Mary Taitt
UBC’s Crane Library provides visually impaired students with audio recorded materials. It is sustained by volunteers like Mary Taitt.
University students spend hours reading every week. Whether it’s a novel, research paper or class assignment, for someone with a print disability, access to materials in alternative formats is critical to staying on top of schoolwork.
At UBC, there is a long tradition of producing human voice audio recordings of school materials through UBC’s Crane Library, part of Access and Diversity. Currently there are more than 130 volunteers who spend an average of 7,350 hours each year narrating and recording all the audio materials needed.
UBC’s Access and Diversity facilitates accommodations for students, staff and faculty with disabilities, which include alternate format materials like Braille, electronic text, PDF and audio. Crane Library houses an extensive collection of alternate format materials and is one of the largest producers of human voice audio in Canada.
At UBC, volunteers read everything from an undergraduate psychology textbook to a complex philosophy paper for a PhD student’s dissertation. And Mary Taitt, who has been volunteering with the Crane for the past 41 years, has read it all. This year, Taitt was recognized for her dedication and was awarded the Slonecker Award for Outstanding Volunteer Contribution to UBC.
“To be able to do something useful and pass on information to all these folks is a great motivator,” says Taitt, who believes that with all her education and expertise, she should help give back to the community.
Crane was established in 1968 as an informal reading room with a gift of some 10,000 volumes of Braille books from the family of the late Charles Allan Crane, who was both deaf and blind and had been a UBC student in the 1930s. A few readers were hired, production of audio recordings began and volunteers were recruited when extra help was needed.
Taitt began volunteering in 1969 and continued volunteering while working on her PhD in Zoology, and then as an alumnus and UBC employee. Over the years, Mary has worked as a UBC Research Associate, an environmental consultant, an ecotourism whale watching guide, and is an active volunteer for local environmental organizations. Taitt now works as a faculty member at Thompson Rivers University’s Open Learning Division and as an activist for protection of B.C.’s natural environment.
