National Achievement Award Winner John Russo: "DAISY is the Ticket"

National Achievement Award winner John Russo lives in Texas. Teachers report that he has become popular on campus delivering "standing-room only" tutoring sessions to 20 or 30 students. Currently thriving in graduate school, John is a passionate advocate for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic services, which he began to use as an underclassman at Saddleback Community College in California. He describes how assistive technology levels the playing field for blind and visually impaired students, opening up a critical inroad to independence.

"Let’s compare independence in terms of a sightless individual with a sighted person. In a school environment, a sighted person can purchase a book at a book store; they have it right there immediately. Then as they read, they can use a highlighter and take notes on pertinent information that they’d like to relocate at a later time."

"With the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic website now available to us, we can find a book title and either order it on the phone or find it online; and we can find the link to the download on that book. As soon as we hit 'Download,' within minutes we have that book on our PC and can load it into to our DAISY player. That gives us instant accessibility to this book, any time, anywhere. Late at night, early in the day, we have that book in the palm of our hand, and we can read it".

Read full article on the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic blog.