Free recorded books are available from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. They provide free recorded materials through the Library of Congress.
talking book program: who is eligible?
Books and magazines in audio format (talking books) are delivered to eligible readers by postage-free mail and are returned the same way. You don’t need to worry about paying for shipping, either to receive your new books on tape or to return the tapes.
You are reading: Books on tape free for the blind
Specially designed cassette players are also loaned out free of charge to people who borrow talking books from your library.
There is an amplifier available for people with significant hearing loss.
who is eligible?
1) Individuals whose visual acuity, as determined by an ophthalmologist, is 20/200 or less in the better eye with corrective lenses, or whose widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angular distance of no more than 20 degrees.
2) other physically disabled people are eligible. see the nls website for more details on
3) must be residents of the United States or US citizens living abroad.
how free books on tape work
First contact the state where the person with low vision or macular degeneration lives. In my case, it was the Wisconsin Braille and Talking Book Library in Milwaukee. They will send you an email or mail with a form to fill out. return the form. I called and asked if the digital player and audiobooks could be mailed to me (I live out of state) so I could show my father-in-law how it worked when he visited.
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the cassette player or machine is lent to the listener.
be sure to save the box it came in so you can mail it back free of charge when no longer in use.
Large buttons make the playback machine easy to use. simple buttons like rewind, forward and play are on the machine. volume up or volume down are the big yellow buttons.
there is a sleep button that allows the player to set a 15″, 30″ or 45″ timer so that the machine will automatically stop after the set period of time. my father in law likes this feature because he often gets falls asleep while listening to a recorded book. He also finds it easy to go back if he wants to replay a section or he can skip forward if there is what he calls “a boring section”.
when pressed, all buttons will indicate what that button is for. as an example, press the power button and the listener will hear “turn on” or “turn off”.
The machine can be powered by both electricity and rechargeable batteries. so if you choose to sit outside on a warm sunny day, take it outside and listen to your recorded book on your deck, patio or porch.
books on cassette
Each book on tape comes as a cassette in a plastic box used for mailing. cassettes ship across the usa uu. post office and delivered directly to your mailbox.
when done:
1. match the number on the cassette with the number on the box.
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2. put the cassette back in the box.
3. Flip the mailing label over so that instead of your home address the Talking Book Library address is displayed.
4. place the plastic boxes in the mailbox to return them free to the braille and talking book library.
how to order free books on tape
There are several ways to order new free books on tape. catalogs listing all available tapes are sent to the listener.
the talking book program has a great selection and the catalogs classify the books into sections: non-fiction, historical fiction, mystery, short stories, thrillers, westerns, and spy and espionage are just a few of them. You can also search for a recorded book by title or author.
an order form can be completed in the back of the catalog and sent by mail, fax or email. My father-in-law found it too difficult to fill out the form, so he just called the Wisconsin Braille and Talking Book Library using his 800 number.
up to 10 books can be ordered at a time. although this may vary from state to state. books can be held for 60 days, although there is no late fee if not shipped within this time. Every state is served by a library that provides cassette players and books on tape. You can request an application by calling 1-800-424-8567 or by going to the National Library Service for the Blind to fill out a form.
once your request is submitted and processed, a cassette player is mailed out and the library can make book selections based on your preferences or by specific request for a title or author.
free books on tape allows you to continue enjoying your favorite author or genre of books when reading becomes too tiring. watch the video below to see how the program works:
go from free books on tape to reading for people with low visionreturn to webrn macular degeneration home
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