FREE SERVICE TO THOSE WHO CANNOT READ REGULAR NEWSPRINT!
HUNDREDS OF NEWSPAPERS AVAILABLE
TOLL FREE: 1-888-882-1629 or if you have unlimited long distance call 202-448-3007
Would you like a newspaper with your morning cup of coffee? NFB-NEWSLINEŽ added its 200th newspaper in 2004 along with its first two magazines, AND it's still growing. The service handles thousands of phone calls each day for individuals across the country who can now access daily newspapers and magazines as never before. The toll-free centralized call-in center provides service without delay to any subscriber. This also enables those who cannot read conventional print to have access to all of NFB-NEWSLINEŽ when traveling throughout the United States.
Every day, a subscriber can choose magazine articles, or that day's, the previous day's, or the previous Sunday issue, of any newspaper in the service. On NFB-NEWSLINEŽ, the user can easily choose which newspaper, section, and article to read using a standard touch-tone telephone. The menu provided allows the user to change the speed and voice quality, spell out words, or search for a particular word or subject.
Additional newspapers and magazines will be added, and future upgrades will allow more options, such as new "voices" and newspapers in other languages.
NFB-NEWSLINEŽ now offers more choices than ever, including special local channels to distribute announcements of specific interest to the blind.
In addition to the newspapers in their state, readers may choose among the hundreds of local papers from Hawaii to Maine. Some of the nationally prominent newspapers are USA Today, The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, THE New Yorker and The Economist.
Click here to view Participating Newspapers
Arts, culture, national and international news are now available on NFB-NEWSLINEŽ through magazines. Press Option 7. More magazines to come!!
The National Federation of the Blind has designed this revolutionary, totally electronic system to receive digital transmissions from publishers on the morning of publication, reformat the data for conversion to synthetic speech, and upload to the NFB-NEWSLINEŽ servers. By just dialing a toll-free number, dozens of newspapers, magazines, and more, are now available over any touch-tone telephone twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Blind and visually impaired individuals become eligible for this free service by filling out a simple application. Soon thereafter the individual is sent his or her identification number from the headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, Maryland, or from the state sponsor. You can apply on-line by clicking Online Application or contact your local regional Library.
Who Can Benefit?
Anyone who cannot read conventional newsprint could qualify for this free service. Many seniors have lost enough vision that reading the daily newspaper is no longer possible. They will enjoy being able once again to participate actively in community affairs. Blind children are now able to research their own civics assignments and do their homework independently. NFB-NEWSLINEŽ is the only service that makes so much information available to these eligible people twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
How to use NFB-NEWSLINEŽ
With only a touch-tone telephone, any subscriber can access
the NFB-NEWSLINEŽ. No computer is needed and no special training is necessary.
Click here to view The Ready Reference Guide
Lifetime learning, including detailed awareness of current events, is part of what makes a good citizen, a successful employee or employer, and a valuable participant in community life. Without ready access to information, none of us can reach his or her full potential. Until 1995, the nation's blind did not have the promise of ready access to a fundamental source of such information--the daily newspaper. But now the National Federation of the Blind has created NFB-NEWSLINEŽ.
NFB-NEWSLINEŽ is at last making it possible for blind individuals to gain access to the information in newspapers at the same time as their sighted colleagues, friends, and family members. Blind professionals, for example, can now converse on relevant topics, no longer being underinformed about information critical to their professions or left out at social functions when the latest editorial is discussed. Beyond this, a wealth of other information primarily found in newspapers is now also available to the blind on an equal footing, making possible their participation in the life of the community on the basis of equality.
Questions? Write or Call National Federation of the Blind | 1800 Johnson Street | Baltimore, MD 21230-4998 | (410) 659-9314, ext. 2356.
If you have questions about this web site, please contact the Webmaster