[nabs-l] Frustrated with Bookshare!

Sun Mar 3 22:51:47 UTC 2013

Hi all,

Mike, I agree with you that the computer industry is far from static,
but Josh did indicate that he is unable to pay for a Jaws update.
Unfortunately, this part of the problem, (although I likewise suspect
the main issue at work is he's probably trying to read the wrong type
of file on the web reader too), isn't his fault.  However, by that
same token...

Josh: Mike does have a really good point and everything is constantly
updating.  Bookshare has recently added a lot of new features to make
their site keep up with the needs of it's users and the other adapting
technology out there.  If you can't pay for it yourself I would
suggest trying to see if you can get an upgrade through your state voc
rehab agency or something.  Your local NFB chapter should be able to
direct you in other possible means specific to where you live and what
might be locally available to you for getting a more recent version of
jaws and an SMA package which will keep you up-to-date for the next
two versions.  A good rule of thumb is to not let yourself fall more
than two versions behind in software because then things really start
to not mesh well with other programs which have been updated.
(speaking from experience where my school district didn't upgrade my
jaws from version 6 to 11 until they had to with the release of
windows 7).  an SMA would be a great investment too.  If you're not
able to get a new version of jaws, try NVDA; it's free and you never
have to pay for updates, plus it works pretty well and the commands,
although somewhat different, are pretty easy to learn.  Aside from the
screenreader issues, make sure you're downloading a text file, like
daisy text.  If you're downloading brf the web reader probably won't
know how to read it.  As others have said you could also try opening
it in fs reader, or if you have Duxberry or something like it you can
download a brf file and translate it to text.  I've done this when my
notetaker wasn't available and it worked pretty well.

Also, if all else fails, I have found that it's easier to reach
Bookshare for tech help if you just call them rather than mess with
the email system.  They're really helpful and willing to assist
customers over the phone, and it resolves issues a lot more quickly
than doing everything via the web.

Good luck.

On 3/3/13, Peter Donahue <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> Hello Mike and everyone,
>
>     We each have folders to which we save our downloaded Bookshare books.
> Beneath these root folders we create folders for each author and save the
> books by that author in to the author's folder. Whenever we download a
> Bookshare Book we save a copy of the .xml file back to the author's folder
> and rename it to have a .html extension. We then copy or move the .html file
>
> in to the folder of the book we wish to read. This comes in handy whenever
> you wish to read books containing computer or other types of code of
> interest. We've gotten the best results with Firefox. Hope this helps.
>
>  Peter Donahue
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
> To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2013 2:51 PM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Frustrated with Bookshare!
>
>
> I suspect that perhaps the gentleman doesn't know which file to look at. My
> advice would be to look at the .XML file. However, depending upon how it's
> written, Internet Explorer reads .XML files well ... or not-so-well. But
> I'd
> bet the Amis public-domain DAISY player would also work well.
>
> Mike Freeman
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Danielle
> Sykora
> Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2013 12:47 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Frustrated with Bookshare!
>
> I have used bookshare books with jaws 10 and internet explorer before and
> didn't have any problems. Maybe its the file type you downloaded it as? I
> used Daisy Text.
>
> On 3/3/13, Mike Freeman <k7uij at panix.com> wrote:
>> Why not get the .BRF version of the book? Or using your DAISY player
>> of choice -- Stream, BookSense, Book Port Plus, Plextalk Pocket or the
>> like or, if you don't own one of these (and it's hard to imagine
>> anyone under forty
>> *not* owning one), why not try FSReader, Amis or one of the other
>> computer-based Daisy players out there? Be a bit imaginative, my friend.
>> Life isn't for the faint-of-heart!
>>
>> Mike Freeman
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Joshua
>> Lester
>> Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2013 6:25 AM
>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Frustrated with Bookshare!
>>
>> I've contacted the support staff, and they won't get back with me!
>> Here's the problem.
>> I renewed my membership, and downloaded a book that I needed for class.
>> The problem is, that I can't use the reading software with Internet
>> Explorer!
>> Their software only works with Google Chrome, which Jaws 10.0 won't
>> work with!
>> Good grief!
>> What's going on?
>> BTW, I can't afford to upgrade Jaws.
>> Thanks, Joshua
>>
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-- 
Kaiti