Jeff Kaplan of Plainsboro had volunteered in the recording studio of the New Jersey unit of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) since 2001, recording business texts, training new volunteers and editing recordings before they go out to the non-profits members across the country.##M:[more]##
Curiosity sent him across the hallway from the studio to the unit’s educational outreach center that always was buzzing with activity. “I was curious to see how what I was doing in the studio was used in the classroom,” says Kaplan.
Kaplan, president of his Aspen Drive condo association, grew up in Matawan and moved to Plainsboro in 1986. A former IT technician for Merrill Lynch, Kaplan says he found RFB&D by walking past its offices in Carnegie Center, en route to an outplacement agency.
“I like to read and I think I have a good voice for reading,” he says. So in 2001 he began reading social studies texts. He continues to volunteer an hour and a half on most days, usually correcting and editing other volunteers’ reading. “I’m sort of the jack of all trades,” he says.
Kaplan met with educational outreach director Christine Ranaghan and found out how they worked with the studio, schools, and students throughout New Jersey to make sure audiobooks and equipment got to the people who needed them.
He was, “energized by the passion” Ranaghan and her team had for working with the schools and students and made a $700 donation to fund a new two-year membership for a New Jersey school.
Kaplan and Ranaghan decided to award the membership to the Adaptive Technology Center for New Jersey Colleges at the College of New Jersey, which disseminates information on assistive technology, operates an adaptive technology lending program for students with disabilities at New Jersey colleges and universities, and provides training to faculty and staff at those institutions.
Ranaghan had recently reached out to Amy Dell, director of the Adaptive Technology Center, to find out how the New Jersey unit could better serve the state’s colleges and universities.
Ranaghan admits that at first “Dr. Dell was very skeptical about us. She knew about us, but didn’t think we would be able to supply the audiobooks and equipment needed.”
But soon Dell was impressed by the level of commitment the Educational Outreach Center staff had to work with the Adaptive Technology Center. Dell says she is “recommending RFB&D to schools and students based on that commitment.”
Dell and the Technology Center’s lending project coordinator, Tammy Cordwell, met with Kaplan, Ranaghan, and the New Jersey unit staff at the unit’s facility on the campus of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Plainsboro. Kaplan decided to donate his gift to the Technology Center because he saw “someone who was ready to utilize it immediately and continue to use it.” He hopes his gift “inspires others to make similar donations to broaden RFB&D’s reach.”
Assistance is crucial for individuals transitioning from high school to college because the students are expected to take more responsibility. They must go to seek assistance themselves and according to Cordwell, many “don’t self-identify until they start to fail.”
Ranaghan hopes Kaplan’s gift, “gets students the help they need faster. It shows how RFB&D can collaborate with schools and the community to help students with dyslexia or physical disabilities succeed. We’re really grateful to Dr. Dell for her interest in working with us and Jeff’s gift for helping make it possible.”
The New Jersey unit of RFB&D operates two programs from its Plainsboro facility: a recording studio where 400 volunteers record textbooks and other educational material and an Educational Outreach Center that works with more than 500 schools and more than 1,”800 individuals throughout the state who use the recordings to achieve academically.
Visit www.rfbdnj.org and https://adaptivetech.tcnj.edu for more information.
