Inspector General Report on Free Matter for the Blind Mail Handling
By Alicia Waters | September 2, 2022
Office of Inspector General | United States Postal Service
The Inspector general conducted an investigation into the handling of free matter for the blind which is legally mandated and integral to the NLS service. We are pleased that the report reaffirmed the importance of Free Matter while also identifying areas for further research and training. What they found was that “Postal Service procedures for preparing, inspecting, accepting, and handling Free Matter can be improved. We found that the policy for Free Matter preparation was last updated in 2015 and Postal Service did not consistently enforce this policy.”
View the full Audit Report July 22, 2022 (pdf format)
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Phone Line Has Been Restored
By Alicia Waters | August 26, 2022
Thank you all for your patience as our phone lines were being worked on. The 401-574-9310 phone line is restored. Please call TBL staff with your book request or any talking books issue. Please rest assured that any messages you leave are received by us and will be responded to.
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Talking Books Phone Line Down
By Alicia Waters | August 23, 2022
The Talking Books Library main phone line at (401)574-9310 has been out of service today 8/23/2022. We hope to have this phone line restored by tomorrow. You may call (401)574-9315 if needed or try back after 8/24 to reach TBL staff at (401)574-9310.
We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
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Blindness and Diabetes Webinar: Dexcom vs FreeStyle Libre
By Alicia Waters | August 18, 2022
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 at 12:00 PM ET
Please join Accessible Pharmacy Services for the Blind and University of Pennsylvania’s Diabetes Education Center as we compare Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) devices available to our blind, DeafBlind, and low vision patients living with diabetes. We will be discussing differences between Dexcom and Freestyle Libre as well as their accessibility features. This webinar will have captioning and a live ASL interpreter.
If you are unable to attend, please register to receive the webinar audio and video via email.
https://www.accessiblepharmacy.com/blindness-diabetes-webinar-dexcom-vs-freestyle-libre/
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High-and Low-tech Organization and Labeling Tips
By Alicia Waters | August 16, 2022
Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Books Library, NY
Zoom session
High- and Low-tech Organization and Labeling Tips
Thursday August 18, 7 – 8:30 PM Eastern
We all have items around that we need to identify. Whether a document, file folder, containers, books, or clothing, there are eyes-free strategies for identifying things around the home or office. Join this workshop to learn about and share resources and methods for labeling as a blind person. We will cover resources for adhesive labeling with a slate and stylus, Perkins brailler, as well as more high tech tools to label clothing for laundry and identification, and more.
This event will take place online.
Please register: Meeting Registration – Zoom [nypl.zoom.us]
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NLS BARD Support: September Quarterly Patron Corner
By Alicia Waters | August 9, 2022
On Monday, September 12, at 7:00 p.m. EDT, the NLS Patron Engagement Section will host the quarterly Patron Corner. The topic for this session is Narration: The Art of Telling the Story. The guest speakers will include Celeste Lawson, narrator and head of the NLS Media Lab. She will include other NLS narrators on her panel. The session will run for 90 minutes.
Bring your questions and your thoughts about audio narration and join us at https://loc.zoomgov.com/j/1600983343?pwd=VW9tRWtwY3BsdHRac0s2MmJkN0RCZz09 [lnks.gd].
The full Zoom invitation, including call-in numbers, is included below.
When you join this Zoom event, you will be in the waiting room until the program starts. When you enter the room, your phone or computer will be muted. Please stay on mute unless you are called on. If you want to ask a question, you may raise your hand by pressing Alt Y on your computer or Star 9 on your phone. Once you are called on, press Alt A on your computer or Star 6 on your phone to unmute yourself.
This meeting will be recorded. If you do not wish to be recorded, we ask that you avoid speaking during the call. Also, please note that since we are using Zoom.gov [zoom.gov] for these sessions, if you choose to dial in, you must use the Zoom.gov [zoom.gov] phone numbers provided. The regular Zoom phone numbers will not allow access to the Zoom.gov [zoom.gov] IDs.
The full Zoom invitation, including call-in numbers, for the next Patron Corner is included below.
Zoom Meeting One tap mobile: US: +16692545252, 1600983343# or +16468287666, 1600983343#
Meeting URL: https://loc.zoomgov.com/j/1600983343?pwd=VW9tRWtwY3BsdHRac0s2MmJkN0RCZz09 [lnks.gd]
Meeting ID: 160 098 3343
Passcode: 164674
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Next Book Discussion September 28
By Alicia Waters | August 5, 2022
September 28, 2022
2:00 – 3:00 pm
Join us via Zoom or by phone to discuss this great western novel.
The Jackals by William Johnstone (DB 94165) Reading Time 10 hr. 21 min.
While sheltering in a West Texas way station, three justice fighters known as the Jackals encounter a man who promises them five grand to deliver fifty thousand dollars of blood-soaked cash to his wife. The Jackals soon discover that the loot was stolen from the vengeful Hawkin gang. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Contains Violence. Western. 2019.
You may REGISTER here to receive the Zoom information or call (401)574-9310, or you can email talking.books@olis.ri.gov.
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VA Pays for Medical Alert Systems
By Alicia Waters | August 2, 2022
The VA has programs in place to pay for medical alert systems. The Department of Veterans Affairs offers two options for senior veterans who want a medical alert system. These systems can be a great way for seniors to avoid or minimize serious medical emergencies when they’re home alone. Family and friends can also feel more at ease knowing that their aging loved one is safe and protected. See the link below for complete information.
https://tinyurl.com/FreeLifeAlert
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New, Easier-to-Remember Veterans Crisis Line Number
By Alicia Waters | July 22, 2022
No Veteran should go through a crisis alone. Save the new Veterans Crisis Line number—Dial 988 then Press 1—in your phone in case you or a Veteran loved one needs support.
LEARN MORE [lnks.gd]
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Disabled Authors in Conversations! Virtual events for Disability Pride month
By Alicia Waters | July 19, 2022
LIVE from NYPL | Easy Beauty: Chloé Cooper Jones [nypl.org]
Wed, July 27 at 6:30 PM
Join Chloé Cooper Jones, author of Easy Beauty, for a conversation about her groundbreaking memoir about disability, motherhood, and a journey to far-flung places in search of a new way of seeing and being seen.
More info, DB numbers, and Register here: [nypl.org]
https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2022/07/27/chloe-cooper-jones-easy-beauty [nypl.org]
“I am in a bar in Brooklyn, listening to two men, my friends, discuss whether my life is worth living.” So begins Chloé Cooper Jones’s bold, revealing account of moving through the world in a body that looks different than most. Born with a rare congenital condition called sacral agenesis, the way she has been seen—or not seen—has informed her lens on the world her entire life. But after unexpectedly becoming a mother (in violation of unspoken social taboos about the disabled body), something in her shifts, and she sets off on a journey across the globe, reclaiming the spaces she’d been denied, and had denied herself.
Jones speaks with critic, journalist, and author of the novel The Life of the Mind, Christine Smallwood about what it takes to move through the world in a disabled body.
Disability Pride Author Talk: M. Leona Godin and Andrew Leland
In this conversation, authors M. Leona Godin and Andrew Leland discuss their work and journeys toward understanding and embracing blind pride.
More info, DB numbers, and Register here: [nypl.org]
https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2022/06/21/disability-pride-author-talk [nypl.org]
M. Leona Godin is a writer, performer, educator, and the author of There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness [penguinrandomhouse.com]. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Playboy, O Magazine, Electric Literature, Catapult, and other print and online publications. Godin holds a PhD in English, and besides her many years teaching literature and humanities courses at NYU, she has lectured on art, accessibility, technology, and disability at such places as Tandon School of Engineering, Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, and the American Printing House for the Blind. Her online magazine exploring the arts and sciences of smell and taste, Aromatica Poetica [aromaticapoetica.com], publishes writing and art from around the world.
Andrew Leland’s book about the world of blindness (and figuring out his place in it) is forthcoming from Penguin Press. His writing and audio stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, newyorker.com [newyorker.com], Radiolab, McSweeney’s, 99 Percent Invisible, and elsewhere. He is a contributing editor to the Believer, and hosted KCRW’s experimental arts-and-culture podcast the Organist.
Disability Pride Author Talk: Keah Brown and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
In this conversation, authors Keah Brown and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha will discuss their work and experience as writers with disabilities. More info, DB numbers, and regsiter here [nypl.org]:
https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2022/07/25/disability-pride-author-talk-keah-brown-and-leah-lakshmi-piepzna-samarasinha [nypl.org]
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Keah Brown is a journalist, author, studying actress and screenwriter. She is the recipient of Ulta Beauty’s Muse 100 award, which is a celebration of 100 inspirational voices around beauty, she is one of The Root’s 100 most influential African Americans of 2018. Keah is the creator of the viral hashtag, #DisabledAndCute. Her work has appeared in Town & Country Magazine, Teen Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire UK, and The New York Times, among other publications. Her Debut essay collection, The Pretty One is out now. Her debut picture book, Sam’s Super Seats will be out Fall 2022 via Kokila books.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer disabled nonbinary femme writer, educator and disability/transformative justice worker of Burgher/Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/Roma ascent. They are the author or co-editor of nine books, including most recently, co-edited with Ejeris Dixon, Beyond Survival, Stories and Strategies from the Transformative Justice Movement, Tongue breaker, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home (ALA Above the Rainbow List, short-listed for the Lambda and Publishing Triangle Awards), Body map (short-listed for the Publishing Triangle Award), Love Cake (Lambda Literary Award winner), and Consensual Genocide, with Ching-In Chen and Jai Dulani, she co-edited The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence in Activist Communities. They are the 2020 recipient of the Lambda Foundation’s Jeanne Cørdova Prize in Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction, recognizing “a lifetime of work documenting the complexity of queer experience” and are also the recipient of the groundbreaking 2020 US Artists Disability Futures Fellowship.
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