

Percent

105

58.0

No

53

29.3

No Answer

23

12.7

181

100.0

Yes

The libraries of master tape titles are relatively large: the average nutter held by organizations was 1,300. nie range here, too, was wide—fron a single master tape in one organization to 9,000 in the files of another. What are the languages in which titles are recorded? This is shown in Table 10. It indicates that of those recording talking bocks, almost 39 percent reported that at least seme of their materials were in English, and that about one-sixth of the titles produced are recorded in the other major world languages, French and German. Table 10 Number Recording In Major World Languages Category

Number

Percent

English

66

38.5

French

28

16.3

German

24

14.0

Spanish

15

8.7

Other

38

22.2

171

100.0

Regarding content of talking books, it is clear frcm Tables 11 and 12 that despite the wide variety of materials nade available, recreational reading predominates: This category accounts for 70 percent of the title produced.

81

Table 11 Nimber Reporting At Least Sane Of The Types Available Type

Number

Percent

84 80 47 32

34.5 32.9 19.3 13.1

243

100.0

Recreational Textbook Vocational Other

Table 12 Median Percent of Type of Materiell Available

Recreational Textbook Vocational Other

72.0% 20.0% 7.1% 10.0%

Circulating bocks rather than giving books to users seems to be the norm, as Table 13 shows. Only a snail nimber of organizations allow users to keep materia] s sent to them. Moreover, more than 55 percent of the organizations require users to purchase their playback machine; only about 44 percent give the user the listening devioe. Table 13 Does organization allow users to keep recorded materials? Answer Yes No Sane

Ntsfcer

Percent

8 75 15

8.2 76.5 15.3

181

100.0

Generally speaking, in comparison to five years before this survey, the organizations responding to the survey indicate that materials of all kinds have increased in nuifcer. Table 14 shows

82

that, in fact, more organizations report a "mich higher" (about 39 percent of the sample) level than report a "moderately higher" (about 27 percent of the sample) level of production and distribution. Together, these two groups accounted for more than 82 percent of those that responded to this question. Table 14 Amount Change Compared to 5 Years Ago Amount Much Higher Moderately Higher No Change Saiȣ)at Lower Much Lower No Answer

Number

Percent

70 48

38.7 26.5 6.1 1.7

11 3 1

0.6

48

26.5

181

100.0

Most organizations were veil situated to make such judgments. About 38 percent of then were established by a governmental law or ordinance (44 percent were not and 18 percent did not answer this question). About half of the producers were established before 1950, the other half after that date. For those producing talking bocks, we posed a few technical questions, for viiich we will sunnarize responses here. Hie overwhelming majority record books on tape, as expected (84 percent). Mary use multiple formats: 16 percent use open reel, 74 percent use ccrpact cassette (the most popular medium), and 28 percent use the Tapette system (of Clark & Smith, Ü.K.). The nutter responding to the question of tape speeds used indicated that although many did not realize at what speeds oonçact cassettes were driven (54 percent gave the correct answer of 1-7/8 ips (4.76 απ/sec)), those who use open reel master recordings were clear on their preference for 3-3/4 ips (9.53 an/sec) over 7-2/3 ips (19.05 cm/sec) for open reel use, undoubtedly for the saving in tape costs this allows. For the same reason, by far the majority of open reel users use half track recording heads (65 percent), the others a mix of quarter track and full track recording heads. Preferred lengths of maximum recording per side of tape reflected the use of the ccnpact cassette medium: 81 percent indicated a maximum recorded length of 45 minutes per side (reflecting the

83 all but universal use of C-90 ccnpact cassette), with about half the sample reporting use of a mix of 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes (the last undoubtedly for extra long cpen reel tapes). Regarding equalization of tapes (for which the response rate was very small), about 33 percent of those responding reported using the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) curve (probably reflecting the widespread use of recording and duplicating equipment of U.S.A. origin). The next most popular equalization was the DIN standard (18 percent of the sanple), with the GCIR and RIAA curves trailing well behind at about the 5 to 6 percent level. (We suspect that those who reported using the RIAA curve were refering to their disc production—and discs are used by only two or three oountries today.) Part II The second part of the survey probed braille production in uore depth. The responses here were analyzed from the 53 organizations that produce braille, and «Ao also specified the nuíber of pages of braille they produced each north. Table 15 touches on the natter of total production « w e again. About 33 percent produced fewer than 1,000 pages, and 67 percent produced more than 1,000 pages each month. Table 15 Category

Nmter

Percent

Less Than 1,000

21

33.3

More Than 1,000

42

66.7

63

100.0

The runber of book titles produced during 1979 casts the matter of overall production somewhat differently. Table 16 shows that of those who produce more than 1,000 pages a month, fewer than half of them published more than 100 titles. The rest of the sarple organizations produced a relatively small ranter of titles. Table 16 Less Than 1,000 Bocks

More Than 1,000

Number

Percent

Nutter

Percent

19

90.5

22

52.4

100+

1

4.8

16

38.1

No Answer

1

4.8

4

9.5

21

100.0

42

100.0

0 - 100

84 Further, most organizatons tend to produce materials in numerous subject areas rather than in a few specialized areas; they are generalists, rather than special text producers, as Table 17 shows clearly. Recall from our earlier data that 29 organizations use contracted forms of braille, 19 uncontracted—but that sane produce both. Table 17 Less Than 1,000 Category

More Than 1,000

Number

Percent

Nurtoer

Percent

11

52.4

33

78.6

Numerous Areas Specialized Few

4

19.0

6

14.3

No Answer

6

28.6

3

7.1

21

100.0

42

100.0

In producing braille, volunteers have seme role, although less than many realize. Table 18 gives the proportion of volunteerproduced books for both large and snail publishers. Table 18 Less Than 1000

More Than 1000

#

Percent Produced By Volunteers

*

0%

6

28.6

16

38.1

1 - 30%

8

38.1

10

23.8

30%+

5

23.8

15

35.7

No Answer

2

9.5

1

2.4

21

100.0

42

100.0

%

%

Hie ocmparison of these data wth Table 4 is interesting: The earlier table appears to give a somewhat clearer picture. Most who produce braille also distribute it, as Table 19 indicates. Table 19 Does your organization distribute braille materials? Less Than 1000 Category

More Than 1000

Number

Percent

Number

Percent

20

95.2

38

90.5

No

0

0.0

3

7.1

No Answer

1

4.8

1

2.4

21

100.0

42

100.0

Yes

85

Most organizations told us that they distribute more than one kind of braille material; in fact, many ticked off more than one category of materiell s. This is shown in Table 20. Table 20 Yes

No

Total

Category

#

%

#

%

#

«

Recreational

49

Textbock Magazine

87.5 87.5 71.2

7 7 17

Other

40

61.8 71.4

21 16

12.5 12.5 28.8 38.2

56 56 59 56 56

100 100 100

Vocational

49 42 34

28.6

100 100

It would appear that the four major categories of materials produced in braille are recreational reading, textbooks, magazines and vocational texts—and em almost equal amount of "other" material, Vilich includes short run or transitory material or that of local interest alone. But two-thirds of all the organizations responding distribute braille in each of the subject categories. Most do as much as they can to enhance limited braille materials: over 84 percent of the 63 braille organizations maintain a library, and almost 64 percent exchange braille materials with other organizations. Regarding interiibrary loans, Table 21 shows the percentage of braille exchanged. It shows that about 59 percent of the braille material that is distributed is loaned material. Table 21

Category 0« 1 - 49% 50% + No Answer

Less Than 1000 Number Percent 0 2 14 5 21

0.0 9.5 66.7 23.8 100.0

More Than 1000 Nunber Percent 1 3 26 12

2.4 7.1 61.9 28.6

42

100.0

Of those organizations who distribute braille material, about 24 percent of them sold less than 49 percent of the materials; but the remaining 13 percent sold more than 49 percent of the totcil

86

braille material distributed. Moreover, the analler group of more active organizations, ccnprising 27 percent of the sanple, distributed less than 49 percent of braille materials that were free. Regarding the technological status of producers: about 22 percent used ccmputer assisted systems in production. About 38 percent used stereo-graphic plates; almost 80 percent used hand methods. Of course, examples of all three types of production could be found in sane of the organizations.

87

Chapter VHI Hie Future of Braille Books and Talking Books Although we make no pretense about cur ability to read the future, there are seme projections to which we have already referred in the above text that can guide the work of the managing director. Analysis of growth in talking book and braille book production by the Library of Congress in the United States of America has indicated a steady growth in talking book use, and a relatively flat or steady demand for braille bodes. As already mentioned, talking book production appears to be growing at a rate approaching 20 percent per year in the developed countries. Braille book production is growing at a much smaller rate, perhaps just enough to keep pace with the growth in the population of persons who read braille. The rate of growth of bradi le book production may even be somewhat less. TTiis would indicate a slow erosion in the nuiter of the braille reading public. These impressions are confirmed as well by papers given at the 1977 Madrid Conference of the European Regional Conmittee of the World Council far the Welfare of the Blind. Representatives of severed countries gave evidence of rapid growth of demand for talking books (particularly those recorded on ccmpact cassettes) and a relatively flat or steady demand for braille bocks. Giving reoomnendaticns to managers of new facilities in view of this evidence is difficult. On the one hand, one is tenpted to say that the manager should "go with the trends," count vpon steady increase in talking bock production, and do not atterpt to force growth in braille production. On the other hand, if conditiens vary locally from those in Europe and the other developed regions, then demand for braille may well exceed the demand in developed countries. If, for exanple, a new braille code is introduced to a population which has not yet enjoyed braille production and if that code is easy to learn and easy to use, then one can expect that use of hraille will beccne greater than it is in the developed countries. Moreover, the responsibility of the manager lies not only in serving the needs of the visually inpaired and blind population, but also in leading it. That is, if he knows that braille offers substantial advantages over talking books in the ease of use of reference material, and that braille is the median of literacy for the congenital ly blind, then he may wish to create the conditions under which the use of braille will be accelerated. He may wish to push its use for these reasons until it approximates the use of the talking book—at least for the purposes of primary education and of access to reference information. This is not an easy goal to reach for, or to defend to funding sources. Costs and difficulties of braille production will tenpt manager and advisory boards alike to slight the braille bock in favor of the talking book. We cannot prejudice the merits of this dilerma at the local level. We can

88

point out, however, that supporting braille production is an investment in the future for students and the illiterate. Another potential growth area for brail le is the use of digitally encoded braille. Just as with the videodisc, and its adaptation to audio information, brail le can be encoded in digital form. In fact, it is easier to encode braille than audio information, because braille consists of discrete dots—it is already in coded form. A coded form of these dots can be stored in a very compact form. About 180 pages of braille text can be recorded in this way on one C-90 compact cassette. Hiere eure now four or five devices in the world that can encode braille fran a keyboard or a computer in this way and play it back on a "refreshable" line of braille dots. None of these devices can be said to be made in very great quantities; all are expensive to very expensive ($3,000 to $10,000). It remains to be seen whether even in the developed countries the use of digitally encoded braille grows because of the advantages of correctness storage, ease of transmission, and ease of editing. Multiple use of braille coding will also depend on the widespread distribution of the rechines capable of recording, reading and transmitting encoded texts. This may take severed decades. In the lofty regions of price level, beyond the figure of $10,000 already mentioned, lie the reading machines which scan the ink print page, identify the characters on it, string the characters into words, and generate a synthetic speech spoken output to the recider. Another variation of this interesting systan scans the ink print page, recognizes and identifies the ink print words, and produces an output capable of driving a braille embosser. Error rates are reasonable—one in ten—for the book-to-speech system; and better than reasonable for the braille output—at least one word in an hundred. The prices are matched to these levels: about $20,000 for the synthetic speech output version, probably ten times that figure for the braille output. Many persons have thought that a robot reader would be the replacement for the talking bock: no longer would the services of a human reader be required. Ulis is not the case. We have already mentioned the difficulties in accumulation of errors in understanding synthetic speech when listening periods are prolonged. It is also not the usual case for listeners to sede prolonged listening periods unless they must. What is clear is that the talking bock created by a human reading the text for capture cxi a recording medium is likely to be a normal way of producing· a talking book for the for seeable future. This is so despite what will undoubtedly be an occasional appearance of a talking book produced entirely fran synthetic speech outputts). Using the braille output of a device viiich scans the printed text and produces a stream of signals corresponding to the braille version of the text is a viable method of producing braille books. The costs involved, however, would preclude the use of such systems for anything other than the largest production oenters. Even in those, the use of this scanning method

89 ray be subsidized. In summary, we can expect that the future will bring seme reductions in the costs of producing those elements and ccnponents of technical progress that will make eooncmy possible in the production of both talking book and braille book production facilities. These developments will be introduced into the normal production environment relatively slowly, the major effect of the developments is not likely to occur in the next ten years; rather, they will begin to appear in normal production environments in ten to twenty years. This should not discourage us, since the means are at hand now for the pro— spective manager of talking books and braille products to mate reading materials in effective and cost efficient ways. Using the data and suggestions in this bock, he will know that at the very least, he can begin with the distilled wisdom and experience of all the major producers of material for the blind and visually ingrained in the world. We wish him (or her! ) every success in this undertaking. He know that the satisfaction he or she will derive fron meeting a basic human need for communication will provide the greatest possible substantive reward for the effort.

Appendices

93

Appendix I Survey Form International Survey of Organizations Providing Braille and Recorded Materials for the Blind

nailing label

Please correct any errors in the nailing label.

Date Please circle the nunber nearest the best response, or write in an appropriate answer. Section I 1.

Does your organization produce braille materials? (1) Yes (5) No

2.

(GO TO SECTION 2, QUESTION 9)

About how many pages of braille materials does your organization produce each month?

3.

pages.

Does your organization produce braille materials in numerous subject areas or do you specialize in specific areas? (1) Produce in numerous subject areas. (2) Specialize in a few areas. (PLEASE SPECIFY TOE PRINCIPAL AREAS).

4.

About v¿iat proportion of your braille materials is produced by TOlunteers? 0«

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

5. In producing brai 1le materials, do you use: (1) Hand oopying (1) Yes (2) Stereograph, plate embossing and press duplication (1) Yes (3) Ccnputer embossing and press duplication (1) Yes

90%

100%

(5) No (5) No (5) No

94 6.

How man/ braille books titles did you produce in 1982?

7.

Are the materials produced by your organization in: (1) Unoontracted braille

(1) Yes

(5)

No

(2) Contracted braille

(1)

(5)

No

Yes

(IF YES - ANSWER QUESTION 8) (3) Sane in unoontracted, sate in contracted braille. 8.

Using what system or rules? Specify Section II

9.

Does your organization distribute braille materials to users? (1) Yes (2) No (00 TO SECTION 3, QUESTION 21)

10.

Vtiat proportion of the braille material that you distribute are: %

Sold

% Provided on Loan * 100% 11.

Given Away Free Total

Do you distribute any bocks for recreational reading in braille? (1) Yes.

About how many recreational titles do you have

available? (5) 12.

No

Do you distribute any textbooks in braille? (1) Yes.

About how many textbook titles do you have

available? (5) No 13.

Do you distribute any magazines in br¿tille? (1) Yes.

About how many magazine titles do you have

available? (5) No

95 14.

Do you distribute any vocational materials in bra i 1 le? (1)

15.

Yes

(5)

No

Do jrou distribute any other types of material in braille? (1) Yes.

Please specify the types of materiell

(5) No 16.

Do you maintain a library of braille materials? (1)

17.

Yes

No

Do you exchange bra i 1 le material s with other organizations? (1) Yes

18.

(5)

(5)

No

Is your organization allowed to distribute materials to persons who are not visually impaired, blind, or disabled? (1) Can distribute to persons νΛο are not blind, visually inpaired, or otherwise disabled. (5) Can distribute only to persons vàio are blind, visually inpaired, or otherwise disabled.

19.

Is your organization allowed to distribute materials to people who are not citizens of your own oountiy? (1) Can distribute only to own citizens. (5) Can distribute to citizens of other countries also.

20.

Please estimate the approximate mutier of people or organizations who have ordered braille materials fron your organization this year:

Section III 21.

Does your organization record spoken materials for the blind? (1) Yes (5) No

(GO TO SECTION 4, QOESTICN 30)

% 22.

Do you have original (master) recordings on tape? (1)

Yes

(GO TO QUESTION 24)

(5)

No.

Please explain how you prepare tape materials:

(00 TO QUESTION 31) 23.

Do you record on: (1)

1/4 inch (6.15 nm) open reel tape

(1)

Yes

(5)

No

(2)

Ccnpact (Philips) cassette

(1)

Yes

(5)

Mo

(3)

1/2 inch (12.3 nm) open reel tape

(1)

Yes

(5)

No

(4)

Clarke & Smith Tapette cartridge

(1)

Yes

(5)

No

:ape speeds in recording, do you use:

25.

(1)

1-7/8 ips (4.76 an/sec)

(1)

Yes

(5)

Mo

(2)

3-3/4 ips (9.53 cm/sec)

(1)

Yes

(5)

No

(3)

7-1/2 ips (19.05 an/sec)

(1)

Yes

(5)

No

Vtiat is the maximum number of tracks that you can record. Do you record on: Full trade Half track Other (Please Specify)

26.

On any of the recorded materials that you produce, do you have maximum program lengths of?

27.

28.

(1)

30 minutes per side

(1)

Yes

(5)

No

(2)

45 minutes per side

(1)

Yes

(5)

No

(3)

60 minutes per side

(1)

Yes

(5)

No

(4)

90 minutes per side

(1)

Yes

(5)

No

During tape recording and playback, which equalizations do you use: (1)

NAB

(2)

(5)

Other

(Please specify).

CCtR

(3)

RIAA

(4)

DIN

(8)

Don't Know

About how many titles has your organization tape recorded in the past year?

97 29. Would your organization be willing to exchange raster tape copies with other organizations serving the visually inpaired, blind and/or disabled? (1) Yes

(5) No

(8) Don't Know Section IV

30. Do you distribute recorded materials to blind people? (1) Yes (5) No

(GO TO SECTION 5, QUESTION 47)

31. Approximately how many titles do you have on master tape for distribution? 32. About what percentage of your recordings are available in: English

%

French

%

German

%

Spanish

%

Other:

% % Total

100%

33. About what percentage of your recorded materials are: Textbook materials

%

Recreational reading

%

vocational materials Other:

% %

Total

100%

34. About what percentages of the materials you send are: Open reel

%

Tapette (Clarke & Smith)

%

Philipe Ocmpact Cassette

%

Phonograph disc

%

Other:

% Total

100%

98 35. Does your it ask to (1) (2) (3)

organization allow users to keep recorded materials, or does have the materials returned? User nay keep recorded materials Oser is asked to return recorded materials Sate raterial s nay be kept and some must be returned

36. Is the user's machine purchased by him or given to him? (1) Machine is purchased by user (2) Machine is given to user 37. Does this machine cost less than or more than $100? (1) Less than $100 (2) More than $100 (3) Sane are more than $100, sene are less 38. Please circle the nunfcers by the speeds of user machines. Tape (1) 15/16 ips (2.38 cm/sec) (2) 1-7/8 ips (4.76 an/sec) (3) 3-3/4 ips (9.53 an/sec) Disc (4) 8 rpm (5) 16 rpm (6) 33-1/3 rpn 39. If you use other speeds, please specify 40. Please list the models and manufacturers of machines that your users have. Manufacturer:

Model :

41. Wiat types of nailing oontainers do you send to blind users?

99 42. ttiat is the maximum nunber of tapes or discs that can be included in a nailing container?

43.

Is the container reusable? (1) Yes

44. 45.

(5) No

(8)

Don't know

About how many containers do you send out each year? Vfriat type and manufacturer of duplication system do you use to produce jour recorded sarple materiell for blind users?

(Fg - Model # in cassette duplication, 16.1 speed, 5 slaves Fg - Model

1/2" high speed, 32:1 speed ratio, 10 slaves, etc.) Section V

46.

Briefly describe the characteristics of people who use your materials, and the proportion. Examples are:

2/3 students and 1/3 lawyers, oar 1/2 elderly people and 1/2 professionals

47.

Compared with 5 years ago, has the amount of material find services produced and distributed by your organization changed; and if so how? (1) Much higher than 5 years ago (2) Moderately hi^er (3) No change, same level as 5 years ago (4) Somewhat lower than 5 years ago (5) Much lower than 5 years ago (6) N/A, Not in Existence 5 years ago

48. Did your government pass a law or ordinance to establish your organization? (1) Yes (5) No

(GO TO QUESTION 49)

100 49.

Was your organization created by voluntary organizations, or with the help of volunteers? (1)

Yes

(5)

No

50.

Vfriat year was your present organiza tien created?

51.

This survey is being sent to organizations throughout the world who are preparing reading materials for the blind.

Do you wish to have

information about your organization included in the final report for this survey? (1) 52.

Yes

(5)

No

Would you please send us any catalogs, booklets or other information which would help describe your organization and the services that you provide.

Also, if there cure any other things about your organization

that would be helpful for this survey, please mention than here.

53.

We have a list of organizations around the world which are producing reading materials for the blind.

However, there are probably many

organizations of viiich we are not aware.

Would you please previde us

the names and addresses of any organizations of which you know that might not be on our list, such as new organizations, or median or small organizations?

54.

Thank you very much for your help. Dr. Dina Badi, Director (or Professor Leslie L. Clark) 38 Hollow Oak Road Chappaqua, New York 10514 United States of America

Please send all materials to:

101 Appendix il Pre-test Mailing List Frank Kurt Cylte Director, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Library of Congress 1291 Taylor Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20542 United States of America Françoise Herbert Canadian National Institute for the Blind 1929 Bayview Avenue Toronto, Ctitario M4G 3E8 Canada Anna Ubostad Norweigian Association of the Blind Branch at Groningen Fazanthof 51 Tai Boer, Groningen Netherlands Robert Edward Kragen Manager of Technical Servioes Recording for the Blind, Inc. 215 East 58th Street New York, New York 10022 United States of America Donald Roskilly Rcyal National Institute for the Blind 21 Nest End Land Pinner, Middlesex HA5 1BQ United Kingdom Paul Ii Thansen Statene Institut for Blinde Ryrrerksvej 1 2900 Hellerup Deimadc Ranier F.V. Witte Deutsche Blindenstudienanstalt P.O. Bcoc 1160 Am Schlag 8 D-3550 Marburg/Lahn Federed Republic of Germany

102

Appendix III Manufacturers and Suppliers Agfa - Gevart A.G. 5090 Leverkusen-Bayerwek Federal Republic of Germany Altai Electric Company, Limited 12-14, 2-Chcme, Higashi-Kojiya Ohta-Ku Tokyo, Japan AKG (See Philipe) American Printing House for the Blind 1839 Frankfort Avenue Louisville, Kentucky 40206 United States of America American lîienroform Corporation 8640 East Slauson Avenue Pico Rivera, California 90660 United States of America Ançex Audio/Video Supply Division 401G Broadway Redwood City, California 94404 United States of America BASF A.G. Via Postfach 276 6800 Manheim 1 Federal Republic of Germany Clarke and Smith Manufacturing Ccrpany Melbourne House Melbourne Road Wellington, Surrey United Kingdom Deutsche Blindenstudienanstalt D-3550 Marburg 1 Am Schlag 8 Federal Republic of Germany

103

Fuji Photographic Film Company, Limited Magnetic Production International Division 20-30 Nishiazabu, 2-Chcme Minato-Ku Tokyo 106, Japan Howe Press Perkins School for the Blind 175 North Beacon Street Watertown, Massachusetts 01271 United States of America Infames P.O. Bcoc 1111 238 Highway 212 Michigan City, Indiana 46360 United States of America Information Terminals 323 Soquel »fay Sunnyvale, California 94086 United States of America Kurzweil Computer Products, Incorporated 31 Cartridge Parkway Cartridge, Massachussetts 02141 United States of America Matsushita Electrical Trading Oaipany, Limited 3-2, 4-Chcme, Minami Senba Mininani-Ku Osaka, Japan 542 Minnetech Laboratories, Incorporated Minneapolis, Minnesota Nakamichi Research, Incorporated 1-153 Suzukicho Kodaira, Itakyo North Date A/S Jerikoreien 20 Oslo 10, Norway Panasonic (See Matsushita Electrial Trading Catpany, Limited)

104

Philips NV rtiilips P.O. Bcoc 523 Eindhoven, Netherlands Studer-Reuoc International AG Alfhardstrasse 10 8105 Regensdorf Switzerland Royal National Institute for the Blind 224 Great Portland Street London HIN 6AA United Kingdom Sagem

6 averne d'Iena 75016 Paris France

Shure Brothers, Incorporated 222 G Hartrey Avenue Evanston, Illinois 60204 United States of America Siemen, AG Wittelsbacherplatz 2 D-8000 München 2 Federal Republic of Germany Sony

P.O. Βαχ 10 Tokyo Airport Tokyo 149, Japan

Tandberg A/S P.O. Βαχ 53 N-2007 Kjeller Norway Telefunken Corporation Fernseh und Randtunk Gonbh Goettinger Chaussee 76 3000 Hannover 91 Federal Republic of Germany

105

Telesensory Systems, Incorporated 3408 Hillview Palo Alto, California 94304 United States of America Telex 9600 G Aldrich Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota 55420 United States of America Tri formation Systems, Incorporated 3132 Jay Street, S.E. Stuart, Florida 33493 United States of America

106

Appendix IV Selected Further Readings Braille Research Newsletter Edited by J.M. Gill, L.L. Clark and E. Foulke Published by Research Unit for the Blind Institute of Bioengineering, Brunei University, Oxbridge, Middlesex 0B8 3PH United Kingdom This occasioned journal includes articles on new production techniques. International Guide to Aids and Appliances for Blind and Visually Impaired Persons Pulished by American Foundation for the Blind, 15 West 16th Street New York, New York 10011 Onited States of America Ulis bock lists the known aids for the blind tiiich are in production. It includes over 1,500 aids from 23 countries. International Register of Research on Blindness and Visual Impairment Edited by J.M. Gill Published by Harwick Research Unit for the Blind University of Warwick Ccwentry CV4 TAL, United Kingdom This register lists projects on nonradical research and innovative practice for the blind and visually impaired, the main organizations of and for the blind and visually impaired, and sources of information incuding periodicals, information services and reference works. Handbook... by B. Hampshire Published by Swedish Federation of the Blind S-122 88 Enskede, Sweden. This handbook gives detailed practical information on the technical aspects of braille production.

107