How a donation to the Centre County Library will help people with low vision better access materials
If you had less than perfect eyesight, or maybe no eyesight at all, how would you access a library?
Brian Patchett, president and CEO of North Central Sight Services, posed that question at the Centre County Library in Bellefonte during a donation and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday. North Central Sight Services donated $10,000 worth of technology devices to assist library patrons who have low vision. The devices include handheld and desktop video magnifiers so people with low vision can read printed materials.
People who do have low vision, or those who assist people who are blind or visually impaired, are always thinking of ways to access library materials and what is helpful, Patchett said. Technology changes the lives of people who have vision disabilities and helps them become more independent, Patchett said.
“It helps us to access small print by magnifying things,” Patchett said. “... It is so critical and in this case, with the library setting, being able to access the books, able to access their network, able to access the wonderful historical … library across the street. That’s what this is about.”
Denise Sticha, Centre County Library and Historical Museum executive director, said when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Centre County residents were no longer able to use the library the same way they had been able to before. In-person services were initially nonexistent and later only for limited hours. She said they learned how dependent they were on technology for basic communications. That landscape has “completely changed,” Sticha said.
“And as a result of that change, there are large segments of the population that are being more disenfranchised than they had been before. And so this particular donation that came to us, that we are so grateful for, is really going to make an impact on the lives of those people,” Sticha said.
Brandon DeArment, technology specialist for NCSS, gave a demonstration of how to use the assistive technology. The handheld digital magnifiers can be used with any document. The device can zoom in and out, and change color modes. It can be operated in a “live mode,” where it’s actively showing the user what is on the document. Or, users can take a screenshot and zoom in on a particular section.
Five handheld digital magnifiers were donated, DeArment said, which can be loaned out to library patrons. There are also plans to bring this type of technology to Philipsburg and eastern Penns Valley, Sticha said.
Two larger, desktop digital magnifiers were also donated; they’re basically the same as the handheld magnifier, only larger.
“This device is great for books or whatever, you can lay magazines down there, or newspapers and then just do your reading that way. Zoom in as much as you need to,” DeArment said.
The devices are user friendly, Nicholas Struble, branch manager at Centre County Library and Historical Museum, said. The desktop monitor only has five buttons on it.
The donation also included two high contrast/large print keyboards and one large monitor, and a ZoomText magnifying software license.
Gary Hoover, director of the Bellefonte Intervalley Area Chamber of Commerce, said services and partnerships like these are very important.
“... My mother benefited from (NCSS) services quite a lot in her final years. She was a big reader her whole life and at the end, she had macular degeneration. It was very frustrating for her but because of North Central’s help, she was able to read and continue that hobby of hers and be very happy into her final days,” Hoover said.
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 4:41 PM.
