Do You Speak Science?

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic are in desperate need of readers who can handle books on math, physics, chemistry, medicine, biology and computer science. They are having to turn down requests from clients who need these books, which they really hate to do.

I've been a volunteer there for seven years now and if you enjoy reading and wouldn't mind a two-hour break once a week to think about something different, maybe review something in your field or pull out the skills from your old major, then this is an excellent opportunity for you. The people are extremely nice and the studio is conveniently located in the same building with the Porter Square Elephant Walk.

If you have any questions that I could answer from a volunteer perspective, I'd be happy to, but you're probably better off just calling the office. Which you should totally do.

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

do you know gentlescholar? He'd probablybe excellent at this.

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your reminder! I've been meaning to start and a super-snow-day is as good as any.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, hate the sound of my voice on tape. On the other hand, totally majored in math and took college courses in all the subjects you name. And I <3 education. OK, I will contact them! Porter Square, very convenient.

...OK, I have emailed them! (Could you edit this post to include contact info? I had to poke around on the web site for a while to find it and I'm not sure I picked the best one. Thanks!)

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I don't actually have an email--what did you find? I would recommend giving them a call at 617-500-2706.

A side benefit of doing this is that you will get completely over hating the sound of your recorded voice. You'll hear it so often in little snippets that it just becomes "yeah, that's me".

Yay! Thank you.

[stellasirius.livejournal.com]

sounds like fun! do you get to read an entire text, or do they assign you different material each time?

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

It depends on what you're reading. Specialist readers often read most if not all of their assigned books, or at least whole chapters. General readers, like me, read bits & bobs of whatever needs reading, picking up where the last person left off and going until the time is up.

[ilai]

Ditto the hating the sound of my voice but possibly having something to contribute. Thanks for the info!

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

As I've said elsewhere, this is excellent treatment for that hating-your-recorded-voice. It becomes familiar enough that it's like looking in the mirror--you may not love it, but at least it's not a surprise!

I think it also helps to hear some of the other readers--which you do every time you pick up from where someone else was reading. Some of the voices...well, let's just say I've learned to appreciate my voice a lot more over time.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

This is the perfect kind of volunteer work for me, I do training and development, have a lot of background in several of these topics, and have done some voice acting and recording. Thank you for posting this! (and email sent to them via the volunteer(at)rfbd(dot)org address!)

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I hope it's really fun for you.

[genarti]

Oh, now that sounds really interesting. Thanks for the heads-up!

[ominousfairy.livejournal.com]

Hey, I've just gotten furloughed on Fridays and I'm looking for sciencey ways to spend my time, AND I majored in theater, so this is PERFECT! Thanks for the reminder! Now I'm actually looking forward to those days off!

[antimony.livejournal.com]

Can they handle a group all at once? The (subject-relevant) company I work for gives us one paid volunteer day a year, and I might be able to convince a group to go.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I know they've done that kind of thing in the past, usually during their special Record-a-Thon weeks. Definitely something to talk with them about!

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for posting about this. I just got started, and I love it already.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thank you for joining up.