Melville House Books

In case you missed it, as I did, last week was National Record-a-Thon week sponsored by Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. According to this report in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “hundreds of volunteers across the country, spent several hours last week turning books – from second-grade social studies workbooks to medical-school anatomy texts – into audio recordings that will be used by the blind or dyslexic.”

“The 62-year-old Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic was founded to record college texts for World War II veterans, blinded or visually impaired from war injuries, to enable them to take advantage of the GI Bill,” Michael Kurdziel, the organization’s chief of programs and services, told the PI.

Recently the audience for RFB&D’s efforts have changed. Now three quarters of their users are children and adults with dyslexia and other reading disabilities. According to the PI, “While just 0.4 percent of the U.S. population is legally blind, dyslexia and other reading disabilities affect as much as 15 percent of the population, according to the National Institutes for Health.”

Despite those statistics, demand for audio books far exceeds the supply. Only about five percent of existing titles are available on audio. New text-to-speech technologies offer greater hope for many, though Kurdziel and others fear something will be lost in the translation. “Computer-generated voices,” he told the PI,  ”can’t yet capture the nuances of poetry or the inflections of various characters in a Shakespeare play. There’s something very intimate about that human voice being recorded and listened to by thousands of users.”

So, if you have the time and the inclination to be a voice actor, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic is seeking volunteers. After a training session and reading audition, volunteers make a two hour per week commitment for one year. Contact Mary McDermott, 610-265-8090, Ex 24. Happy reading!

Valerie Merians is the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.