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

Tue May 17 14:19:24 UTC 2011

I come kicking and screaming onto the 21st century. LOL.
Never before in my life, had I had a digital recorder. As far as I am
concern, for now, the Olympus DM520 Digital Recorder with Talking Menus is
as good as it gets. It costs $195. Give or take, the Milestone 12 costs
$400. The Victor Reader costs $449. Sure, it has more features, but at  the
moment, I don't need more. As the saying goes, "You get what you pay for."
And don't forget that the next time you want the same product, it might not
be around anymore. You no longer can get a Milestone 11 any more. Of course,
that is not all bad, because sometimes you find a better product.
The only thing not accessible on the Olympus DM520 is being able to set the
time and date by yourself. According to the podcast I listen to, and learned
from, the blind community worked with Olympus on accessibility for this
product.
The podcast can be found at:
Blind Cool Tech Podcast

http://www.blindcooltech.com/
and then link on
Olympus DM520 And DM420
Also, if you go to the Olympus Company at:
olympusamerica.com/support
the manual is on a type of PDF that is inaccessible.
----- 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 7:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] Looking for a cheap accessible voice
recorder

> 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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>>
>>
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>
>
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