Hi Yall!
Check this out!-Gary
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 06:10:38 +0900
From: Catherine Alfieri <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: "* EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information"
<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: CURR: FW: NYTimes.com Article: Books for the Blind Go Digital
A great boon for all learning disabled, blind or visually
impaired students as well as those with other physical
challenges or those who simply learn better through auditory
input.
Catherine Alfieri
7 Summer Tree
Pittsford, NY 14534
716-586-1682
Monroe County Women's Disability Network
[log in to unmask]
http://www.mcwdn.org
VirtEd
http://www.mcwdn.org/VirtEd2.html
Personal page
http://www.mcwdn.org/AlfieriMain.html
"See with your heart, Speak with your heart!"
Books for the Blind Go Digital
By CATHERINE GREENMAN
SINCE 1951, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, a nonprofit
organization based in Princeton, has recorded thousands of
textbooks, from kindergarten- to graduate-level, on cassette tapes
that it makes available to schools and to blind and dyslexic
students.
Books on tape are a boon to students who don't read Braille or who
can't find a Braille edition of a particular textbook. (The
organization has put some 83,000 textbooks on tape, many of them not
available in Braille.) But the tapes, though not as cumbersome as
Braille books, can be unwieldy, with a typical 400-page book
requiring 8 to 12 cassettes. Navigating hours of tape to find a
specific page can be tedious.
Now, academic life for blind or dyslexic students is about to get
easier. In the last year, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
(www.rfbd.org) has started to record textbooks on CD's that can be
played on PC's or on special players, designed by such companies as
VisuAide or Plextor, that cost about $500.
The CD's hold up to 40 hours of recorded text, enough for the
average textbook, so they take up far less space in a student's
backpack. And instead of a series of beeps to get to a page or a
chapter, the student will be able to move through the text by
pushing a button.
The organization has tested the CD recordings among about 1,100
students in the last year, primarily using CD players called the
Victor Reader and Plextalk. The players have a series of buttons
that identify their functions by voice.
Students who have tried the CD's say that using them will make it
easier to juggle several textbooks at a time. "The search and
bookmark functions are really what sets the technology apart from
basic audiocassette books," said Cary Supalo, a 26-year-old graduate
student at Penn State University who saw a demonstration on a Victor
Reader, by VisuAide.
The ability to speed up the reading without raising the voice pitch
is also a plus, Mr. Supalo said. "On a cassette it can sound like
chipmunks," he said.
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic is equipping its 32 studios and
training staff. It must also work out digital rights arrangements
with publishers. New recordings of both old and new textbooks are
expected to be available to members of the organization by late next
year, said Morgan Roth, a spokeswoman.
The organization plans to enhance the CD's so that when they are
played on a personal computer, they will display text
simultaneously, allowing visually impaired students who can still
read to follow along with the spoken word. Producing the digital
recordings, which requires one volunteer who reads aloud and another
who reads along to check for mistakes, takes about the same time as
recording the books on cassette: about an hour and 45 minutes for
every hour of spoken word.
John A. Churchill, senior vice president for operations at Recording
for the Blind and Dyslexic, said that the move to digital recordings
was costly but necessary. "It's a massive undertaking for us to
retrain our staff to learn how to record digitally, but it's
eminently worth it," he said.
"The equipment that allows us to record on cassette hasn't been
manufactured for years," he said, "and we didn't want to find
ourselves in a situation where a vendor could no longer supply us
with equipment." But the organization will continue to produce
cassettes, Mr. Churchill said, because demand is strong.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/12/technology/circuits/12BLIN.html?ex=9960181
21&ei=1&en=b1a44ca2dc671fcd
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