Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFBD) was founded in 1948 by Anne T. Macdonald who was a member of the New York Public Library's Women's Auxiliary. She wanted to insure that service men, who had lost their sight in combat during World War II had the education to move forward with their lives. Her belief, based on the enactment of the GI Bill of Rights, which guaranteed a college education to all veterans of the war and those who would follow them, was that "education is a right, not a privilege."
Macdonald then mobilized the women of the Auxiliary. Few veterans knew how to read braille, and live readers were difficult to come by, so the Women's Auxiliary moved on to a more creative solution. Establishment of Recording for the Blind® — as it was then known — was born.
The attic of the New York Public Library was transformed into a studio, and women of the Auxiliary began recording textbooks for the servicemen, using what was then state-of-the-art technology: six-inch vinyl SoundScriber phonograph discs, which played only 12 minutes of material per side. By 1951, demand was so great that Recording for the Blind incorporated as the nation's only nonprofit to record textbooks for blind & visually disabled students. The following year, Anne Macdonald traveled across the country to establish recording studios in seven additional cities. Today, in addition to its National Headquarters, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, as it is now known, has twenty-two recording studios across the United States.
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic's sole purpose is to serve all people with "print disabilities," defined as those who can't effectively read standard print because of a disability. Steve openly credits his parents and Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic for his academic success. Steve graduated from high school in the top three percent of this class, college in the top five percent, and ultimately graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Steve and Cynthia sincerely hope that you will join them and consider supporting Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic either through a gift of time or money. Any gift you make will help to ensure that disabled persons fully participate in their right to an education. Just one visit to Trike Shoppe, LLC will let you see, first-hand, the potential of disabled persons to become fully functional in a non-disabled society.