How I read books

As a blind person, I am unable to read books in the normal way.  That is, for the most part, I am unable to read a printed book.  So, how do I read books?  There are a few ways for me to deal with this and I'll give you some of the more used methods that I and others like me use.

 

1. I can listen to books on CDs and cassette.  Several books known as talking books have been put on to CDs and cassettes and we can use our CD or cassette players to do so. 

 

2. We can use the tedious method of scanning a book and then doing the following.
Download the scanned text to our computer and then use our screen reading software to read it.  This method is long and tedious and we may not always be able to scan it accurately.  We may often need sighted assistance to help us scan it accurately.

 

3. We can download books from the Internet to our computers and then use our screen reading software to read it or we may even download it to other devices that are equipped with speech software that can read the text to us.

 

Can we use the Kindle software to help us read books?  This device is not totally accessible to us.  That is, it does not yet have adequate speech software that would enable us to navigate and read e books.

 

We can also use the regular land line or even our cells to read such things as newspapers and magazines.  Several newspapers and magazines companies provide phone service just for this purpose.  Anyone can use their phone to access information. 

 

So, this is how a blind person does it and if you have any questions then please do not hesitate to visit www.acb.org.

 

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day.