Hi all,

First off, I am not trying to spam this group.  I know better than that.
But, I do want to pass on some info that may help others.

I have noticed in the past few years that I'm finding it harder to read
printed paper books.  Well, 3 detatached retina surgeries in the past four
years has partly contributed to this delima.  Just the thought of curling
up to book on Palm Programming and reading by firelight doesn't appeal to
me.

Last month I was looking for an O'Reilly book on PalmOS programming.  I
saw where you can subscribe a service that allows you to read the books
online through your web browser.  I didn't pay much attention to it but it
did peak my curiosity.  Well, Tongiht, I looked into it further.

BTW, the site is: http://safari.oreilly.com/

The more I looked into the details the more interesting the concept
sounded.  I'm not going get into detailed pricing but the service does
start at $10 a month.  At your subscription level, you are alocated
a certain number of bookshelf slots.   You can change out books every 30
days.  Just, check out the site or ask me for me more details.

So, what does this have to do with being visually impaired?  It is simply
the fact that the books ARE accessible via your web browser!  You can read
books the same way as you normally surf the Net.  So instead of messing
with printed copies, handheld magifiers, CCTVs, etc., you can use
ZoomText, Matrox PixelTOUCH, JAWS, or whatever program you are confortable
with to help you read these books.

Again, please don't think I am spamming.  I feel this is going to really
help me technically because I now have easier access to the books I need
to reference on my job and my hobbies at home.  I am sure there are other
services that do the same thing that are equally good.  I really haven't
looked around.  I thought I would pass the info if anyone is interested.

BTW, does anyone here use on-line book services like this?  I'd appreciate
your feedback.

Thanks,
Steven


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html