I haven't had a chance to really check this message out yet as I'm cleaning out a ton of e-mail, but figured I'd pass it along none the less. Kelly ----- Original Message ----- From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 7:27 AM Subject: Major Great News about Bookshare.org! > Beneblog, the Benetech Blog, USA > Tuesday, October 02, 2007 > > Major Great News about Bookshare.org! > > By Jim Fruchterman > > Tuesday, October 02, 2007 > > I'm delighted to share incredible news, which will transform > Bookshare.org. On Friday, the Office of Special Education Programs of the > U.S. federal Department of Education made a major five-year award of $32 > million to Bookshare.org. This will further the objectives of the > Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), by supplying high > quality textbooks and educational materials to students with special > needs. This funding is to fully support all schools and students with > qualifying print disabilities in the United States, K-12 and > post-secondary, with access to the entire Bookshare.org collection of > accessible electronic books and to software for reading those books. As of > October 1, 2007, we have ceased charging these schools and students > anything to join Bookshare.org. We also expect to add over 100,000 new > educational titles in high quality DAISY and Braille formats over the next > five years, getting students the terrific quality textbooks they need for > academic succ > ess! > > I spent most of the Clinton Global Initiative conference working with the > Department of Education's special ed professionals to wrap this up, and it > happened Friday afternoon: the last day of the federal government's fiscal > year. It was too late to announce it as a CGI commitment at the > conference, but the CGI folks were pretty excited for me. > > We've already had a surge of schools registering with Bookshare.org just > through word of mouth spread by our volunteers. We'll be hiring new people > to help us meet the demand, so watch our job posts and Bookshare.org. This > will make a tremendous impact on Bookshare.org, and the winning of this > competition is a real mark of the strength of our team. > > Posted by Jim Fruchterman at 5:51 AM > > > http://benetech.blogspot.com/2007/10/bookshareorg-bookshareorg.html > BlindNews Mailing List > Subscribe: BlindNews-Request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" as subject > > Unsubscribe: BlindNews-Request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" as subject > > Moderator: BlindNews-Moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > Archive: http://GeoffAndWen.com/blind > > RSS: http://GeoffAndWen.com/BlindNewsRSS.asp > > More information about RSS feeds will be published shortly. > To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, go to www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes