September 12, 1995
Dear On-line Friends and Colleagues
After much deliberation and thought, I have decided to
accept a job offer from Minnesota State Services for the Blind as
Director of their Communication Center. I am planning to start
my new position on Monday October 16, 1995, and my last day of
work at the National Federation of the Blind will be on Friday
October 13th. Not being a superstitious sort, it seemed like a
good last day.
As many of you know, I have served for the past four and
three quarters years as the first and only Director of the
International Braille and Technology Center for the blind. I am
proud of the Center and what we have been able to accomplish in
our short history, in particular in the area of reviews of access
technology. There will be additional material appearing in this
arena in the near future. It was a difficult decision to leave
the forefront of access technology.
However, the Communication Center will provide me with a new
kind of opportunity. The Center includes a closed-circuit
sub-carrier based Radio Reading Service -- the first in the
nation, a dial-up newspaper -- the second in the nation, a
statewide Brailling project that produces over 400,000 pages of
Braille per year, an extensive recording project, and they are
also the Talking Book Machine lending agency for the state of
Minnesota. There is a large Engineering Section as well that
repairs TBM's, sub-carrier receivers and more. The Center
represents an opportunity to oversee a staff of some 33 persons
and administer a two million dollar annual budget. The
Communication Center and Minnesota State Services for the Blind
have been on the forefront of providing information access to
blind persons over the years and I look forward to working with
them.
I will be disconnecting from many mailing lists, and
dropping my Enoch Pratt Library Internet account over the next
few weeks. However, you will be able to reach me at all normal
channels for the next week or so. After that you can reach me at
NFB NET, Fidonet: 1:261/1125 or (410) 7525011, or CompuServe:
72157.3547@compuserve.com .
David Andrews
David Andrews, director
International Braille and Technology Center
for the Blind
National Federation of the Blind
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