Explanation
The purpose of this ordinance is to authorize the City Clerk to enter into a grant agreement with Voicecorps Reading Service in support of their free reading services. This ordinance authorizes an upfront payment to Voicecorps Reading Service to support these efforts. Voicecorps Reading Service does not currently have sufficient funds on-hand to await reimbursement for expenses incurred.
The targeted constituencies are adults who have lost the ability to use print due to blindness and vision loss, accident or injury, and veterans who suffered a service-related disability which prevents using print. The US Census estimates that 2.3% of our population is visually impaired or roughly 21,000 Columbus residents. This number does not include those who have some other disability which prevents use of print such as paraplegia, stroke, or other injury. In central Ohio and specifically in Columbus, there is no coordinating agency for the provision of rehabilitation due to vision loss for adults who are past working age. State programs focus on employment and vocational rehabilitation. Once the individual is diagnosed as legally blind, too many vision care professionals send the patient home without referrals to the next step in adapted living.
Voicecorps Reading Service has provided free reading services to Columbus residents and has been supported by the city for doing so for each of its 46 years. During the pandemic, Voicecorps was able - with support from City Council - to maintain daily transmissions of daily newspapers which contain vital information about COVID-19 safety, curfews, and other information the rest of Columbus had access to through the height of the pandemic. The services involve the efforts of over 200 volunteers in reading the Columbus Dispatch and various other news periodicals over broadcasts, including WOSU-FM and WOSU-TV. The targeted audience is overwhelmingly made up of aging residents, many of whom are low or fixed-income e...
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