Colin Dalton, assistant professor in the Department of Urban Education, recently took a group of his Language and Literacy Development students to Sight into Sound, an independent nonprofit organization for individuals with visual, physical and learning disabilities.

The organization enriches the lives of more than 3,000 visually-impaired Harris County and surrounding area residents by providing free print/visual to audio translation services.

"The goal of visiting Sight into Sound was to expose my students to one of Houston's many volunteer organizations that provide free educational and support services to local special needs populations," Dalton said.

The Urban Education students received a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility and were able to record themselves reading in the center's recording booth. In addition, they were permitted to browse through the reading volunteers' forthcoming recording materials, which included a broad range of local and national newspapers, financial journals, cultural publications, poetry, gardening and cooking guides, sports magazines and entertainment weeklies.

"The students were surprised to learn that fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind people in the United States read Braille," Dalton said. "This excursion also revealed the dedication of volunteers who donate their time to bring the joy of reading to the vision-impaired."

Urban Education student Gabriel Silveira agreed. "I tutor a visually-impaired student, and it warms my heart that this organization provides such a valuable service to our local visually-impaired community."