ARTICLES
A Lifeline to Literacy
Posted: Monday, March 29th, 2010
15 years ago, Sam Fulton was at a turning point. At 50, his eyesight was deteriorating from Retinitis Pigmentosa, and he wondered if he'd be able to continue working as an urban planner.
One of the biggest adjustments came when Fulton could no longer see well enough to read regular books, magazines and newspapers. Fortunately, CNIB's library of audio and digital reading material was a lifeline to literacy that he's relied on ever since.
“The CNIB Library is the most important service CNIB provides me with, because it's part of every day of my life,” he says.
Every morning, Fulton gets the latest news from the library's digital portal. Using his computer's text-to-speech system, he listens to articles from the Ottawa Citizen, Globe and Mail and New York Times.
He also downloads audio versions of magazines like The Economist, and chooses from a collection of more than 80,000 books, often reading four or five at a time.
Fulton hopes CNIB will be successful in securing government funding for its library services, which are currently funded by donations.
“Literacy isn't just the ability to read – it's the ability to access and process information in a range of ways,” says Fulton. “The CNIB Library allows me to be literate in that sense.”
You can express your support for accessible library services online at www.cnib.ca/righttoread so that Canadians like Sam Fulton can enjoy their right to read.
Article courtesy of www.newscanada.com
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I love reading these articles beuscae theyÂ're short but informative.
Posted by: Navid | July 19th, 2011
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