Hi Tom.
For books, remember that the situation and law in the states is very
different to that over here.
In I believe 1949, the Us government posted a bill that rights to printed
materials for print disabled people was a governmental initiative and began
the library of congress funded with government money.
in the Uk however, the government said it was the publishers'
responsability, and up until 2005 for a book to be made in accessible form
publication rights had to be bought, ---- or at least given.
While there are a couple of other library agencies, such as Caliber cassette
library, (who are now on cd), only the rnib really had the money to afford
the fees from publishers through their talking book or braille services.
now the law has been changed, however the resources aren't really available
at the moment to other agencies.
that's the situation with books. More generally though I think the thing
comes down to out sourcing.
the Uk government for the last 20 or so years has been trying to fob off
services for a hole range of disabilities onto external charitable agencies.
So if your physically impared and need a home help, they'll come from an
agency or local charity not from any sort of government scheme.
thus, the government has affectively given most of the administration of
anything to do with blind people over to the Rnib. They are who anyone
becoming newly blind is referd to, and even run their own schools (which is
another topic I could discourse on).
The result of this is that other agencies exist, how much publicity they
get, and how much their outlook is seen is variable at best, and usually
simply depends upon either A, how resourcesful an individual is in looking
outside what the Rnib unilaterally provide, or B, what their local authority
or local Blindness related charity know about such things.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
---
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