[IL-Talk] Learning Ally

[Patti Chang]

I strongly suggest you go to the center for excellence and non-visual access page for NFB and fill out the inaccessibility tracker form so that our team is aware.

Patti S. Gregory-Chang
NFBI 2nd Vice President
NFBI Scholarship Comm. Co-Chair
Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 27, 2025, at 11:48 AM, Deborah Kent Stein via IL-Talk <il-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:



Dear Dan,

This is very disheartening. Learning Ally began in the late 1940s as Record=
ing for the Blind, providing recorded textbooks for college students, chief=
ly blinded veterans who were attending college on the GI Bill. RFB was my g=
o-to source for textbooks and materials for research papers all through col=
lege and grad school. Serving blind and low-vision students was always thei=
r focus. Things made a major shift when they changed their name from Record=
ing for the Blind to Learning Ally. Their website doesn't eliminate blind s=
ubscribers entirely, but it emphasizes the mission to serve people with lea=
rning disabilities and dyslexia. The population of people with dyslexia and=
other learning disabilities is considerably greater than ours, and they ha=
ve been underserved in the past, so there is definitely a need, but Learnin=
g Ally has shifted its focus to our detriment.

The National Library Service (NLS) also has broadened its reach over the pa=
st several decades, extending its services to people with any condition tha=
t limits their ability to read a standard print book. Unlike Learning Ally,=
however, NLS has never stepped back from its original mission to serve the=
blind community. The ongoing commitment of NLS proves that an organization=
can be fully inclusive without pitting one group against another.

Perhaps a resolution about Learning Ally is in order. Has there been one in=
recent years?

Debbie S.



-----Original Message-----
From: IL-Talk [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dan TeVelde =
via IL-Talk
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2025 9:32 AM
To: 'NFB of Illinois Mailing List' <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: dan.tevelde at comcast.net
Subject: [IL-Talk] Learning Ally

Hi all,



I have a lifetime membership and use the service to listen to recorded book=
s. A number of years ago, I reported some accessibility issues to them.
They agreed to meet with me to talk about their website and app. I made som=
e suggestions about always labeling links. They were sympathetic and never =
did anything. The same is true for the app. Today there was an app update a=
nd the comment in the app store said they had improved accessibility. I ope=
ned the app and still see the problems I reported years ago. Focus skips ar=
ound when you are moving from book to book. The process of navigating your =
bookshelf is frustrating and inefficient. When I call their tech support pe=
ople don't seem to know what VoiceOver is. I think something should be done=
but I don't know what that would be. I get the impression that they priori=
tize people with some vision and other reading disabilities. I don't have a=
n issue with that but at the same time the app and website should be access=
ible.



Thanks,

Dan

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