Give the Gift Of Your Voice: It's A Gift That Will Keep On Giving

As Christmas and all the related holidays approach, and we sort through lists of needs and wants for ourselves and our friends, family, colleagues and others, I offer up a particular need that many of my DC-area friends may be able to fulfill with little more than a drive across town, or a few hours from your home. It is also a gift that can be made possible from any place in the country.

Learning Ally, https://www.learningally.org/, provides an audiobook service to students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities, through the services of volunteer audiobook readers around the country. I've been a reader for Learning Ally for several years, and, as someone who lost his vision for nearly a year when I was a boy, I appreciate the wonderful sound of someone reading a book aloud to make the unseen, or difficult-to-see world of words come alive.

Dyslexia robs a person of the pure pleasure of reading by imposing restraining bonds of frustration and feelings of failure. I've seen that in my own family, and it is a terrible burden on the dyslexic who is desperate to break what seems to be an unbreakable code. It not only affects the dyslexic, it influences their families, their teachers, their employers.

Through Learning Ally, books of all kinds--textbooks, children's books, historic novels, biographies, adventures, technical books, foreign language books, books, books, books--are read by volunteers whose work benefits dyslexics and other persons strapped with a learning disability, by providing them the ability to finally understanding and comprehend a vast library of written material previously locked away.

You, my blog friends, and particularly those of you who already have a home recording studio or similarly quiet space suitable for narration tasks (listen up, Listen 2 a Book readers), can be a part of Learning Ally's "Virtual Studio" and give a wonderful gift to students of all ages, and to anyone with dyslexia or a learning/reading disability. If you would like more information, or if you want to sign up, please send me a note at jim@audiobymoore.com,  and I will give you the email address of the Learning Ally producer here in Washington. He would love to talk to you.