Eligible individuals and/or institutions in Washtenaw County need only return a completed Application Form to WLBPD@AADL in order to become certified to receive service. You may print the Application Form from our website, pick one up at any AADL location, or contact the WLBPD@AADL at (734) 327-4224 to have one mailed to you.

A "certifying authority" (someone other than the applicant's immediate family) must complete a portion of the application. See below for more information.

Once the application has been received and approved, a player will be mailed out and service will begin. After a couple of weeks, the applicant will be contacted via telephone by a Library staff member to discuss the service and to answer any questions. Players and materials are mailed at no charge as Free Matter for the Blind. Library staff is available both in-person and also by phone, to assist patrons with learning how to operate their players and ordering materials.

Service can be provided on a temporary or permanent basis. If an individual moves out of the WLBPD service area, the service may be transferred to the appropriate cooperating library in the National Library Service network.

Eligibility

Anyone residing in Washtenaw County who is certified as unable to read or use standard printed materials as a result of a temporary or permanent visual or physical limitation is eligible for service from WLBPD@AADL.

Qualifying Disabilities

• Blind: persons whose visual acuity, as determined by competent authority, is 20/200 or less in the better eye with correcting lenses, or whose widest diameter of visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees.

• Deaf-Blind: persons with a severe auditory impairment in combination with legal blindness.

• Visually Disabled: persons who lack visual acuity to read standard printed materials without aids or devices other than regular glasses.

• Physically Disabled: persons who are unable to read or use standard printed materials as a result of physical disability. Examples include: without arms of the use of arms; impaired or weakened muscle and nerve control; limitations resulting from strokes, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, polio, arthritis.

• Reading Disabled: persons whose reading disability is a result of an organic dysfunction of sufficient severity to prevent reading printed materials in a normal manner (this disability requires the signature of a medical or osteopathic doctor as certifying authority). For an NLS factsheet on Reading Disabilities, click here.

This service is available to both individuals and/or institutions (e.g. adult foster care facilities, retirement centers, nursing homes, hospitals, etc.) who have eligible individuals among their regular clientele. Such individuals are eligible for service in the name of the institution or in their own names.

Service to schools is provided directly from the Library of Michigan Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (SBPH) in Lansing. Please contact the SBPH at 1-800-992-9012 if you would like to receive information on this process.

Who is a "certifying authority"?

In cases of blindness, visual disability, or physical limitations, "certifying authority" is defined to include:

• Doctors of medicine and osteopathy

• Ophthalmologists

• Optometrists

• Registered nurses

• Therapists

• Professional staffs of hospitals, institutions, and public welfare agencies (e.g. social workers, case workers, counselors, home teachers, and superintendents)

• In the absence of any of these, the form can be signed by a professional librarian or by any person whose competence under specific circumstances is acceptable to the Library of Michigan Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped or by NLS (Contact WLBPD if you have questions about "certifying authority")

In the case of a reading disability from organic dysfunction, "certifying authority" is defined as:

• Doctors of medicine or osteopathy only, who may consult with colleagues in associated disciplines