SeroTalk Podcast 132: When Braille Strikes Back

One Response to SeroTalk Podcast 132: When Braille Strikes Back

1. Russ Kiehne says:

   November 14, 2012 at 11:48 am

   I read An Accessibility Review of The Amazon Kindle 3 And after listening to
   2 podcasts from Accessible World, As a blind person, I decided to buy the
   Kindle keyboard 3g with wi-fi.

   With the following shortcuts added I feel this is a step forward for
   accessibility.

   To toggle Voice Guide on and off: Shift plus Space. This means a blind person
   can turn on voice guide without sighted assistence.

   Text-to-Speech: Press Shift plus Symbol to start text-to-speech. This means a
   lot less keystrokes to begin reading. Let me use the example from the review:

   to replay a passage you have missed, First, you pause text-to-speech, press
   back, hit the previous page button, press shift plus symbol to begin reading
   again.
   As you can see the total of 9 keystrokes has been reduced to 4.

   I tested the following to make sure it still works. This is from the book
   Kindle: The Mini Missing Manual:

   In addition to listening to your MP3s, you can also listen to your favorite
   podcasts on your Kindle.
   Note: Podcasts are like portable radio programs. The broadcasters record their shows
   into MP3 files that you can just download and listen to at your leisure. Usually,
   you can download these straight from the broadcaster website or you can browse a
   huge selection of them in the iTunes Music Store.
   The vast majority of podcasts are available in MP3 format, which means they can play
   on the Kindle just fine. But if you load them into the Music folder on your Kindle,
   they’ll play in the same way your music plays: no rewinding, no selecting tracks,
   and no progress indicators. With music that might be okay, but podcasts aren’t just
   background music. Listening to a podcast is more like watching a TV show; you set
   time aside to focus on it. The standard music player in the Kindle doesn’t really
   cut it.
   Remember back in Chapter 4 when you read about audiobooks from Audible.com? On the
   Kindle, audiobooks get this handy little interface with dedicated buttons on the
   screen to control the playback of the book. This interface would work great for a
   podcast.
   Here’s the cool part: you can use the Kindle’s audiobook feature with any podcast
   file. It will show up in your book list just like an audiobook and will play just
   like an audiobook.
   The only thing you need to do is copy the file to the Documents folder instead of
   the Music folder. The podcast appears in your book list ready for you to play.
   If you copy a podcast file to your Documents folder instead of your Music
   folder, your Kindle treats the podcast just like an audiobook.
   Tip: If you really want easy access or the audiobook playback screen for a particular
   song, you can give it the audiobook treatment, too. Copy it to your Documents folder
   and this trick works the same for your song. But don’t use this for your whole music
   library because songs won’t play sequentially and your songs will fill up your book
   list.

   Here’s my out of the box experience:

   After My Kindle Keyboard arrived by USPs, i took it out of the box, When I used
   shift plus space to turn on voice guide, nothing happened. I used the
   instructions Tim Emmons gave in his podcast. That got the voice guide turned
   on. My sighted friend came later in the day and setup wi-fi for me. After
   restarting the Kindle, it updated to the latest firmware. Now shift plus space
   works.

   Using the Kindle users guide, I found I had more navigation options than I
   expected. I could navigate from page to page by pressing space to stop speech,
   Press back, use next or previous page and count to the page I want to move to,
   Press shift plus symbol to start speech.
   I could navigate by chapter to chapter by pressing space to stop speech, press
   back, use right or left arrow, press shift plus symbol to start speech. I was
   happy to see that Kindle speaks the status when moving from chapter to chapter.

   Here’s my out of the box experience:

   After My Kindle Keyboard arrived by USPs, i took it out of the box, When I used
   shift plus space to turn on voice guide, nothing happened. I used the
   instructions Tim Emmons gave in his podcast. That got the voice guide turned
   on. My sighted friend came later in the day and setup wi-fi for me. After
   restarting the Kindle, it updated to the latest firmware. Now shift plus space
   works.

   Using the Kindle users guide, I found I had more navigation options than I
   expected. I could navigate from page to page by pressing space to stop speech,
   Press back, use next or previous page and count to the page I want to move to,
   Press shift plus symbol to start speech.
   I could navigate by chapter to chapter by pressing space to stop speech, press
   back, use right or left arrow, press shift plus symbol to start speech. I was
   happy to see that Kindle speaks the status when moving from chapter to chapter.

   Additional comments:

   Go to… — allows you to move to another location in the item you are reading.
   I use this to go to the beginning or ending of the book.

   You can organize your books by collection as shown below on my Kinble.

   Russell’s Kindle
   Showing All 5 Items By Collections
   Perry Mason (85)
   Hardy Boys (57)
   Kindle User’s Guide, 5th Ed. Amazon
   The New Oxford American Dictionary
   Oxford Dictionary of English
   Archived Items (55)
   THE rAA •r”‘ WORDS In Theaters September 74 Chck for details turns on wireless
   Page 1 of 1

   Here’s an email list you might be interexted in:
   vi-kindle: Visually Impaired Kindle users Group
   Group formed to share tips on using Amazon’s Kindle e-readers accessibility
   features. Independently moderated, not affiliated with Amazon.
   You may join this list at:
   http://www.freelists.org/list/vi-kindle

   I’m happy I made the move to buy a Kindle keyboard 3g with wi-fi.

   Russ

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