[NFBMI-Talk] Shout-Out To NFB Members Everywhere: Who Still Uses Learning Ally For DAISY Audio Book Downloads?

[Robert Earl Parsons]

Good Afternoon Kane,

Thank you for bringing up this topic. I have been following it on the NABS list as well. I find the information about Learning Ally very disturbing. As a rehabilitation counselor, I often used Learning Ally for textbooks in community college and it was effective for many of the humanities courses. Truthfully, I thought that the service did a better job with foreign language than Book Share and other sources for students (I was a French minor in undergraduate studies). I am also not surprised that this is happening given Learning Ally's move towards servicing people with other disabilities outside of blindness. What I have observed, however, is that many younger students often are apathetic to changes like this because they will gravitate towards options they feel will be fit for them. State agencies have been very supportive of authorizing the Learning Ally service in the past for educational purposes, but it is also the policy of many state agencies to support students to search out the cheapest options for texts first before pursuing a Learning Ally subscription. I've also worked in states where students are never informed of Learning Ally due to this policy and precedent existing. This, married with the absence of knowledge from the student on a larger scale, could be a reason that the access key may have stopped being made available. I would fully support the service coming back to the VR Stream and other related players, however. Thanks for posting and bringing this to our members' attention.

Regards,

Robert E. Parsons, Jr., M.A., CRC, CVRT, LLPC
President| National Federation of the Blind of Michigan
-----Original Message-----
From: NFBMI-Talk <nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Georgia Kitchen via NFBMI-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2023 11:31 PM
To: NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Georgia Kitchen <kitchen2809 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBMI-Talk] Shout-Out To NFB Members Everywhere: Who Still Uses Learning Ally For DAISY Audio Book Downloads?

Attention: This email is from outside Western Michigan University. Use caution when opening links and attachments.

On Tue, Jul 25, 2023 at 6:17 PM Kane Brolin via NFBMI-Talk < nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hi, everybody.
>
> It has come to the attention of those on the NABS-L mailing list that
> it is now not possible to download and read books from Learning Ally
> (formerly known as Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic) on the Victor
> Reader Stream 3.0 from HumanWare.  Problems also might exist with the
> new HumanWare Stratus12 digital Talking Book player from HumanWare.
> This is by intent.  Learning Ally has made it so the newest VR Stream
> is not eligible as a device to receive an access key that would allow
> for Learning Ally DAISY audio downloads.
>
> Does anyone care about this?  I have it on good authority that a
> couple of long-time members of the Federation are raising a protest
> against this business decision, asking for Learning Ally to negotiate
> access to the new HumanWare players, and perhaps to other players
> which Learning Ally has excluded from eligibility.  I know opinion is
> divided.  Some want Learning Ally access maintained on newer players,
> especially if they've used RFB&D or Learning Ally for decades.  It
> seems as if some of the younger members in the National Association of
> Blind Students don't care, since they have moved away from Learning
> Ally to rely on other sources.
>
> So this is just a question I am posing informally.  Please pass along
> to anyone else you may think would want to weigh in.  Thanks for your
> responses.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> -Kane
>
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--
Georgia Kitchen
Genesee County Chapter National Federation of the Blind NFB-Newsline _______________________________________________
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