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Talking Books, State Library of Kansas
The mission of the Kansas Talking Books Library Service is to provide personalized support and materials in a specialized format to ensure that all may read.
Talking Books provides personalized support and materials in a specialized format to eligible Kansas residents to ensure that all may read. This library service is available for those who are unable to read or use standard printed materials as a result of temporary or permanent visual or physical impairment. We have books and magazines available in both digital and cassette format, as well as the playback equipment needed to enjoy them. Library materials are sent through the mail to our patrons, wherever they reside. Like services you receive from your local public library, services for the blind and physically handicapped have no user fees.
Who is eligible?
Any Kansas citizen that is certified as print impaired due to a visual or physical condition(s) may apply for Talking Book Services.
Such conditions may include permanent or temporary blindness, vision loss, physical condition or reading disability. Definitions used for application purposes are as follows:
Blindness: Blind persons whose visual acuity, as determined by certifying authority is 20/200 or less in the better eye, with correcting lenses, or whose diameter of the visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees.
Visual Impairment: Persons whose visual disability, with correction and regardless of optical measurement, is determined by certifying authority as preventing the reading of standard printed material.
Physical Impairment: Persons determined by certifying authority as unable to read or unable to use standard printed material as a result of physical limitations.
Reading Disability: Persons determined by certifying authority as having a reading disability resulting from ORGANIC DYSFUNCTION and of sufficient severity to prevent their reading printed material in a normal manner.
What is a Certifying Authority?
The following may certify in cases of blindness, visual handicap, and physical handicap: Doctors of medicine (M.D.); doctors of osteopathy (D.O.); ophthalmologists; optometrists; registered nurses; therapists; professional staff of hospitals, institutions and public welfare agencies (e.g., social workers, case workers, counselors, rehabilitation teachers and superintendents). In the absence of any of these, certification may be made by professional librarians.
A reading disability resulting from an organic dysfunction may only be certified by a doctor of medicine (M.D.) or a doctor of osteopathy (D.O.).
Please visit our website or Contact us for more information:
Talking Books Service Center Locator
Kansas State Library:
