RFBD - Now with free individual student account goodness!

Free.
One of my favorite words, free. Definitely tops on my list of four-letter-words-that-begin-with-the-letter-F. And, I'm excited to report, a word that now applies to individual student memberships with RFB&D (Recordings for the Blind & Dyslexic).

Since 1951, RFB&D has been providing people with print disabilities access to human voice readings of books - especially textbooks. For years, SOU has held an institutional membership in RFB&D that has provided access for hundreds of students with print disabilities to textbooks. We continue to do so, but a new option is now available for students. Students can sign up for an individual membership that allows them free, independent access to thousands of books.

Here's why that's so wonderful:

• You have the control. See which of your textbooks are available without waiting in the queue behind other students.
• Changed your class last minute? You can have the new textbook downloaded tonight.
• SOU can only supply texts for your classes. Want to read something else? Go for it! There's thousands of books - including bestsellers, trade paperbacks, classics...re-discover pleasure reading.
  
• Dual-enrolled in another college? Individual membership allows you to see which of those books are available - without any processing by the other school.
• You don't have to purchase the print version in order to get the accessible version. Cool, eh?
  
• Did I mention it's free?

Think that's pretty nifty? Looking for how to sign up? Here's what to do:

• Go to RFB&D's Individual Membership page to sign up
• You'll need to provide information about your disability in the certification process. Your friendly neighborhood Disability Resources staff can serve as certifying professionals if we have your documentation on file. Just put one of our names and email address in the form where it asks for a certifying professional. RFB&D will get in contact with us. It's fast and easy!
• Decide which format you want. If you are on dialup, go with the DAISY CDs. You'll have to wait for them to be shipped, but these downloads are large and will be frustrating on dialup. Otherwise, I strongly recommend the DAISY Download. You get all the neato cool navigation of DAISY in a yummy download... quick access any time of the day! I have noticed that the Download Manager has a tendency to crash unexpectedly, so plan to babysit the download just a bit.
• Start browsing and reading! Woohoo!
  

You will need a way to play the books that RFB&D has. If you are a current student, we can loan the Victor Vibe and Victor Wave hardware players that we have; these are on a term-by-term basis and priority is given to students using alternate format text for their current classes. However, RFB&D also has a number of hardware and software players that are available. The software players are pretty inexpensive. Because of the digital rights management that RFB&D uses to comply with copyright laws, you will need to purchase the player (hardware or software) or a user authorization key through RFB&D. If you have questions about this - ask me!

As you look forward through school to graduation and beyond, independent access to what you need is going to be really, really important. Get a jump on it now, and it's one less thing to figure out when you graduate!

Don't forget that Bookshare also has a free student membership - since 2007.

Did I mention it's free?

Questions, comments, or celebrations? Share them in the comments!