Customer Support Ruling

Library Order Forms – Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped
Updated July 2003

PS-108 (703.5)

This Customer Support Ruling provides a determination on the mailability of library order forms as Free Matter for the Blind and Other Physically Handicapped Persons.

Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) 703.5.3, provides that unsealed letters sent by a blind or other physically handicapped person and prepared in raised characters or in 14-point or larger sight-saving type or in the form of sound recordings, may be mailed as "Free Matter for the Blind or Other Physically Handicapped Persons."  No provision is made for letters prepared by conventional typewriting to be mailed without proper payment of postage at the First-Class Mail rates.

DMM 703.5.2.1 lists the types of acceptable matter which may be sent free to blind or other handicapped persons.  Such items must be for the use of the blind or handicapped person, include no charge or fee, and contain no advertising.

Library order forms prepared in 14-point or larger type for the use of blind or physically handicapped persons are acceptable as Free Matter for the Blind and Other Physically Handicapped Persons, both when mailed by the library and when returned to the library by the handicapped readers.

Such order forms meeting the printing requirements prescribed above may show the handwritten name and address of the eligible individual placing the order on them.  Check marks directing attention to items selected by the blind or handicapped readers may also be shown on the forms.  The address on the outside envelope as well as the endorsement, “Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped” may be printed, typed, rubber stamped or handwritten.

(Signed)
Sherry Suggs
Manager
Mailing Standards
United States Postal Service
Washington DC 20260-3436