Client Education Materials for Blind or Visually Impaired Clients

Pine Tree Legal Assistance - 030133

Abstract Number: 30133

September 2003

Pine Tree Legal Assistance (PTLA) established a process through which they make client education materials available to clients who are blind or have visual impairments. To assist a client, PTLA transferred the specifically requested client education materials onto audio tape (the client's preferred media) for use by the blind client.

Prior to undergoing this process, PTLA explored a number of options including indexing the material on both tape and CD, using *.wav files versus mp3 files, and copyright issues. PTLA has a staff person who reads course material for blind students at a local university which is recorded onto audio tapes. PTLA ultimately used this staff person to read the requested client education materials, which accounted for 30 pages in text, which PTLA recorded onto audio tape. PTLA then transferred the audio tape to a *.wav file which they saved for future use and gave a copy of the audio tape (the original also saved for future use) to the client.

PTLA considered pursuing this process for a wider range of their client education materials but ultimately opted to fulfill requests on as needed basis due to the small number of requests PTLA receives from blind and visually impaired clients, as well as the concern that the materials could become outdated before anyone requested them.

Contact Information:

Chuck Henegar
Pine Tree Legal Assistance
88 Federal Street
P.O. Box 547
Portland, Maine 04112
Phone: (207) 774-4753
Fax: (207) 828-2300
Email: chenegar@ptla.org

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