There are many organizations providing products and services to blind people. We have found these to be the most useful and reliable.
Assistive Technology
HumanWare
Focused on enhancing the lives of people with visual and learning
disabilities, HumanWare provides intuitive, intelligent solutions
that enable their customers to participate effectively in
today's information intensive and highly mobile society.
Technological "breakthroughs" can often have quite the
opposite effect for those with a disability. Creating humanize
solutions that truly make life easier requires both innovation
and inspiration. HumanWare's products are having a profoundly
positive impact on the lives of people who are blind or visually
impaired. These are the tools that empower them to live
independently and compete effectively in a sighted world.
Freedom
Scientific
Freedom Scientific is the largest worldwide manufacturer of
assistive technology products for those who are blind or have low
vision. Freedom Scientific is also the only company with a
complete line of products for those with vision impairments. All
of these products are tested and guaranteed to work together.
Freedom Scientific has been in business for over ten years and
its products are sold in 55 countries and translated into 24
languages. Freedom Scientific has a close relationship with its
customers and incorporates many user suggestions into future
products.
En-Vision
America
En-Vision America, Inc. is a company providing high-tech products
aimed at solving problems for those with visual impairments.
Located in Normal, Illinois, En-Vision America has successfully
introduced several voice-enabled products like i.d. mate Summit,
the talking bar code reader, and ScripTalk, the talking
pharmaceutical reader.
GW Micro
Since 1990, GW Micro has been a trusted pioneer in the adaptive
technology industry, and continues to lead with innovative,
customer driven solutions.
Sendero Group
Sendero Group - the GPS company - Developers of the first
accessible GPS and talking map software. GPS products
"Powered by Sendero" software provide access to
detailed street and business location information. The blind
traveler can now be a co-pilot , not just a passive passenger in
a car. He or she can keep the taxi driver honest, enjoy hearing
about the sites and businesses being passed and know
independently when to get off the bus. Students can also chart
custom routes across campus or hikers can do the same in the
woods. Sendero staff, most of whom are visually impaired, know
from personal and professional experience that orientation and
mobility skills and tools for blind folks are key to enjoyment
and success in all walks of life. Sendero is first and foremost
"the GPS company" as well as distributing other
innovative adaptive technology.
A Mobile Reading
Device
K–NFB Reading Technology, Inc. is a joint venture between
Kurzweil Technologies, headed by CEO Ray Kurzweil, a thirty-year
innovator and pioneer in assistive technologies and the inventor
of the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind; and
the National Federation of the Blind, the largest, most
influential membership organization of blind people in the United
States. K–NFB Reading Technology creates products that
revolutionize access to print for anyone who has difficulty
seeing or reading print, including the blind and learning
disabled. Our world-renowned reading software has been especially
designed for and paired with the Nokia mobile phones to create
the smallest text-to-speech reading devices in history, the
knfbReader Mobile and the kReader Mobile.
Books, Magazines, and Newspapers
Audio
Newspaper Service
FREE SERVICE TO THOSE WHO CANNOT READ REGULAR NEWSPRINT! MORE
THAN 300 NEWSPAPERS AVAILABLE. Would you like a newspaper with
your morning cup of coffee? NFB-NEWSLINE® provides more than
300 newspapers, magazines, and wire feeds AND it's still
growing the already-wide variety of content, including magazines
that focus on science, technology, and culture. NFB-NEWSLINE®
provides subscribers with on-demand access and the ability to
read only those sections and articles of interest to the user
from the publications available. Subscribers may read their
favorite publications via a variety of methods, including using a
touch-tone telephone, accessing content on the Web, or
downloading publications to a digital talking book player or MP3
player. This enables those who cannot read conventional print to
have access to all content offered on NFB-NEWSLINE® when
traveling throughout the United States twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week. Every day, a subscriber can choose that
day's, the previous day's, or the previous Sunday's
issue of any newspaper in the service.
Free eBooks by Project
Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 33,000
free ebooks to read on your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader,
iPhone, Android or other portable device. We carry high quality
ebooks: Our ebooks were previously published by bona fide
publishers and digitized by us with the help of thousands of
volunteers. All our ebooks can be freely downloaded: Choose
between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats. No fee or
registration is required, but if you find Project Gutenberg
useful, we kindly ask you to donate a small amount so we can buy
and digitize more books. Other ways to help include digitizing
more books, recording audio books, or reporting errors. Over
100,000 free ebooks are available through our Partners,
Affiliates and Resources. Our ebooks are free in the United
States because their copyright has expired.
Electronic Books for the
Blind
Bookshare® is an online library of digital books for people
with print disabilities. It operates under an exception to U.S.
copyright law which allows copyrighted digital books to be made
available to people with qualifying disabilities. In addition,
many publishers and authors have volunteered to provide Bookshare
with access to their works. By requiring individuals to register
as Members and provide a Proof of Disability, Bookshare ensures
that only qualified individuals use the service. Bookshare
Members download books, textbooks and newspapers in a compressed,
encrypted file. They then read the material using adaptive
technology, typically software that reads the book aloud
(text-to-speech) and/or displays the text of the book on a
computer screen, or Braille access devices, such as refreshable
Braille displays.
National Library Service for
the Blind and Physically Handicapped
That All May Read . . . National Library Service for the Blind
and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is part of the Library of
Congress. Through a national network of cooperating libraries,
NLS administers a free library program of braille and audio
materials circulated to eligible borrowers in the United States
by postage-free mail.
Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library
Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library (formerly the
Minnesota Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped)
provides direct library service to eligible Minnesotans who are
legally blind or visually impaired (with visual acuity 20/200 or
less in the better eye with corrective lenses), physically
disabled (unable to use standard printed material as a result of
physical limitations), or reading disabled. For more information
on eligibility requirements visit the Website of the National
Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
Braille and Audio
Reading Download (BARD)
Don't want to wait for the library to mail a braille or audio
book to you? The BARD Website enables registered library users to
download electronic braille and recorded books and magazines that
can be read on specialized electronic readers.
American Printing House for the
Blind (APH)
APH is the world's largest provider of accessible educational
and daily living products, with over 150 years of service. It
manufactures textbooks and other educational publications for
students who are visually impaired, provides publications useful
to adults, such as cookbooks and dictionaries, and creates
recorded books on a contract basis. APH develops and manufactures
hundreds of products, tools, and supplies that support students
and adults who are visually impaired and increase their
independence.
National Braille Press
National Braille Press is a Boston-based nonprofit braille
printing and publishing house founded in 1927. Each year NBP
presses 15 million braille pages using special translation
software and computer-driven equipment. The guiding purposes of
National Braille Press are to promote the literacy of blind
children through braille, and to provide access to information
that empowers blind people to actively engage in work, family,
and community affairs.
Braille, Recorded, and Radio Books
The Communications Center of State Services for the Blind
provides books, newspapers, magazines and other printed materials
in alternate formats for people who are blind, visually impaired,
DeafBlind or who have other disabilities that make it difficult
for them to read. Through our Communication Center, the only
facility of this kind in Minnesota, we offer a wide variety of
services to help people stay informed, in-touch with their
communities, entertained, and to meet their education and
employment goals.
Braille Services
Perkins Brailler
Repair
"Braillerman" provides COMPLETE repair, updating, and
general reconditioning for any Perkins Brailler. For the finest
care your Braille writer can receive, let Alan Ackley make it
right. He has reconditioned more than 7000 Braillers for
individuals, schools, and agencies in every state and Canada. He
is Factory Trained. He maintains a complete inventory of Factory
Parts. He is certified as a Braille Transcriber by the National
Library Service. Prompt Turnaround. Reasonable Charges. All Work
Guaranteed.
Volunteer Braille
Services
The mission of VBS is to train and support volunteer braille
transcribers, improving the accuracy and effectiveness of their
braille transcriptions through continuing education, and to
provide transcribed materials for braille readers. Volunteer
Braille Services was incorporated in 1968 for the purpose of
training sighted volunteers to transcribe print into braille.
Daily Living Aids
NFB
Independence Market
The National Federation of the Blind Independence Market offers
blindness-related literature, resources, and products as a
service to individuals who are blind or experiencing vision loss,
to their friends and families, and to the general public. The
blindness-related products that we carry (such as canes, talking
watches and clocks, print and Braille writing aids, magnifiers,
and medical devices) enable the user to perform everyday tasks
more independently. Greater independence empowers blind people to
live more productive and fulfilling lives. Our extensive free
literature collection includes how-to materials, inspirational
and thoughtful speeches and articles, and stories on all aspects
of blindness—all from the perspective of the blind person.
Parents of blind children, blind students, blind job seekers,
blind parents, and seniors new to severe vision loss will find
literature that addresses their specific needs.
Independent Living
Aids
Independent Living Aids is the oldest, privately-held, direct
marketing/distribution company in the United States of products
for people who are blind or have low vision. For more than 33
years, ILA has provided this community with quality products at
reasonable prices with superb service -- helping millions of
people around the world lead active, independent lives. ILA looks
forward to helping you MAGNIFY YOUR LIFE.
Education and Training
Alternative Techniques Used
By Blind People
Blindness: Learning In New Dimensions (BLIND), Incorporated is an
adjustment to blindness training center. We teach the skills that
blind people need to become independent and employable such as
braille, home management, the use of the white cane, and
computers with screen reading software, etc. But just as
importantly, we instill in our students the confidence to put
these skills into practice. We utilize the positive view of
blindness of the National Federation of the Blind. We work from
the premise that blindness doesn't have to be a tragedy. We
know that, if given training and opportunity, blind people can
live full and productive lives. BLIND, Incorporated offers
training for adults, children, teenagers, and seniors.
Recorded Textbooks for Blind
Students
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic® (RFB&D) works
with leading publishers and technology innovators to bring
accessible materials to individuals with visual and learning
disabilities. Available in every grade level and most subjects,
RFB&D textbook and literature titles are used nationwide. In
addition to the classics, RFB&D’s digital library
provides current editions of state adopted texts ensuring
students learn from the same versions as their classmates. Our
textbooks, literature titles and other adult resource books are
suitable for individuals, students and working professionals so
that all can participate in lifelong learning. Used as part of a
multisensory learning system, RFB&D’s audiobooks allow
educational equality for students who struggle with reading so
they can learn along side their peers in class, at home or
wherever they choose. No other provider offers the selection of
accessible materials that have made RFB&D a trusted resource
for more than 60 years.
Searchable
Database of Producers and Books
The American Printing House for the Blind provides Louis, a
database that allows teachers, parents, and students to locate
thousands of textbooks in braille, large print, recorded, and
computer disc formats available from producers across the United
States
Children's
Braille Book Club
The National Braille Press provides the only Children's
Braille Book Club featuring a new print/braille book every month!
Every month, children's book publishers donate popular
children's books in print. National Braille Press cuts the
print books apart at the spine and inserts the identical text in
braille on transparent plastic sheets. The books are rebound in a
print/braille format the whole family can enjoy. As a private
nonprofit organization, National Braille Press subsidizes the
books it sells to blind readers, so that they cost no more than
the retail print books.
Minnesota State Academy
for the Blind
For over 140 years, the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind
(MSAB) has provided educational services to blind/visually
impaired students who range in age from newborn to 21. MSAB is a
statewide public school with dormitory facilities that provides
24 hour programming to students who come from all regions of the
state, and who often have additional disabilities.
American Action Fund for
Blind Children and Adults
The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults is a
service agency which specializes in providing to blind people
help which is not readily available to them from government
programs or other existing service systems. It operates through
countless volunteers across the nation, overseen by a volunteer
board. The purpose of the American Action Fund for Blind Children
and Adults includes offering services to blind children and their
parents. It provides several
children's programs such as Braille Readers Are Leaders,
Science Academies, scholarships, the
Kenneth Jernigan Library for Blind Children, and a
free braille books program.