APH News & Press
APH selected to receive $35,000 grant from NEC Foundation of America
News Release: Louisville, Kentucky, December 5, 1996
The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) will receive a check for $35,000 from NEC Foundation of America on Tuesday, December 10th at 10:00 a.m. from Mr. Jim Carpenter, Senior Vice President of NEC America. The brief ceremony will take place in the museum at the APH corporate offices, 1839 Frankfort Avenue.
The grant money will be used to upgrade CARL ET AL, the APH database listing materials available in formats accessible to visually impaired people. Specifically, the funds will be used to improve speech access capabilities and Internet accessibility by moving CARL ET AL from a mainframe to a personal computer network. These goals match the funding interests of NEC Foundation of America, which supports programs with a national reach and impact in science and technology education and/or efforts to apply technology to assist people with disabilities.
CARL ET AL contains bibliographic and location information for materials available in braille, large type, recorded, and computer disk form from various cooperating agencies across North America. This centralized listing is a valuable resource for the visually impaired community in the U.S. and Canada, and the planned expansion will enhance its availability to all users, especially blind people wishing to access its contents from their own computers.
APH is the world's largest nonprofit company devoted solely to creating products for people who are visually impaired. Founded in 1858, the company's mission is to promote the independence of blind and visually impaired persons by providing the special media, tools, and materials needed for education and life.
Contact Roberta Williams, Public Relations Specialist, for more information. Telephone: 1 -800-223-1839 or (502) 895-2405; e-mail: rwilliams@aph.org