I'm going back about 10 years to when I started my degree in classical music where our college had libraries full of material but no blind friendly material. that left me completely at a loss. even DAISY formats didn't exist at the time. what frustrated me the most was not having spoken media. what was available was tape and that was pretty much useless.
With the ipad, if that hd been around at the time, I reckon that would have made a huge life change for me. oh well... these things are sent to try us. lew On 5 Jan 2012, at 20:14, Karen Lewellen wrote: > Frankly I would like some additional information too. perhaps from you both. > where is the information that the Kendal is deliberately not blind friendly? > I might add that those with learning disabilities use speech as well, so > this is not if correct intentionally not blind friendly, but not disability > friendly. > More to the point though, given I recall both the department of education and > the department of justice got on Amazon's case about access since students > use the Kendal for school, your description does not seem accessible at all, > if other users can do this. > how on earth can one use a novel for class or in my case a book for research > if I cannot interact with the text, go by line or even word, take notes or > anything else? > many books do not have text to speech turned on, and I hear from those using > it, those who do not experience a print challenge, that the text to speech > leaves much to be desired where pronunciation's is concerned. > so the pc edition lets you use your screen reader, but you still cannot well > navigate as one might for a variety of reasons? > nor can you download the book to the device either? > Like amazon itself the Kendal store and format has far too much reach for > this to be regarded as an accessible or acceptable idea at all. > You could use for example tone indexing to navigate through nls materials, > and rfb&D books now learning Ally, so a person who needs their text books in > e-format, something other students can get, is at a major disadvantage. > Are we both understanding the limits clearly though? > Karen > > On Thu, 5 Jan 2012, Christine Grassman wrote: > >> so, if I understand you correctly, if I purchase a Kindle with the >> accessibility plug-in, using the keyboard to read is accessible: I can >> start, stop, pause, etc., without sighted assistance? However, if I am >> interrupted unexpectedly, or if I lose the place where I was reading, there >> is no way for me to find the place where I left off without sighted >> assistance, except by having the device read all the wy through to that >> spot? No ability to even go page by page or chapter by chapter independently >> to speed such a thing up? I appreciate any clarification. I am constantly >> frustrated by not being able to buy an e-book available in the Kindle store >> because of the great selection, but I have to figure out if the >> accessibility headache is worth the money and whether, in fact, I want to >> support a device which could so easily be accessible but is deliberately not >> blind-friendly for spurious reasons. >> Christine >> On Jan 5, 2012, at 11:40 AM, Mary Otten wrote: >> >>> Kindle for pc with accessibility plug in and kindle keyboard both have some >>> accessibility. If you are happy with being able to read books that have >>> text to speech enabled, but don't care about reviewing line by line, >>> spelling words or names, taking notes and knowing the context once you go >>> back and look at the notes, and you are ok with shopping in the store on >>> your pc or mac, not on the device itself, then Kindle keyboard will have >>> some utility for you. Kindle for pc has the advantage that even books that >>> don't have tts enabled will still work with the accessibility plug in. You >>> must have a screen reader running at the same time, but the books are read >>> by either the Samantha or Tom voices, as they are on Kindle Keyboard. There >>> is absolutely no Kindle accessibility on the Mac or with VO, and the >>> updates to the accessibility for both the keyboard device and the pc plug >>> in have been nominal to nonexistent. Because Kindle store has stuff I can't >>> find anywhere else, I have used both the kindle for pc with plug in and the >>> Kindle Keyboard for straight reading of novels that can be done like you >>> use to read a library of congress talking book tape or record. Just don't >>> plan on efficient navigation or serious interaction with the text. >>> >>> Mary >>> >>> Mary Otten >>> [email protected] >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > Mr. L. Alexander. Free Macs For The Blind. E-Mail: [email protected] Direct line: 07936 877500 Twitter: @macsfortheblind Free Macs For The blind is a charity project supplying older but working apple macs for blind and visually impaired people throughout the UK FOR FREE! Do you have an old unwanted mac, any hardware, software, old PC's, etc or a copy of outspoken 9.2 you would be willing to donate? please get in touch. Mac Access Dot Net; The British Mac Accessibility Network, we're here to help anybody disabled with anything Apple! http://www.mac-access.net -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
