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August 14, 2005

Talking Stuff 2

An article in my local paper picked up from a national news feed tells me about Jim Dale, who "has given voice to more than 200 cahracters in the audio versions of the six harry Potter books so far.
The first five audio books in the series smashed previous sales records, with more than 4 million copies sold in North America." The article goes on to say that 635,000 copies of the latest Harry Potter were made available. (Here'sthe article from the Detroit News)
All this is great. But what it puts me in mind of, so often, is how -- when it's for us, it's done quickly; when it's for them -- the disabled -- it's resisted. I was just told earlier this week of a blind student at a local university who had kept asking for a textbook in accessible form -- and had never gotten it. Last I heard, she was dropping out rather than "pursue" the issue. More about that when I learn more.
COMMENT-AUTHOR:Penny L. Richards
COMMENT-DATE:8/14/2005
COMMENT-BODY:It's definitely an exception, but audio and braille versions of the latest Harry Potter were scheduled to be made available within a week of its print release. I blogged about this here:

http://disstud.blogspot.com/2005/07/newest-harry-potter-in-braille-and.html
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Posted by mjohnson at August 14, 2005 10:31 AM