In soundproof booths that look like huge refrigerators with windows, amazingly patient volunteers sit for two hours at a stretch and read aloud.
They read Shakespeare, algebra problems, Renaissance poetry and engineering textbooks. They even stop to announce each page and to explain and describe each chart, photograph and footnote.
Although they read to no one but a microphone, they are well aware of who is listening: more than 250,000 blind and learning disabled students across the country who wouldn't be able to succeed in school without these precious recordings.
A national nonprofit organization, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic has 5,000 volunteers who record textbooks for visually impaired students from kindergarten through medical school. Its library includes over 58,000 titles, from Dostoevski to LSAT prep. Students download them for free.
This week, the organization's Palo Alto office held its annual Record-A-Thon, and I stopped by to learn firsthand about the labor-intensive but vital process of converting print textbooks to CDs and MP3s.
Knowing the subject
Unlike books on tape, audio texts are designed so that students can skip to a specific page using a special player.