NBC29RFB&D Holding Record-A-Thon

RFB&D Holding Record-A-Thon

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic in Charlottesville produces hundreds of audio books a year for people who have trouble reading traditional print books.

This week they're holding a Record-a-Thon to get more volunteers involved, and more books in the hands of people who need them.

Nancy Strassburg has been a volunteer at RFB&D for 18 years. For a few hours each week, she helps record audiobooks for students who have trouble reading; people like her dad.

"It's such a worthwhile project; my dad suffered from macular degeneration and eventually went blind so I kind of have a connection.  I can understand how frustrating it must be especially for students to try to go through classes when they can't really read the textbooks," says Strassburg.

Mary Ann Coffey, the Production Director at RFB&D says more than 300,000 students around the country benefit from RFB&D's recordings.

"RFB&D provides textbooks to everyone from kindergartners through people in medical school, people in law school, people in graduate programs," says Coffey.

Coffey explains that the audiobooks help out a wide variety of students dealing with various disabilities, some who have been born blind or dyslexic, and others who have lost abilities they once had to injury or illness.

She says nationally, RFB&D churns out seven to 8,000 books a year, fuelled by volunteers with a wide variety of backgrounds, but all with an interest in helping their community.

"Lots of people bring passion and commitment to vision issues even before they walk in the door," says Coffey. "They donate all these talents and all these skills to us to put these books into kids' hands."