Eligibility Criteria For Loan Service

The following individuals are eligible for loan service:

• 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.
• Other physically handicapped persons as follows:
  • Persons whose visual disability, with correction and regardless of optical measurement, is certified by competent authority as preventing the reading of standard printed material.
  • Persons certified by competent authority as unable to read or unable to use standard printed material as a result of physical limitations.
  • Persons certified by competent authority as having a reading disability resulting from organic dysfunction and of sufficient severity to prevent normal reading of printed material.

In cases of blindness, visual disability, or physical limitations, "competent authority" is defined to include doctors of medicine; doctors of osteopathy; ophthalmologists; optometrists; registered nurses; therapists; professional staff of hospitals, institutions, and public or welfare agencies (e.g., social workers, case workers, counselors, rehabilitation teachers, and superintendents). In the absence of any of these, certification may be made by professional librarians or by any persons whose competence under specific circumstances is acceptable to the Library of Congress.

In the case of reading disability from organic dysfunction, competent authority is defined as doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathy who may consult with colleagues in associated disciplines.

Qualified readers must be Connecticut residents.

Institutional requirements. Reading materials and sound reproducers may be loaned to institutions, such as nursing homes and hospitals, and to schools for the blind or physically handicapped for use by such persons only. Loans can also be made to public or private schools where handicapped students are enrolled provided the students are certified as eligible on an individual basis and are the direct and only recipients of the materials and reproducers. Institutions apply on a separate form.

Reviewed by the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Connecticut State Library, 9-2008.