[Blindtlk] Article: APH 150th on front cover of Courier-Journal Louisville

[David Andrews]

>
>www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080122/NEWS01/801220376/1008
>
>Tuesday, January 22, 2008
>
>Its work guaranteed independence for generations
>By Laura Ungar
>lungar at courier-journal.com
>The Courier-Journal
>
>Blind since age 20, Larry Skutchan likens the darkness he sees to
>silvery-green, shimmering water.
>
>But Skutchan can nonetheless read the day's newspaper, browse the
>Internet and generally live an
>independent life, thanks to technology from the American Printing House
>for the Blind.
>
>Skutchan, 50, is technology project leader at the printing house and one
>of millions of visually
>impaired Americans helped by the Louisville institution, which
>celebrates its 150th anniversary
>tomorrow.
>
>The printing house began with one employee in the basement of the
>Kentucky School for the Blind. In
>1879, it was designated by the federal government as the official source
>of educational texts and
>aids for blind students across the nation -- a designation it still
>holds.
>
>Today, it has its own building, more than 300 employees and a budget of
>$32.7 million, which comes
>from a federal appropriation, direct sales and donations.
>
>Changes mirror progress for the estimated 10 million visually impaired
>Americans, 1.3 million of
>whom are, like Skutchan, legally blind. Over the years, the nonprofit
>organization has created a
>steady stream of technology, from children's books to recorded magazines
>to personal digital
>assistants and sonar devices specifically for the blind.
>
>They are devices that people like Skutchan use everyday.
>
>He always carries his Braille Plus personal digital assistant, a small
>computer with wireless
>Internet access that can perform a number of tasks such as reading aloud
>from periodicals or the
>Internet. At his bedside he keeps a Book Port, similar to an iPod or MP3
>player, which can load and
>read electronic versions of books. And he often uses his stylus, a
>pointed instrument that makes
>dots in braille, and metal slate, a template to correctly space the
>dots, to create strips of labels
>he can read.
>
>"Technology has given blind people the ability to be on equal footing
>with sighted people in many
>careers," said Skutchan, who lost his sight in 1978 because of detached
>retinas in both eyes.
>
>Paula Weise, executive director of the Blue Grass Council of the Blind
>in Lexington, said the
>printing house is a godsend to scores of visually impaired Kentuckians.
>
>"It's just opened up such a world of communication for them," said
>Weise, whose husband lost his
>sight to diabetes. "It is just a lifesaver."
>
>Computer revolution
>The driving force behind the printing house was a blind man from
>Mississippi named Dempsey Sherrod,
>who raised money and promoted the idea of establishing a place to create
>educational materials for
>blind children.
>
>He proposed placing the printing house in Louisville because of its
>central location, and the
>Kentucky General Assembly passed an act establishing the institution in
>1858. Federal funding
>allowed it to prosper, eventually leading to a new building on Frankfort
>Avenue.
>
>The printing house's first book, a collection of children's fables
>embossed in 1866, used raised
>letters because braille hadn't yet become standard. The first books in
>braille were printed in 1893,
>along with early braille slates and styluses, tactile maps and writing
>guides.
>
>The printing house expanded its offerings in the 20th century,
>publishing a Reader's Digest in
>braille in 1928. It also published Helen Keller's bible; her large,
>weathered copy of Psalms in
>braille is displayed in the printing house museum.
>
>Talking books, magazines and a recorded encyclopedia were eventually
>developed in a recording studio
>at the printing house, first as records and later as cassette tapes.
>
>Fred Gissoni, a 78-year-old blind Louisvillian who works in technical
>service at the printing house,
>recalled the large recorder he used in the 1950s to listen to talking
>books. "I remember how
>marvelous I thought it was to carry an 18-pound recorder around,"
>Gissoni said.
>
>Eventually, he and others said, computers revolutionized printing house
>offerings.
>
>IBM led the development of a computerized braille translation in 1964,
>and by 1987, most braille
>production was computerized. The printing house introduced a database of
>accessible textbooks in the
>late 1980s, and in 1997 made it available on the Internet.
>
>Through the years, the printing house has also sold learning aids
>unrelated to reading, such as
>tactile games, globes and computer math programs. Recent offerings
>include a sonar aid that the
>printing house began distributing in 2004, which detects objects or
>people and tells the user how
>far away they are by emitting tones that sound like chirping birds.
>
>'An essential place'
>The printing house of today is a modern place buzzing with activity.
>
>In one area is a factory manufacturing reading materials in braille,
>where an old metal printer sits
>amid several new ones. On a recent day, two women collaborated to create
>pages with both braille and
>large print.
>
>In another part of the building, proofreader Laura Myers moved her
>fingers gracefully across braille
>type and read aloud as copy holder Monica Thurston followed along on
>regular written pages.
>
>Myers is among the 10 percent of printing house workers who are visually
>impaired, as is field
>service representative Maria Delgado. Delgado said she began using a
>printing house writing slate
>when she lost her sight after high school, while living in Mexico.
>Today, she uses much more
>advanced technology, including software developed by Skutchan.
>
>Printing house products "opened up a lot of doors for me," said Delgado,
>37. "We have a lot more
>opportunities than we had before."
>
>Paula Penrod, public relations liaison for the Kentucky School for the
>Blind, said her school
>depends on the printing house to help serve its 70 students and provide
>resources to visually
>impaired students mainstreamed in the state's school districts.
>Frequently used items include light
>boxes, abacuses, specialized paper and books in braille.
>
>"There are just so many products that Kentucky students couldn't do
>without," Penrod said. "They're
>making a tremendous difference."
>
>Marcellus Mayes of Louisville, who is blind and serves as president of
>the Metro Disabilities
>Coalition, said he has for years used a printing house recorder to take
>notes and remember things.
>Besides providing such tools, he said the printing house has raised
>awareness of blind people and
>their growing independence.
>
>For instance, representatives from the printing house sometimes work
>with organizations of blind
>people to advocate for their causes in Frankfort.
>
>"They have a lot of respect all over the nation for what they do," Mayes
>said. "It's an essential
>place."
>
>Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190. USA.