[nabs-l] Seems we lost an ally

[Ashley Bramlett]

Joshua,
I use the cd player too. The new victor reader strattus allows you to play 
daisy cds as well as  a USB slot for downloaded books and I think a sd card. 
I have a vr stream, but like you I find it hard to figure out.

I've also heard of other blind people having problems with the learning ally 
downloads.  Sadly, they are not really much an ally to the blind now. They 
took blind out of their name and as I said, I feel their website, including 
the download features, is not very user friendly. For instance before in 
your book search results you could press H to see each book title and 
information underneath it. Now they are tables and you only see the book in 
a link. And they have pictures of each book cover. Notice jaws saying 
graphic a million times; that is because they added pictures to the book 
catalog. And with more links and clutter, you cannot find the text as 
easily.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Joshua Lester
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 9:02 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Seems we lost an ally

Wow!
I still use the CD player for my classes.
I hate the Victor Stream, because I can't figure it out!
Blessings, Joshua

On 1/2/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Antonio,
> What are the problems? Do you use jaws? I've tried to figure out the
> download; it took me a while to learn the old way, and now they changed 
> it.
> I'm not the most patient with technology, keep in mind. If you have a cd
> player, you still can order daisy cds, but now that humanware no longer
> offers the little daisy players; vr wave, vr vibe and vr classic,  more
> probably will download. I still have my old vr wave and thankfully it 
> works!
> Since as you said downloading is not friendly and a Daisy cd player is IMO
> easy to use and simple.
>
> Humanware recently released a new victor reader player, vr strattus, which
> both plays those daisy cds and downloadable books from many places like 
> nls
> and learning ally.
>
> I encourage you to write learning ally. Many are disappointed. With 
> changing
> their name, it seems they changed their mission to focus on learning
> disabilities without identifying them as disabled, for politically correct
> purposes. Tell them to still include blind people and that blind people 
> have
> depended on them for over 30 years since they started. Don't let them 
> forget
> us and be specific as to your accessibility challenges. Stating something 
> is
> not accessible won't help.
>
> Also IMo, their site is more hard to navigate. More images and complex
> organization. Like no longer can you see the book catalog from the main 
> page
> and when you search books you cannot read the edition/publisher anymore
> without clicking on something extra. So I see like ten books with the same
> or similar name and it takes longer to figure out what to pick.
> frustrated,
> Ashley
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Antonio Guimaraes
> Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 8:35 PM
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nabs-l] Seems we lost an ally
>
> Dear NABS members,
>
> It is more than obvious to me that the new Learning Ally download
> features fall short of offering blind screen reader users the services
> we've come to know in previous years.
>
> Today I experienced at least an hour of frustrations trying to use their
> new and improved program for downloads. I have listened to their You
> Tube video explaining the process, and then reached out to people like
> you for some feedback.
>
> There are several reports that blind readers can not use Learning Ally's
> download features.
>
> I am not a happy scholar. I am writing to find out if you too have come
> up against issues with the download service.
>
> The NABS division and its membership should not accept lack of access
> from an organization that has long been at the forefront in providing
> access to recorded texts for blind users.
>
> Your experience will only help confirm some of the reported issues, and
> hopefully result in rectifying what must certainly be an oversight on
> Learning Ally's part.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Antonio Guimaraes
>
>
>
>
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