An Idea: Recording Metaphysical Books for the Vision Impaired

[alwaysfallingup]

So, for a while, I worked for a very nice girl who was in grad school. My job was to aid her in her research and writing. As a 6 year old, she had an aneurism, and lost her speech, some sight, and the use of her right hand. My work involved taking dictation and typing out what she said for her papers, and reading aloud to her because it was easier for her to remember what was read aloud as her vision problems made reading so hard. Sometimes when I was unable to make it or was away, I would read her textbooks aloud and tape it for her to use. She also received recorded textbooks from school.

So, what I was wondering is, what are the legalities surrounding taping, for instance, metaphysical books for those with difficulties such as blindness, macular degeneration, etc? If it was done not for profit, and only asked for donations for CDs or tapes and shipping? Do you think there is a need for this kind of service in the Pagan/magickal/metaphysical community? Do you personally know anyone who would benefit from a service like this? I'm really interested to hear opinions on this, especially from someone who may have more experience/information about these matters than I do.

~Alisha~

[Sabriel MoonStar]

I can't answer your questions but that sounds like a wonderful idea. I hope it takes off.

[Crysiira]

I imagine it would have to go through the same process as any other book on tape. There's recording companies specifically devoted to that. You'd have to contact them, I think. I'm not sure. Good luck, though, I think it's a good idea. I don't know anyone personally who would need them, but I'm sure there are people out there that would benifit from it.

[cheddarsox]

My understanding is that in the United States, there are services that will tape any book for the vision impaired for free. My brother and a good friend are blind, and they can send books to the taping services and get them recorded (for old titles, text books and other books that don't come in commercial recorded format).

I would guess most metaphysical books would fall into the "not available commercially recorded" category. What might be a neat idea is to offer to record these books for these groups. That way, you get to read the book, and help likeminded visually impaired folks...and they take care of all the "legal" issues.

I assume that these groups that do the recording have worked out the legal entanglements already.

I know my brother has had some very old titles "read" for him, and as far as I know, he's never had a title returned unread.

cheddar

[SoulFire]

Speaking as a book publisher, I may be able to answer. Usually, books have copyright notices in them that state that the book may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher and/or author. We are in the process of producing our first Pagan book-on-tape. It involves a contract between publisher and author, giving the publisher audio recording rights, as well as print publishing rights, to the book. There are services that loan books-on-tape to the vision impaired. My former Craft teacher was blind, and he would tell me about some new book-on-tape he'd received in the mail that he was listening to. When he was done with it, he'd pop the tape back into the mail. It was sort of like a library loan, delivered to his house. I'm assuming such libraries make arrangements with the publishers to carry the tapes. Hope this helps.

[alwaysfallingup]

Thanks, everyone! This is great info and good ideas! I think I'm going to look into volunteering to read for some of the recording companies. Thanks again!

[Amelserru_halqu]

If I'm not mistaken the library of congress offers most books on tape but I don't know how much demand there is for occult material on tape so they might not have a copy.

[Tripple]

Oh I can asure you, there is most certainly a need!
:) Say, Soulfire and Cheddarsox, would you mind either posting or PMing me the information for a good transcribing company, as well as the Pagan books that are available on tape? I've tryed calling both Recordings for the Blind and Dislexic, (RFBD), and the New York State Library, and they don't seem to have much.

Thanks,
Kate

[Tripple]

I'm bumping this thread in the hopes more people will get to see it.
:)

[Semjaza]

Not that it would high-quality or anything, but I'd be more than happy to record some of my pagan books and give them to others for personal use. It couldn't cost that much to mail a tape or cd, and if professional recording services haven't already recorded the book in question, or if the person would rather not be 'outed' as a pagan, then why not? (Barring legal issues, of course... might have to read up on that...)

Just a random thought....


Cheers,

Semjaza
FFFF

[Tripple]

I was just thinking about this thread, and wondered how it was doing.
:) Maybe it would be better in the books section. If a mod sees this, could you please move it? Thanks.
:)