[nfb-talk] Braille Monitor

[David Evans]

Dear All,

I can understand the national's reasoning in stopping the audio tape version 
of the Braille Monitor.

They are likely looking at the replacement of the duplication equipment for 
doing the Monitor and the issue of a fading technology and the emergence of 
newer technologies that will replace the former.
I have produced audio tape newsletters for my chapter since 1989 and also 
for the Florida State Affiliate.
It is about time for us to move on to the next technology for use as our 
Mass Media for communicating to our membership and friends.
Audio tapes are on the way out and that is just the way it is.  The question 
is, what will best replace them and how soon.
It has been said that most of our members have and can access the Monitor by 
e-mail or on-line.  It is possible to read the monitor using NFB NEWSLINE 
for the Blind using a computer or telephone.
This still leaves out some elderly members  who do not have a computer or do 
not have NFB NEWSLINE in their areas but still use the Talking Book Library 
audio tape machines and understand the technology.
Doctor Mauer spoke about this all at the convention and that they were 
looking at several possibilities including USB drives that could just be 
plugged into the USB port on the new digital Talking Book Machines or any 
USB port on a computer or other device.
The problem is that these USB thumb drives cost about $6.00  each and that 
is too much.


Another media that might be used is a CD Rom disc or one that is modified. 
These could be as little as 3 cents each and could be played on many CD 
players, computers and such.  The file formats could be recorded in a 
variety of file types that would make this media easy to copy and use.  As 
CD players are very common now, even most of the elderly have access to them 
and even those who do not yet have a new Talking Book player can likely find 
a CD player they can use.
We must find a way to reduce the cost of the production of the Braille 
Monitor, but at the same time extend its availability to as many as 
possible.  Even this technology will have a short life span, but It might 
get the Monitor through to the point that our membership population catches 
up to newer technology or dies off.
These are just my thoughts on the subject and I would like to hear what 
others have to say on the matter.

David Evans, NFBF and GD Jack.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "T. Joseph Carter" <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2011 9:50 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Braille Monitor


> For what a CD costs anymore, someone in the chapter can produce half a 
> dozen of them for those members for the cost of one cassette.
>
> Joseph - kf7qzc
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 03, 2011 at 05:51:57AM -0700, ckrugman at sbcglobal.net wrote:
>>This is unfortunate as we have many elderly members of our chapter who are 
>>not computer users or Braille readers. I would think that the cassette 
>>version would continue to be a good outreach tool to get new 
>>federationsits.
>>Chuck
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Meskys" <edmeskys at roadrunner.com>
>>To: "nfb-talk" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>>Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 4:56 PM
>>Subject: [nfb-talk] Braille Monitor
>>
>>
>>>I am surprised that no one has referred to Dr. Maurer's announcement of 
>>>the end of the cassette edition of the Braille Monitor after the December 
>>>issue. Computer users will be encouraged to download it, but no decision 
>>>has yet been made as to what will be done for non-computer users. A 
>>>possibility is thumb drives, which can be cheaper than the cartridges. We 
>>>are supposed to get a full announcement in September. In answer to a 
>>>question, we were told that it cannot be placed on BARD, but downloads 
>>>will have to be from an NFB site.
>>>_______________________________________________
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>>
>>
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