Application for BTBL Service
Before Applying
Please make sure you live in our Service Area and meet the Eligibility Requirements listed below. After BTBL has received your application, a staff member will call within 5 business days to introduce you to our service before it begins.
Applications
Service Area
We serve residents of the counties of Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Lake, Lassen, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yolo, and Yuba.
Residents of San Francisco should contact the Talking Books and Braille Center in San Francisco. Residents of Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare counties should contact the Fresno Talking Book Library for the Blind. Southern California residents should contact the Braille Institute Library in Los Angeles. Other U.S. residents should search for their network library using the NLS Find Your Library directory.
Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for our service, a person must have a certified authority confirm that she/he is permanently or temporarily:
- Legally blind, with vision in the better eye of 20/200 or less with corrective glasses, or
- Have a visual field no greater than 20 degrees in diameter, or
- Be unable to see well enough or focus long enough to read standard print, even with corrective glasses, or
- Be unable to handle print books or turn pages because of a physical disability, or
- Be certified as having a perceptual or reading disability of sufficient severity to prevent reading printed material in the usual manner.
A certified authority includes doctor of medicine, doctor of osteopathy, ophthalmologist, optometrist, psychologist, registered nurse, therapist, and professional staff of hospitals, institutions, and public or welfare agencies (such as an educator, a social worker, case worker, counselor, rehabilitation teacher, certified reading specialist, school psychologist, superintendent, or librarian). Please visit the National Library Service website for full eligibility terminology.