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  • Readings for the Blind

  • Continuing Their Mission Through Leader Dog

In the 1960s, services for people who were visually impaired were limited. Elizabeth Stone found this out when looking for recordings of school books for her two sons who were visually impaired. Unable to find the recordings her sons needed, Elizabeth began to record them herself. Soon other parents were requesting her services for their children – and Readings for the Blind was established.

Readings for the Blind has been providing recordings for people who are visually, physically and learning impaired for 44 years. Like many other nonprofits, recent economic conditions made it impossible for them to continue their program. Unwilling to completely end their program, Readings approached Leader Dog with the idea of incorporating their expertise into the Leader Dog organization. Leader Dog jumped at the offer.

"Our two organizations have many similarities that make this a good match," says Gregory Grabowski, president and CEO of Leader Dog. "Both organizations have been privately funded from the beginning, neither has ever received state or federal funding, and we both have an extremely strong base of dedicated volunteers. Our organizations understand each other."

"Though we are sad that Readings for the Blind will no longer exist as its own nonprofit, we are glad that Leader Dog will be able to benefit from our knowledge of recording services," explains Lisa Sowa, executive director of Readings for the Blind. "Readings has always existed for our clients, and in Leader Dog we have found another nonprofit with the same belief. By transferring our program so they can record in-house materials for their students, the essence of what Elizabeth Stone wanted when she founded Readings – to provide audio recordings of materials needed for educational and life enhancing pursuits – will continue under their watch."

Leader Dog will now be able to provide more materials to students in an easy-to-access audio format. This will enhance our communication process for decades to come.

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