[nabs-l] Frustrated with Bookshare!

Mon Mar 4 04:19:49 UTC 2013

One more "food for thought" here, is that:
Paying for an update can be worked out another way.  In other words, there is a w ay out of this trap.  As long as you have a written letter, and a tech evaluation that will state, in short, that your update is required for your machine to properly function, then state rehab will "fit the bill."  We can talk further off-list about how to do this effectively, utilizing the chain of command.  Hope this helps.  Now, get out of that trap, since there is a way out!

Sent from my iPad

On Mar 3, 2013, at 5:52 PM, "Kaiti Shelton" <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> nabs-l mailing list
>>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>> nabs-l:
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/k7uij%40panix.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> nabs-l mailing list
>>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>> nabs-l:
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/dsykora29%40gmail.
>>> com
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> nabs-l mailing list
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nabs-l:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/k7uij%40panix.com
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> nabs-l mailing list
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nabs-l:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/pdonahue2%40satx.rr.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> nabs-l mailing list
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nabs-l:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/crazy4clarinet104%40gmail.com
> 
> 
> -- 
> Kaiti
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nabs-l:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/wmodnl%40hotmail.com