Verizon Donation Aims to Assist Children with Special Needs

Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, recently
donated $100,000 to help the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
establish its Universal Learning Center digital education project. The
center's goal is to make K-12 textbooks and educational materials Web-based
and more accessible for children with special needs. Verizon's grant will
assist the center in its initial efforts to digitize classic reading
materials and put them online for use at 100 pilot schools throughout the
country. 

CAST developed the Universal Learning Center to put K-12 educational
materials online, giving teachers access to digital curriculum, thereby
making learning more accessible to students with special needs. Once
Web-based, the materials can be enlarged for students with low vision,
downloaded to special Braille-output devices, or formatted to allow dyslexic
and ESL students to have words read out loud or defined. For more information
about CAST, visit http://www.cast.org. For more information about Verizon,
visit http://www.verizon.com.