Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired

State agency that provides a range of services for the blind and vision impaired.

Staunton Regional Office
1076 Jefferson Highway
Staunton, VA 24401

Contact: Mike Thelk, Regional Manager

Phone:
540.332.7733 Type: Office Fax
540.332.7729 Type: Office Voice/TTY
800.622.2155 Type: Toll-Free Voice

Free Audio Newspaper and Magazine Services

Valley Voice

Valley Voice provides access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to local daily and weekly area newspapers including the Waynesboro News Virginian, the Staunton News Leader and Charlottesville papers, The Daily Progress, C-ville and The Hook. It can be accessed through public access stations on cable TV  or through Subcarrier Band radios, which are loaned out to medically qualified persons. http://wmra.org/valley-voice, 1.540.568.3811, 1.800.677.9672 

NFB-NEWSLINE®

NFB-NEWSLINE®, a service of the National Federation of the Blind, just added its 300th publication.   The service handles thousands of phone calls each day for individuals across the country who can access daily newspapers and magazines using a standard touch-tone telephone. The toll-free centralized call-in center provides service on demand to any subscriber. This also enables those who cannot read conventional print to have access to all content offered on NFB-NEWSLINE® when traveling throughout the United States twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  Information at 1.866.504.7300.

Washington Ear

This service enables visually and physically disabled individuals to "read" (hear) the morning paper, yesterday's paper and selected other publications - any time of day or night, seven days a week. Using only their own touch-tone telephones, they can access all of the available publications, whenever they choose to do so. Newspapers are the Washington Post and USA Today and magazines include Time and People Magazine.

With their touch-tone telephones, callers can:

• Choose dozens of categories
• Go from article to article
• Skip and scan
• Jump forward and backward
• Browse much as sighted people do
• Control the speed of volunteer readers' recorded voices
• Control the volume of the recorded voices

Individual ID numbers allow access only to eligible callers.  There is free telephone access throughout Maryland, DC and Virginia. www.washear.org.  1.301.681.6636,    Information@washear.org

Newspapers for the Blind

Newspapers for the Blind provides access to the blind and severely hearing-impaired to a range of newspapers in the US, such as the Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times and international newspapers in London, Jerusalem, Singapore and Australia. Email: Contact@NewspapersForTheBlind.org.

Textbooks

Textbooks are not included in the NLS talking-book and braille program.  However, they are available from the following sources:

Learning Ally (formerly Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic)

A private, nonprofit organization, provides recorded educational books and related library services to people with print disabilities. Learning Ally empowers students who read and learn differently so that they may thrive. We help them to overcome obstacles and discover strengths, as we guide them along a path that ensures success.

20 Roszel Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Phone: 800.221.4792
http://www.learningally.org/

American Printing House for the Blind

1839 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, KY 40206
800.223.1839
info@aph.org 
www.aph.org

National Braille Association

Braille Materials Production Center
Three Townline Circle
Rochester, NY 14623-2513
585.427.8260
nbaoffice@nationalbraille.org
http://www.nationalbraille.org

Aim-Virginia (Accessible Instructional Materials – Virginia)

Available to Teachers who serve students with disabilities: 
AIM-VA Help Desk
Accessible Instructional Materials-Virginia
The Kellar Institute for Human Disabilities
George Mason University
4400 University Drive, MS 1A8
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
866.926.1879
Phone: 703.993.5149
Fax: 703.993.3681
aimva@gmu.edu