Sitting in a soundproof room furnished only with a chair, a lamp, a dictionary and a four-track cassette recorder, education sophomore Virginia Birringer turned toward a thick physics textbook and prepared to record herself reading it.
"I was nervous the first time reading because I was like, 'Someone's going to be listening to my voice,'" she said. "But after awhile, you get used to it."
Birringer is one of more than 100 volunteers who visit the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities in Bessey Hall on a weekly basis. The volunteers help with alternative text production, which gives textbook and exam options to students with visual impairments.
Alternative text is produced in a variety of ways, such as recording books or exams on cassette tapes, scanning text into a computer data bank or reading to a student in person - which Birringer said is the most worthwhile out of all the methods.
"It's more fun doing that because you actually see somebody instead of just being in a little padded room," she said.
Many of the readers are from Tower Guard, a sophomore honors organization that requires members to volunteer a total of 120 hours per year at the center. Other volunteers periodically read on a drop-in basis, while some choose to participate at times when text is in high demand, such as at the beginning of each semester.
Virginia Martz, a blindness and visual impairment and mobility disability specialist at the Resource Center, said volunteers are asked to commit to at least one hour of reading per week because of the time and energy needed to train them.
Currently, about 200 students are approved for alternative text formats out of the 850 to 1,000 students who access various services at the center each semester. Some drop in to pick up recorded text while others set up times to meet with personal readers.
Crystal LaFleche, who often uses the center to take tests and to get books on tape, recently started working with a personal reader.
"The person I'm working with is wonderful," the political theory and constitutional democracy junior said, adding that she was apprehensive at first about interacting one-on-one with a reader.
"It's like meeting a new person, and this person is like a new friend," she said. "It's like, 'OK, well, are they going to be nice or are they going to want to do this - or am I just a time-filler?'"
Volunteers also help the center keep up with advances in technology, which allow faster production of alternative text to help meet demand. One method increasing in popularity is electronic text, or E-text.
Volunteers scan material into a computer database before editing it and making it available to students, who then read it with the help of computer programs that enlarge text or read it aloud.
"In terms of alternative format and its production, technology is moving forward and we're keeping pace," Martz said. "More and more, students are starting to use electronic formats or digital formats of their material."
Employees at the center said their hope is to eventually phase out tape-recorded audio and switch to digital technology, making alternative text production quickly accessible to more students.
"It's definitely a big step forward," said Jeremy Nufer, a former volunteer who now works at the center and trains new readers. "It's really good seeing how our system is about to change and become more efficient and even better at helping people more easily."
The Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities covers other services for persons with vision impairments, ranging from textbooks or classwork to menus and commencement programs in large print or Braille. They also work closely with MSU's Printing Services.
For more information, visit http://www.rcpd.msu.edu.
