[nabs-l] Isn't it ironic?

Wed Mar 2 15:39:08 UTC 2011

To all,
  I'm not really annoyed with the blio's built-in Text-to-speech
reader not reading the book.  That's not KNFB's fault.  I am more
annoyed that Jaws couldn't read the straight book text when it was on
the screen.
  Best,
Kirt

On 3/1/11, Nicole B. Torcolini at Home <ntorcolini at wavecable.com> wrote:
> It was probably something that the author did because of that stupid five
> letter word that, in my personal opinion, is the root of many of our
> problems.
> MONEY.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kirt Manwaring" <kirt.crazydude at gmail.com>
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 9:28 PM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Isn't it ironic?
>
>
>> :)  It's not just that the Blio text to speech was turned off.  But
>> jaws wasn't able to read the book text on the screen.  That to me
>> seems like the bigger oversight.  And, cause I'm mad and angry and
>> fired up and stuff, I might as well shoot technical support a nice,
>> friendly email.
>>  Best to all,
>> Kirt
>>
>> On 3/1/11, bookwormahb at earthlink.net <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>> Good point. Maybe the author did it; it may not have anything to do with
>>> the
>>> Blio reader's function.
>>> Kirt, I'd encourage you to report this problem.
>>> Ash;ley
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Arielle Silverman
>>> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 11:11 PM
>>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Isn't it ironic?
>>>
>>> Hi Kirt and all,
>>>
>>> It's really unfortunate that the speech was turned off on the book you
>>> bought from the BLIO store. Not knowing much about the BLIO myself, I
>>> wonder if this is an oversight on KNFB's part or if this is just
>>> something some authors have done that KNFB isn't aware of? I also
>>> wonder if this happens with many of their books or just a few? If you
>>> are motivated (you might not be, having found a better solution, but
>>> if you are) you may want to report what happened to their technical
>>> support with an email or phone call.
>>>
>>> Arielle
>>>
>>> On 3/1/11, Kirt Manwaring <kirt.crazydude at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> To everyone again,
>>>> (Courtney, I'll email you soon)
>>>>   It's official.  The Kindel beats the Blio for accessibility.  I've
>>>> never used the thing and I'm reading ok.  (amazon actually has
>>>> documentation for the Kindel accessible plugin, unlike our very own
>>>> KNFB blio)  So...yeah, maybe law suits are good every now and again.
>>>> And maybe KNFB needs a good wakeup call...I know I'm going to be
>>>> skeptical of anything else they put out after this debacle.
>>>>   Best,
>>>> Kirt
>>>>
>>>> On 3/1/11, Courtney Stover <liamskitten at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Kurt,
>>>>>
>>>>> I can tell you from personal experience that the Kindle AP is
>>>>> phenomenal!  Yes, there are definite problems; the navigation needs
>>>>> some work; it's hard to navigate by chapter instead of page etc. etc.,
>>>>> but everything I've tried reading is accessible.  The voice isn't that
>>>>> great, but it's definitely readable.
>>>>>
>>>>> If you have questions, feel free to E-mail me off list at
>>>>> cstover165 at gmail.com  I certainly don't know everything, but I'll do
>>>>> my best to help with what I do, and not to sound arrogant, I'm a very
>>>>> good researcher, so if I don't know something, I should be able to
>>>>> find out how to do it within twenty-four hours.  I do quite a bit of
>>>>> free-lance tutoring of blind individuals on mainstream technologies
>>>>> and am planning to add this to my services list soon, so any questions
>>>>> you may have would also be very helpful in terms of understanding what
>>>>> obstacles my students will face, and what general areas I should cover
>>>>> in the lessons.
>>>>> Courtney
>>>>>
>>>>> On 3/1/11, Kirt Manwaring <kirt.crazydude at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Dear List,
>>>>>>   First...I'm breaking my vow of NABS abstainance!  I'm just too
>>>>>> weak-willed.  Anyway...today I'm here to vent about a few things, so
>>>>>> if you don't want to read I understand.
>>>>>>   First...isn't it ironic how the Blio reader was marketed by the NFB
>>>>>> as the biggest thing since sliced bread?  It was supposed to totally
>>>>>> transform reading for blind consumers!  And guess what?  I downloaded
>>>>>> the accessibility version, bought a 16 dollar book that just came out
>>>>>> today (Kingkiller Chronicle, if there are any other fantasy geeks on
>>>>>> here), and hit the "read aloud" button...only to find out the
>>>>>> publisher hadn't authorized text to speech reading.  Then I thought
>>>>>> "no matter, it's a product that the NFB helped develop.  Surely I can
>>>>>> have jaws read the plain text in the book."  Only to find out
>>>>>> that...guess what?  It won't.  I did a little bit of messing around in
>>>>>> the application and couldn't figure it out.  I'm a little
>>>>>> disappointed.
>>>>>>   But I want the book tonight!  So here's to wasting another 16
>>>>>> dollars, downloading the Kindle accessible app, and hoping it works
>>>>>> ok.  Wouldn't it be kind of poetic if Amazon, after being sued, makes
>>>>>> a more accessible product than a company run in part by the NFB?
>>>>>>   Best,
>>>>>> Kirt
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Arielle Silverman
>>> President, National Association of Blind Students
>>> Phone:  602-502-2255
>>> Email:
>>> nabs.president at gmail.com
>>> Website:
>>> www.nabslink.org
>>>
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