Talking Book Productions in Partnership With Bridge Multimedia Garners Software Development Grant

The American Foundation for the Blind, in partnership with Bridge Multimedia, announced today that it has won a US Department of Education National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) grant for scientifically based research and software development. The three-year grant will be utilized to develop Bridge's model of the "Universal e-Learner," which will be used to augment content from Pearson Education's "Knowledge Box" product with additional text and audio, in order to make the content accessible to a larger universe of students.

AFB President, Carl Augusto said, "AFB is committed to having a greater impact in the blindness field, and on the larger society, by working to broaden access to educational technology."

"This research will give us unique insight into how to extend existing effective instruction to reach blind/low vision, hearing impaired, English language learners and learning disabled students," commented Matt Kaplowitz, Founder and President of Bridge Multimedia.

"We are honored to be included in this important research," said Jack Lynch, President of Pearson Digital Learning. "Pearson believes in the importance of universal accessibility and we are pleased to contribute to research that will help better understand how to meet the diverse needs of today's classrooms."

The Universal e-Learner is an online supplemental learning tool that offers audio described video content, additional audio content, additional enhanced text and text at lower readability levels. The e-Learner also provides a fully accessible school schedule organizer. The model seeks to include the maximum number of students in each learning activity.

About Bridge Multimedia

Bridge Multimedia is a New York City-based organization that develops universally accessible technology products and provides media services for entertainment, education, government and business. www.bridgemultimedia.com

About Pearson

Pearson Education is the world wide authority on integrated educational publishing, reaching over 100 million learners. Pearson Digital Learning products provide research-based, digital learning solutions and comprehensive curriculum to assist pre-K-12 students in reaching their highest potential. www.pearsondigital.com/digitallink/

For more information, contact:
Lou Gutierrez
(212) 502-7732
luisg@afb.net