[Electronics-talk] Looking for a cheap accessible voice recorder

Tue May 17 02:48:23 UTC 2011

Thank you, Frida, for telling me your experience.  In fact, I'm looking for 
a much cheaper one: let's say $50 or $60.  There are lots of cheap voice 
recorders, but either they are not accessible or they don't have computer 
interface.

Is your Olympus voice recorder really good?
In fact, I had a sad experience last year when I tried
dm-4.  The menues talked but not all the time (all the items).  Sometimes I 
had to wait a lot for the voice to come and there were some instances where 
it didn't speak.  So, I thought that I would have to remember all the 
instances it didn't talk to be able to use it comfortably.  There were some 
instances when I had no idea about what was happening unless I ask someone 
to look at the screen.
Also, I could use daisy to some extent, but it seems that to be able to do 
fine jumps, etc, you have to rely on the screen.  I couldn't install the 
software to easily exchange files with my computer, even using the latest 
version of JAWS.  Jaws couldn't speak any dialogs of the installer and I 
couldn't read them even in review cursor mode.  So I needed sighted 
assistance to have it installed.

Its sound quality is very good and it has lots of interesting functions; so 
I really wanted to be able to use it and buy one, but I got tired.  I 
downloaded the manual from the internet and it was really difficult to read, 
too: very specific and, as a result, full of repetitions, absolutely easy to 
read for a sighted person, because they can easily jump to the desired item 
and have all the information they need there, skipping the things they 
already know.  The manual was wonderful for a random reading, but not for a 
sequential reading.

I finally thought that the problem was me: that I might not be clever enough 
to understand it and use it, but, then, a sighted person tested it for me 
and told me that the interface was the problem and I could use it very 
easily if I just could see the screen.

It seems that it's not enough for the blind to make a device that just 
talks; many further considerations have to be made even before starting to 
develop a device to come up with a plan that lets the blind use it 
comfortably.

I think that Olympus is a great company, that they have great knowhow about 
sound and recording and some sighted people told me that the design of the 
device was really good.  Also, they were very kind when I called them for 
support.  Just I had the impression that they should have made some more 
research on the blind needs if they intended to make a good device for the 
blind, or probably employ some blind people to test the devices that should 
be easy for the blind to use.

Well, I suppose that there might be much better versions made by Olympus 
this year.  Please let me know if yours is the case, since I don't want to 
go thru a frustrating testing process like that again.  Last time, one of my 
friends bought it so I could test it long before deciding to buy one or not, 
but next time I might have to buy it first.

If someone could assure me that there is a certain version that a totally 
blind person can use comfortably, I might buy one.

Now, however, I'm looking for a simple and cheap voice recorder, specially 
easy to use, let's say as if it were a tape recorder.  I don't need to make 
professional recordings, just to take some notes or study by listening to 
recorded books on the go.

Thanks.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frida Aizenman" <aizenman at earthlink.net>
To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 12:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] Looking for a cheap accessible voice 
recorder

> About two month ago, I bought this wonderful recorder. It is the Olympus
> DM520 Digital Recorder with Talking Menus. It was suggested by someone on
> this fantastic list.
> To buy it from the Speak to Me Catalog go to:
> http://www.speaktomecatalog.com/individual.php?item=OLDM
> After you buy it go to the Blind Cool Tech Podcast at:
> Olympus DM520 And DM420
> Last week, a blind friend taught me to transfer the data to (MP3 files, 
> recorded with that voice recorder to my computer (Windows XP).
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Oso Calmo" <osocalmo at yahoo.co.jp>
> To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances"
> <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 4:26 AM
> Subject: [Electronics-talk] Looking for a cheap accessible voice recorder
>
>
>> Hi, all.
>>
>> I'm looking for a cheap voice recorder that the blind can use.  It has to
>> have USB interface, since I want to transfer the data (MP3 files, for
>> example) recorded with that voice recorder to my computer (Windows XP) 
>> and
>> from my computer to the voice recorder.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>>
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