Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom
From: jason@merlin.demon.co.uk (Jason Arthurs)
Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!decwrl!hookup!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!uknet!demon!merlin.demon.co.uk!jason
Subject: (UK) Grolier, IBM v2.0 needed for visually impaired users
Organization: Q.E.D.
Reply-To: jason@merlin.demon.co.uk
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Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 19:03:51 +0000
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I appreciate that this maybe rather a long shot, but I'm looking for
anyone out there that might have this elderly version of the Grolier
Encyclopedia that they may be willing to part company with.

In 1992/93 there was a project in the UK coordinated by the National
Council for Educational Technology (NCET) with participation from the
Open University and the Royal National Institute for the Blind aimed
at providing increased access to information for blind and partially
sighted children in mainstream education. One of the solutions provided
as part of this project was to use the Grolier Encyclopedia (IBM v2.0)
1991/2 with additional software to give access to it via both speech
synthesizers and enlarged print.

When you consider that the braille version of the Oxford University
Press' Children's Encyclopedia is 57 volumes (yes fifty seven volumes)
and requires 3 metres of shelf space (as opposed to the print version
which is 7 volumes) this emphasizes what a convenient resource CD-ROM
provides. When the output can be saved on disk and converted into large
print or braille hardcopy in a matter of minutes you can see what a
revolution this offers to the visually impaired.

Unfortunately the supply of this rather early version of the Grolier
encyclopedia has now all but dried up. So I am asking if anyone out
there has any old Grolier disks they would like to donate in order to
keep the project afloat. These disks would be distributed to suitable
schools supporting blind or partially sighted pupils free of charge
with the necessary software to allow them to interact with a speech
synthesizer or large print software.

If anyone would like to donate a Grolier then they should contact me
or send it directly to:

Educational Technology Department,
Royal National Institute for the Blind,
National Education Services,
Garrow House,
190 Kensal Road,
London,
W10 5BT.

Email should be directed to jason@rnib.demon.co.uk

In addition to the Grolier encyclopedia we would be interested if anyone
has copies of a CD-ROM published by Philips which contains the Hutchinson's
Encyclopedia, the Collins English-French/French-English Dictionary and a
piece of software called 'Androute'. Once again these are old disks but
still useful for reference work.

Many Thanks,

Jason Arthurs,
Computer Technician,
RNIB National Education Services.

-- 
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| After a long life I have come to the conclusion that when all the |
| establishment is united, it is always wrong. - Harold Macmillan   |
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