Communication Center for the Blind

Purpose
The Communication Center serves as a public library for Minnesotans who are blind or have visual or physical impairments. Through transcription and reading services, customers have access to the same print media as sighted Minnesotans.

Customers and Services
Primary customers are persons who are blind, have visual impairments, or have difficulty reading printed materials; and those people who request material on their behalf.

The Communication Center provides audio, print, and digital communication through state staff and a network of 680+ volunteers. It lends transcribed textbooks and leisure-reading books; lends and repairs special radio receivers, phonograph, flash and cassette players (the latter three items through the Library of Congress Talking Book Program); and, supported in part by an interagency agreement with the Department of Education, transcribes into Braille or digital formats educational materials for K-12 students. It transcribes vocational and informational materials for individuals, businesses, and organizations. The Center broadcasts a 24-hour radio reading service through a closed-circuit radio network that includes broadcast of local news for Duluth, Fergus Falls, Grand Rapids, Mankato, Rochester, and St. Cloud. It also provides two 24-hour audio newspaper-reading services accessed via phone and partly funded by the Department of Commerce’s Telecommunication Access Minnesota fund: Dial-In News and the National Federation of the Blind-Newsline for the Blind®.

Measures - Reporting period is state fiscal year (SFY), July 1 - June 30

Funding Source and Expenditure (in thousands)

*2009 increase due to purchase of radios.

Statutory Authority 
-- Minn. Stat., Chap. 248; Minn. Rules, Chap. 3325; U.S. Code, Title 2, Chap. 5

Contact Information
Richard Strong, Director
Phone: 651.649.5475 or toll-free: 800.652.9000; Fax: 651.649.5927; TTY: 888.665.3276

This information current as of January 2010.