Required Reading

For the last six years a Cambridge organization has been making studying a little easier for the visually impaired.

Cambridge hosts one of the 31 national studios for Recording for the Blind (RFB), a non-profit organization that provides recorded textbooks, library services and other educational resources for the visually impaired.

The program, which boasts 27,200 national and international borrowers and over 4000 volunteers, dictates books onto audio cassettes for individuals who cannot read standard print because of visual, physical or perceptual disabilities.

"Its the primary source for blind people to get textbooks in non-book form," said Jamal A. Mazrui, alumni data base coordinator of the Kennedy School of Government. "Its much more available than braille."

Mazrui, who is blind, used the RFB program while studying for a masters degree at the Kennedy School and continues borrowing tapes for both employment and personal purposes.

"I think its superb," he said. "Its a very well used service."

Several Harvard students and professors have been volunteers for RFB, and various students use the program, according to Marybeth Burke, Cambridge studio director.

Individuals who need a recorded version of a book send two copies to the Cambridge studio on Thorndike Street and begin receiving cassettes within a few weeks. A copy of the tapes is also sent to the RFB national library in Princeton, N.J.

The recordings are made by volunteers who are specially trained to read and enunciate carefully. The Volunteers are also expected to have a certain amount of knowledge in the area of the book they are reading.

This assures that they can explain graphs and figures that are in the textbooks, according to Burke.

"We often have doctor or professor volunteers to explain the more technical textbooks such as anatomy or medical textbooks," Burke said.