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This service is available to individuals and to institutions. Each item may be checked out to for a TWO week in home trial.
You must have a current library card.
If you live outside the Great Bend area, the item will be mailed to your local library and you must pick up and return the item to your library.
When you decide to purchase an item, catalogs are available, upon request, from various vendors. Each catalog has a toll free phone number for ordering. Talking Books will not order vision aids.
The stronger the magnification needed the smaller the viewing area. A 2x magnifier will have more reading area than a 5x or an 8x magnifier.
We have magnifiers from 2x to 12.5x. Some are hand held, some stand over the item, some can be worn around the neck and some are worn on the head and lower down over the eyes.
Magnifiers can be illuminated. We offer magnifiers lighted by wall current or by batteries.
A collection of Eschenbach products are available for check out and use:
A VTEK machine and an electronic TV reader are available for use. These machines will not be checked out; they are for in-house use only.
Many chores and daily living needs that are taken for granted by sighted people may require some help when eyesight gets weak.
We have an interesting collection of items designed to make life easier.
Catalogs are available so you may order the items that you find helpful to you.
Return to table of contents
How Do I Do This When I Can't See What I'm Doing?
Dancing In The Dark
What Do You Do When You Meet a Blind Person?
(Video)
Living With Low Vision
Choices / If Blindness Occurs
(Video with booklet.)
Home Sweet Home!
How to help adults live independently. (Video accompanies book.)
Elizabeth's Story. (Video and booklet.)
Help a child discover the magic of reading. Addresses needs of children who are blind and those with low vision.
Senior Companions.
Reference guide for using visually impaired seniors as senior companions.
Coping with Low Vision.
Hands-on book for self-help and resource manual for partially sighted people.
Blindness.
What it is, what it does and how to live with it.
Building Blocks.
Foundations for learning for young blind and visually impaired children. In English and Spanish.
Creative Recreation for Blind and Visually ImpRecreation for Blind and Visually Impaired Adults.
Adapting leisure activities for visual impairment.
Descriptive Videos, called DVS, describe the action, scenery, characters, or costumes without interfering with the movie's dialogue or sound effects.
These companies offer a toll free telephone number to call and place an order.
You must order the item for yourself. Talking Books will not handle individual orders.
To receive one of these catalogs, call Talking Books, 800-362-2642, ext.143.
Our address is:
Talking Books
1409 Williams St.
Great Bend, KS 67530
Activity programs are available to activity directors in care centers libraries, and occupational therapists. These programs do NOT circulate to individuals.
Activity Directors, Therapists, etc., are agents for their facilities. The facility is responsible for the following:
Paying the return postage.
Replacing damaged or lost materials checked out to the facility.
Activity materials may be checked out for a period of TWO WEEKS. If you need materials for an extended period, call to make arrangements. We will consider the item lost if it is not returned within three (3) weeks, and we will bill the facility for replacement.
Use the scheduling sheet to schedule activities and return the sheet a.s.a.p. Telephone requests can be misunderstood. It is very IMPORTANT that the DATE YOU NEED the materials be included on the scheduling sheets. This sheet will be returned to you, confirming your schedule.
Joanita Doll-Masden
"Remembering" kits are designed to stimulate individual and group reminiscence and discussion. The variety of materials in each bag makes it possible to select just one or two items and do a single program - or to combine the materials and ideas into a series of programs. These might be five half-hour programs for a week of lunchtime discussions or a month of weekly programs. The possibilities are limited only by time and energy.
Each kit has an extensive planning manual with instructions on how to get a program going, a list of questions that will stimulate discussion, a bibliography, and ideas for related activities. A complete set of these manuals is available in each CKLS member library for planning before the kit arrives.
Each Mini Kit consists of a 15-minute slide/tape program with an ideas manual about how to use the slidesout how to use the slides.
Slides and ideas together are Slideas. Each volume is a three-ring notebook of twenty slides for each of the four topics. These slides have been selected to stimulate a group or an individual to share memories of the past and ideas about the present and future.
Each kit consists of a visiting card (with a photograph, poetry, drawing, or quotes) and an object about a topic. These are designed for one-to-one visitations. The accompanying Time Well-Spent manual explains how to use the visit kits. It is also a resource for the development of family, volunteer, and intergenerational visiting in the community and long-term care settings.